Thread: Woodworking Tools Museum/Collectors/Donation

One option is to seek out "historical villages" in your region to see if they may use them in a static or even a working display.

Herberton Historic Village | Things to Do In Atherton Tablelands, Cairns (historicvillageherberton.com.au)

One thing I would be wary of is the recipient selling them for personal gain. I too have given this concept some thought and every time I come back to how can I prevent the tools being sold for monetary gain. Old tools such as you have are like having money in the bank and if anyone should gain from them being sold it should be you. There are some unscrupulous people out there who would not think twice about selling them if they could.

Originally Posted by sogni

Hi
I am the custodian of 40 odd wood planes that date back to 1800's. All in excellent condition. They were my great grandfathers & grandfathers, handed down to my father and then to me. Many came from UK (I suspect when great grandfather emigrated) .They have been oiled annually but not used in 40-50 plus years. I had visions of displaying them but they have sat in containers for the last ???? years. It's time they were returned to eg an old tool using club or museum...or collector. It is preferable that they are kept together. There are other tools of the 1800's and early 1900's. My forebears were builders/carpenters.
Any suggestions ? Thanks in advance !

If you're donating them you'll have a stampeded for sure.

Finding a club of sorts to take them with the intention they use them would be vety hard. There ain't many of us that actively pickup old woodies and use them...

Selling to a "collector"... They'll strip out what they want and sell off the rest. Especially if you say they need to take them all.

You'll also have to bear in mind what you might think they're worth, if you use ebay, market place or gumtree as a metric, for value is way off what they're actual worth is. 80% of what I see people trying to get 30 and above in Australia are side beads and rebate planes which are really hard to shift at all because they're as common as corn flakes

YMMV

You could try contacting the

HTPA

Hand Tool Preservation Association of Australia Inc. - Home

They may be able to guide you with there worth or rarity, tho this sort of thing does show up from time to time, an tho the family thinks they have something rare, because they were told by a family member they were,
Quite often they may not be as rare as we wish, or as valuable as we think.

I understand this can sometimes be a little hard too take,

Cheers Matt.

Would you be interested in posting photos on the forum. There are some people like myself who prefer hand to power tools and might be interested.

I've been looking for molding planes myself but aren't willing to pay the crazy prices some dealers ask.

Be wary of collectors rather than woodworkers if you want the set to remain together in my opinion.

Regards,

Adam

If your going to show pictures of moulding planes to any one , where ever. Be sure to take a picture of the sole at the end so the profile it cuts can be seen . This end shot could also include the makers stamp and the owners mark sometimes if he stamped it in the same location. So many people advertise Moulding planes and don't show the profile. Its useless information without that end shot. It drives those interested in such things Mad!

Originally Posted by auscab

If your going to show pictures of moulding planes to any one , where ever. Be sure to take a picture of the sole at the end so the profile it cuts can be seen . This end shot could also include the makers stamp and the owners mark sometimes if he stamped it in the same location. So many people advertise Moulding planes and don't show the profile. Its useless information without that end shot. It drives those interested in such things Mad!

..... and that it has the matching blade profile to suit the plane profile. As a collection of 'users' there is less risk of the planes being mixed and matched.