Category Archives: Repair

Desmond Stephan and Morgan vise half-nuts

Desmond Stephan vises have come up before and almost always with a request for replacement bronze half-nuts. I’d picked up a Desmond some time ago with the intention of making it my main vise and upon cleaning I was having seconds thoughts about the lifespan of the nut. I was recently cleaning up a Morgan […]

Two weeks haul

T. Conroy mentioned a number of items I picked up at Alameda during the first weekend of the month, so I thought I’d follow the “it didn’t happen without pictures” rule. I tossed into the mix some findings from last weekends fleas. In the back is a Spear & Jackson. This one is in user-condition. […]

Resurrected Saw

This was a great garage sale find. The guy’s father had about 12 hand saws of various sorts, I bought 7 of them including a mishandled tenon saw and a latter model mitre-box saw. It’s a good ol’ D8 24″ crosscut 8 TPI. The medallion dates it from 1898-1917 and the etch indicates the later […]

Servicing a No. 921 Brace Ratchet

One of my recent flea market finds, a Stanley No. 921 10in-Y brace, needed some fettling. The ratchet checked out fine before I bought it. So did the jaws, I love the expression on people’s faces when you take two whole minutes to unscrew the chuck, check the jaws and put it back. When I […]