Fire sale
This past weekend I went to an Antique Show. There was a guy there selling a table full of tools, spokeshaves, braces, Stanley Bedrock hand planes, an assortment of 30 or so Double and Single Bit Axes and Hatchets and several large, hand forged Goosewing Broad Axes.
All the tools were missing wood handles and obviously had been in a fire. The seller admitted all the tools were his collection, that were in his shop in California when the shop burnt to the ground, in the Woolsey fire a couple months ago. He was told by the fire department, temperatures in his shop were in excess of 1,000 degrees.
He said, he thought the axes could be re-tempered, I told him I did not think so.
Today on eBay I saw a couple of vintage Stanley, hand planes missing wood handles, brass hardware and japaning, they had been cleaned up with a wire wheel. There was no mention of having been in a fire, but…
With all the wild fires recently, “The worst Wildfires in history”, on the West Coast, whole towns, burnt to the ground. I suspect, we will see these tools for sale to unsuspecting buyers.
So, Buyer Beware.