Thread: Firesale

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.

Yikes, that is something to look out for. Thanks.

I suspect the insurance company paid for the fire damaged tools, yet the seller is knowingly selling damaged tools without properly representing their condition/history.

The same thing happens after every hurricane and flood in the southeast. Vehicles damaged by water (some of them that were in new car lots), are then sold, sometimes without full disclosure of the vehicle history.

The good thing about buying from forum members is that they normally provide reliable descriptions of items for sale.

This i believe. Its too bad that people will do this but it happens. Thanks for pointing in out Marty.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

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.



He said, he thought the axes could be re-tempered, I told him I did not think so.

. I suspect, we will see these tools for sale to unsuspecting buyers.

So, Buyer Beware.

Just because I'm a bit stupid like this.... you should know that I actually HAVE successfully re-hardened and tempered a large axe head. But absolutely, B.B.W!!!! Smaller pieces could have all the carbon burned right out of them.