04/07/2017
From a few years ago
Lee's Favorite Tools Part 3: Previously I have posted a photo of garden tools I particular value -- my old Broadfork, and my homemade Machete. This photo is obviously not a garden tool, but it is one of the objects in my life I greatly tr...easure. This nice little Ball Peen Hammer was made by my great-grandfather Albert Cosby (my dad's grandfather.) As a young man he was, among other things, a streetcar conductor in Dayton, Ohio (I have a lovely photo of him and my great-grandmother Lula from around 1915 or so -- he handsome in his conductor uniform and cap, she small and dark-haired in bonnet and long dress.) He spent most of his mature working life as a skilled machinist. My Dad, who is now 93, spent most of his childhood summers with his grandparents in the '20s and early '30s -- and he says this little hammer was always in the toolbox even when he (my dad) was a little kid. Apparently Grandpa Cosby machined the head sometime in the years just before WWI, and either made the handle or possibly even bought it for $.03 or so from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue It looks homemade to me: there are still toolmarks, and it is "imperfect" (meaning unique and beautiful.) My dad remembers his grandfather using this hammer in his shop, remembers using it himself for projects when he was a kid. I was fortunate to know my great grandfather (he must have been in his early 90s then; our folks live a long time!), and remember quite vividly his taking me out to his old garage in Dayton when I was little (probably 5 or 6 in the mid-1950s) whenever we would visit, putting this little hammer in my hand (it seemed big to a 5-yr-old), and letting me clang away at a small anvil he had mounted on a bit of tree stump. Some years later when Grandpa Cosby passed away, my dad came into possession of the hammer and other tools, used it for many years, and then he handed it on to me 30 years or so ago. I have over the years used it constantly for light work, and it has gently tapped many a chisel and carving tool. A fine handmade tool, nearly a hundred years old, with a handle smoothed in use by my great-grandfather's hand, my father's hand -- and by my own hand as well. It is warm and alive to the touch, and my favorite tool I have ever owned.
