today was hot and humid. I worked outside for as long as I could. I had been digging some post holes by hand and needed to clean and maintain my tools.
I have a wall inside the 1906 barn where I keep tools organized (sort of), meaning I drive a few nails and try to hang most of the stuff.
Racoons (probably) knocked a bunch of rolls of fence wire and some other stuff over and a groundhog (probably) dug around and made a general critter mess.
I decided to straighten stuff up and in the process, took a bunch of tools into the air cooled shop for maintenance. Some of these belonged to my grandfathers and are probably 100 years old.
the best today by far is a tile spade with forged or cast fittings. the hickory handle is split to a Y with D handle steel fittings. I cleaned it up, oiled the steel, lightly sanded with 220 grit and aplied 2 coats of BLO to the wood. after a couple minutes of file work, it is sharp and smooth as it was 100 years ago. There is not a sharp corner or edge anywhere but the blade.
I cleaned, sharpened, and oiled a double shovel and an old post hole auger (made in USA with cast parts and hickory handle, a couple other hoes, rakes and shovels.
sitting in an air-conditioned shop on a hot steamy day and looking at well maintained tools, the quality of workmanship is obvious.
the newer stuff is crap. The 100 year old stuff could still be good another 100 years from now.
I'm not sure the next owner will appreciate it. I bought a wheelbarrow full of some of this stuff for $10.
I got through about 1/3 of the tools on the wall. I still have picks and mattocks and hay forks and other stuff to do another day.
