Tools of the Trade No. 1 - The Carpenter

I'm making a confession.  I have this fascination about vintage tools of various trades.  I'm intrigued with the workmanship of the tool itself, I'm amazed at the pride that was taken in making the tool, and even more entranced by the end result of the tool in the hands of the tradesman.

So I started a new series of blog posts called Tools of the Trade to share this thing I have about cool vintage tools.

My Dad dabbled in his wood shop, some hobby and some necessity. The products that came out of that wood shop were varied from building blocks for the grandkids, to dressers for the kids, to kitchen cabinets for Mom that never did get finished.   I think some of my fascination for carpenter tools goes back to some childhood memories.

Dad didn't have one of these, but it might have helped because I remember many times when Mom would draw the shape of a missing tool on a piece of paper and the kids were all sent on a hunt to find it.  Never did figure out why the girls were involved in this hunt as we never used the tools, but either Dad or my brothers forgot where they put it and we needed to find it.  Teamwork?  

The wood shavings created such cool curly shapes!

In the hands of the tradesman, just like the artist who creates a sculpture, the image is already

before them it just needs chiseled out.  

I was never good at refolding those old road maps and so I thought it was neat to watch someone who could fold up one of these babies without hesitation.

I have a few of these as accessories in my home.  Cool stuff!

Check out the paint splatters and gunk!

All manner of creations started here.

I've written about the Industrial Chic look here on the blog before.  And I'm loving the upcycling of vintage carpenter benches in the following images.

Loving this vintage carpenter's bench upcycled as a console!

In a restaurant in Australia a vintage carpenter's bench becomes a dining table.

How cool?  Loving the modern white sink and chrome faucet against the 

vintage carpenter's bench!

Pretty evident that the pride in work starts with the tools!

Image Sources:  Etsy, First Dibs, Flicker, One of a Kind Antiques, The Hidden List, Tomboy, Upcycled Memories