The Oldest Tool You Own and Use

eastbay

I still use steel fingernail clippers with 'Made in Germany' stamped on them. They're from the 1920's or 30's. They have not corroded one bit and look like new.

I believe they'll work for centuries.
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BigTex

PeakOiler

My grandparent's meat/veggie grinder. It's about 60 years old.

Secondly, a small tool tray that I made in Industrial Arts class as an 8th grader in 1972.

We were taught how to cut and bend sheet tin into a tray, rivet the tin metal together, then cut and attach a wooden dowel for the handle:

Not bad for an 8th grader, eh? I use that tool tray a lot! It's been repainted a few times.
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dunewalker

In 1964 as a college freshman I took a course in forestry surveying. We had to buy a Silva Ranger compass. It accompanied me through 8 seasons as wilderness ranger, plus many other adventures, and now rides in my bob bag, good as new, 44 years later.
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GeoJAP · Last edited by GeoJAP on Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:29 pm; edited 4 times in total

I have a few Russian bolt action rifles (the Mosin Nagant) that were basically captured by the Finns during their wars for independence with the Russians. The rifles were then reworked into much better rifles. The original parts are 115 to 80 years old. The Finnish M39 Mosins are extremely accurate and durable rifles, shooting 1.5 MOA on average. They shoot a full-power rifle round too, similar in ballistics to a .30-06.

They are functional pieces of incredible history. I also have some 60 year old ammo that shoots just fine.

I also have a couple of Swedish Mausers that are about 100 to 90 years old which will shoot 1-1.25 MOA. They are higher quality rifles than any sub-$1200 rifle made today.

I've also got a 1903A3 Springfield bolt action rifle which was the standard rifle issued to US troops in WW-1, and later used as the US sniper rifle in WW-2 because it was so accurate. And also a WW-2 M1 Garand rifle. They are dead nuts accurate and very well-made.

Many items machined in the past are vastly superior to what is made today. You just have to know where to look, and how to maintain those old items so that the forgings do not fracture or corrode.

GeoJAP

bobaloo · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 14, 2004 Posts: 476

For tools, I have a couple of good drawknives that are around 100 years old, no moving parts to wear out, use them all the time. One of the most useful tools you can have.

In our book collection we have quite a few from the 1500's and 1600's. My favorites are the journals of the early explorers. I have a first edition of Cook's Voyages, and also Dampier's accounts with the fold out maps showing what they knew of the world at the time. Where I live isn't even on the maps, they kind of fade out around southern California and Baja. Also have "Morse's Universal Geography" printed in the U.S. in 1782, right after the ratification of the Constitution. Amazing to read the natural history sections, about the great elk herds of Virginia and so on. Also a unique story in there about Columbus, how he was in West Africa and found a canoe with a strange looking body in it and was told it had blown in on the current from the west. Probably a Caribbean native caught in a hurricane, but the story says that's what gave him the inspiration to head west across the ocean. Never seen that story anywhere else. Really makes you appreciate rag paper, many of the books from the 1500's are in great condition due to the acid free rag paper they used, whereas it's hard to find a book from the 1800's due to the crappy wood pulp paper in use at the time.

nemo

I have an old (~80years?) tool that sees daily use during season. Problem is I don't rightly know what it's called in English. I often use it together with a sledgehammer and a pick axe when moving/breaking rock, which I suppose it the common usage. It's a steel bar, about 1.5 meters in length, with a hexagonal cross section slightly tapering towards the back of the bar. At the very front the bar becomes square and comes together to a flat point about 4 cm wide.

An online translation service suggests this may be called a "spit" but that hardly seems right. Nor does "pry bar" since the thing is completely straight, though I use it to pry rocks loose a lot.
Modern iterations are partly aluminium, but I like the heavy steel as long as I'm strong enough to wield it.

Other common uses:
-general all-purpose lever (nudging heavy things around etc.)
-probing and making holes in sea ice
-dog imprisonment device. Sink into lawn, attach dog leash

Either way, I suppose the tool will last forever. Last summer I gave it a coat of day-glow paint, so I don't constantly lose sight of the rust brown thing laying on the ground somewhere.

Gandalf_the_White · Intermediate Crude Joined: Nov 21, 2007 Posts: 511

GeoJAP

dunewalker

That thing sounds like what we used for trail maintenance in the wilderness--we called it a "rock bar". Some of the guys were pretty deadly with it, de-limbing downed trees by swinging it wildly...
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"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."
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Pops

DomusAlbion

vision-master

Also, I have a very early kerosene lamp from about 1861 - looks and works like new. Cool

oowolf

Arcade flour mill ca 1930
Copper Clad cook stove ca 1930
Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878 Sporting Model single shot rifle, cal 45-120, Fancy walnut pistol grip buttstock with buffalo horn cap and 2 1/2" vernier tang sight (80% original finish) Bought at Sportsman's Surplus in Missoula MT in 1977 for $350--eat your heart out. (550 grain/1320fps-kills on both ends)
A shop full of old carpenter's hand tools, mostly ca 1880-1950 including Stanley 45, Sweetheart era 55 (fascinating, but hopelessly complicated to actually use-bought in Ennis MT in 1980, complete with all 55 cutters, for $75), 113 circular, etc, etc.