If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

[Mike]

I once had the pleasure of using St. David of Charlesworth's Stanley 5.5 jack which was unbelievably good as he'd spent hours and hours to tune it 'just a bit'. Most so called 'tuned' planes of whatever denomination are better than standard and it's worth spending some time on them, but St. Dave's was just about perfect - Rob

I had the same experience with David and his Stanley. After a week of using his plane, I bought my own.

 

[Eric the Viking]

Definitely Abrafile saws. I have a few left, and they're treasured.

 

[Andy Kev.]

With ref to my initial post: I think I’ve managed a good second best in the form of a new old stock Marples drill. The footprint chuck seems to fit it, too!

 

[Inspector]

I wish I had the bucks for a Tucker Vise. It was a pattern makers type vice Lee Valley made a small run of ages ago. The patterns were lost/destroyed and would be too costly to make again so they are for collectors now. Sometimes I think it would be nice if a good company in China would copy it.

Pete

 

[Andy Kev.]

I wish I had the bucks for a Tucker Vise. It was a pattern makers type vice Lee Valley made a small run of ages ago. The patterns were lost/destroyed and would be too costly to make again so they are for collectors now. Sometimes I think it would be nice if a good company in China would copy it.

Pete

I sometimes wonder if a small British company could not be set up to make high quality tools at a fair price. It would have to be a niche enterprise making things like the vice you suggest or decent hand drills. It can be done. There is Clifton making planes and as Andy T pointed out above, there are a number of one man bands. The Americans seem to be rather good at that sort of approach. I wonder why we are less inclined.

 

[AndyT]

With ref to my initial post: I think I’ve managed a good second best in the form of a new old stock Marples drill. The footprint chuck seems to fit it, too!View attachment 54982

I wonder if that's the sort Steve Maskrey was remembering? It looks good.

 

[Woodbloke]

I sometimes wonder if a small British company could not be set up to make high quality tools at a fair price. It would have to be a niche enterprise making things like the vice you suggest or decent hand drills. It can be done. There is Clifton making planes and as Andy T pointed out above, there are a number of one man bands. The Americans seem to be rather good at that sort of approach. I wonder why we are less inclined.

Could be about finding the right niche market, or one that hasn't already been tapped. The 'murricans have a slightly bigger marketplace than the UK which might also be a factor, plus we have Europe a hop across the Channel where no doubt there are plenty of other entrepreneurs with the same sort of idea - Rob