Tons of hand tools that need help...

[lee n. field]

Sounds like my grandparent's estate. My grandfather had a whole billiards table covered with coffee cans filled with files, screwdrivers and drill bits. I was able to grab a few old planes, and bit braces.

My grandfather had lived through the "Great Depression" of the '30s, as a young farmer with a growing family.   It might have turned him into a hoarder.  When he died in 1988, there was scads of stuff, a heartbreaking amount of stuff, in his outbuildings.  More than anyone could deal with.

[K Frame]

Both of my Grandparents lived through the Depression. My Grandfather kept TONS of stuff (I recounted a lot of it when I cleaned out the basement back in 2006), but he was a bit different... he was a mechanical engineer who could make or fix just about anything using just about anything. He was pretty amazing at that kind of thing, so he kept everything in case it would prove to be useful. That's actually a better intent than just keeping stuff because, but the end result is the same... tons of *expletive deleted*it that has to be disposed of.

[Ben]

Interesting regarding the depression and "saving stuff". My parents lived through the German depression, and in many ways were the opposite, almost going the minimalist route. They were more into "reuse". I think to this day my dad may have some nuts and bolts stored in tin cans from the 60s, so they saved stuff like that and used things until they about fell apart, but they never hoarded anything.

I assume the thought process for US "depression hoarders" is much like that as people who live on rural properties with space - "You never know when you might need that widget, so save it so we don't have to buy one." My parents were all about not getting stuff you don't absolutely need (to the detriment of my childhood re: toys). On the negative side, it was always a struggle to keep my dad from just tossing my "useless" stuff in the trash without asking me first.

[K Frame]

Reuse was a large part of it. You kept stuff in case you could find a way to reuse it.

Both of my Grandparents grew up on farms; my Grandmother grew up on a homestead farm in the Badlands region in South Dakota, so yeah, they made do, reused, repurposed, whatever, because you couldn't pop into the local Sears to buy whatever you needed. The town was a half day's wagon ride away.

[brimic]

I assume the thought process for US "depression hoarders" is much like that as people who live on rural properties with space - "You never know when you might need that widget, so save it so we don't have to buy one."

Bingo!
My Grandfather was a linesman- he had a pile of telephone pole cutoffs in a crawlspace under his house. He at least turned that into a hobby after he retired and carved decoys out of them... which led to hundreds of decoys and decoy parts in his basement as well. all the children/grandchildren took home boxes  trunkloads of decoys- some would be worth quite a bit of money on the market, the ones he made were my favorites though.

[230RN]

Don't rightly remember:

Didn't they use some kind of arsenical preservatives in telephone poles?  Like railroad ties...?

Not to be casually handled, not to be sawn, not to be burned, not to be licked, IIRC.

Somebody put my mind at ease by telling me I'm wrong.

[griz]

I thought it was creosote but don't know for sure.

[Ben]

I thought it was creosote but don't know for sure.

Yes, this is my understanding. It may have changed with modern environmental regs, but historically I believe it was the preservative of choice.

[Hawkmoon]

I thought it was creosote but don't know for sure.

It used ta was creosote when I was a sprout. They switched to CCA (Chromated Copper Arsenate) some time in the late 50s or mid-60s, I believe.

And now CCA is "bad," so I guess they use something else again.

[brimic]

They used cedar poles which are rot resistant to start with, then coated the part that is in and a few feet above the ground with creosote.

[K Frame]

They used cedar poles which are rot resistant to start with, then coated the part that is in and a few feet above the ground with creosote.

Not just cedear, but a LOT of different varieties depending on what is/was available. The most common pole material is, and has been for a long time, Yellow Pine. It grows fast, straight, and it's strong enough and durable enough to do the job.

Out in the west Cedar and various Firs were a lot more common.