Dad and Granddad’s tool shelf

I’m not a collector of tools, but I imagine I could have been. With years of handling, to me they feel intimate to the owner, and take on a character of their own.

My father passed away 50 years ago this November, and these days I use his workshop. I use a lot of his tools, but what about the ones I don’t use because I have newer, more modern versions? I’m too sentimental to sell them, and they have a certain beauty of their own. A few years ago I ended up building a high self over the workshop window, and placed the best of them there with the help of a very special lady with an eye for arrangement.

Now while I work I can see not just my father’s tools, but also some of my grandfathers. That cement trowel in the first photo belonged to my great-grandfather. The long wooden cheese boxes were where my father stored his wood working drill bits. The yellow handled icepick in the last photo has an address on the other side that places the company where the Lake Washington Ship Canal is today. The Canal was built between 1911 and 1934.

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.