Because I believe that we have an ethical responsibility to get the most we can from the resources available (and I’m cheap), I like to get older tools. The world is awash in perfectly good old tools of every kind and older tools tend to be much better quality than new ones. Though they may look rough, they just need a little TLC to give many years of service for very little cost.

Finding old tools

Since I’m notoriously frugal and am always coming home with free or inexpensive old tools, I’ve learned the easy way to resurrect them. Sources of old tools might be obvious: garage sales, moving sales, thrift stores, or antique shops. Less common sources for old tools might be: the landfill, dump, or even underground. A friend of mine is an avid metal detectorist whose interest is in coins and artifacts but often finds old tools which he passes on to me for rehabilitation.

Almost any common tool is going to contain some significant amount of ferrous metal (iron or steel) and in most cases the biggest obstacle to restoring it will be rust. The sight of heavy rust can be enough to cause some folks to give up on a tool, but there is nothing scary about rust. If iron is exposed to moisture and oxygen, the electrochemical reaction of corrosion will occur. The water acts as an electrolyte and allows the iron to give up electrons and return to its “wild state” which we call rust. Unfortunately, rust represents metal permanently lost from the object. We can remove rust and prevent it from happening again, but we can’t put the missing metal back on.

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There’s plenty of antique malls and flea markets where one can buy some of these old tools. They’re far superior to the cheap garbage that’s being sold in stores.nowadays.