kpotter Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 About 15 years ago I was riding my bike through an old part of the city and in this guys front yard was a post vise and a big swage block as well as an old metal planer. I have found all kinds of cool stuff out in the world but when it is in the front yard it is usually not for sale, but I had to check you never know. I knocked on the door and an old guy answered, I asked him if the stuff was for sale and of course it wasnt but he showed me the back of the house and it used to be a blacksmiths shop it was his families shop and had been in the family since the late 1800s. I talked with him for a bit and got ready to leave and he said give me your name and number and when I die my son will call you and you can have them for 100 dollars. I thought for a second since this was kinda strange but figured what the hell I gave him my number he told me he would put it on the bulliten board. I didnt want to ask when he was going to die that would have been rude so I just hopped on my bike and rode away. I figured I would never hear from them and I would occasionally drive buy and the stuff would be sitting there, well fast forward 15 years and I got a call and the guy says is this Kevin Potter, do you still want the vise and swage block I have a note that says you will pay 100 bucks for the stuff. It took a minute or two to figure out what he was talking about but I was in the truck heading over with cash in hand. I got there and he told me his dad had died and that he saw the note and gave me a call. The whole family was there going through the estate the guy was a pack rat, takes one to know one, any way I figured I would tell you guys about the find I just mounted the vise last week and remembered the tale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 Wow! That is an amazing story. You were really lucky because some people would not have made good on the note. You were in the right place at the right time and ran into some honorable people. Enjoy your new found tools! Mark<>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Honorable? Maybe. Or maybe they just saw dads 'ol junk in the yard and here's some fool willing to fork over $100.00! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 More Amazing Stories I've told this story before, but what the heck. Back in the early 70's I was tinkering with blacksmithing and looking for equipment. So, I was talking with an old uncle and aunt of mine about another relative who had a shop in Seattle back in the fifties. Well, he had moved to Cle Elum (across the mountains). Anyway, my uncle says "When Olaf moved, I don't think he took his trip hammer with him. He just sold the shop and took his hand tools with him". So some guy had bought the shop and had been operating a machine shop out on the building for the last 15 years. Of course I wanted to find out what had become of the hammer. So me and my uncle jump in the truck so he could show me where the shop was. When we pulled up to the shop, there was the hammer on a forklift sitting in the driveway. It was a 150 pound Howe in great condition. Found the owner of the shop, told him who we were and what our interest was. Then I asked what the deal was with the hammer. Well, he explained that the hammer had been taking up space in the shop for the last fifteen years and made a pretty lousy coffee cup holder. He had pulled it out THAT VERY DAY and was about to call the scrapper! Hardly able to contain my excitement, I asked what he'd take for it. Well, says he, "how about a hundred bucks"? Need I say more? Got good use from that hammer for the next fifteen years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Grant, Do you think when he talked to you he said, "Heres some fool willing to fork over $100.00." Blind stinkin luck, or divine intervention? Hmmmmmmm..... Either way you both got a good deal. Mark<>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Ask me if I care. He asked what he thought he could could get for it I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Ask me if I care. He asked what he thought he could could get for it I think. True. If you get a good deal, who cares. So long as you both parted happy. Mark<>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 My other post was just wondering if the family was actually "honoring" his request. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Is this going to be a thread about windfalls? What the hey? I went to shoe a horse for a new customer in the 1960's, and I was transitioning little by little to blacksmithing. While I was bending over and nailing on, he asked me whether I did blacksmith work besides horseshoeing. I said that I did and that I wanted to do more of it. He said, "Well, I thought I was gonna' blacksmith at one time, so I bought this set of tongs in the 1940's...never used them." He proceeded to give me seven pair of Atha flat tongs, all graded in size from "16" [gage sheet metal] to 1", and three Atha bolt tongs, graded in size from 1/4" to 1/2". Original black paint, and I still got 'em, and I still use 'em. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 You may be right. They may have looked at all that old dirty stuff and were glad to get rid of it. Oh that I could be that lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chyancarrek Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Kevin, What an outstanding story! The idea that the note got stuck to some bulletin board and then was acted upon as intended 15 years later definitely falls into the "meant to be" category!! Just goes to show - "ya don't know if ya don't ask". Pics of the vise and block any time soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpotter Posted November 13, 2010 Author Share Posted November 13, 2010 I suppose 15 years ago that stuff was only worth 100 dollars, it is a nice swage block and vise but what was cool was they really called me. They didnt think to much of dads stuff to them it was junk and alot of it was but everyone has a treasure or two. I helped them clear out the blacksmith shop but there was nothing in there but old tupperware and rotting newspaper I had visions of a 500lbs anvil actually more like fantasies any way I think every dog has his day maybe that was mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fciron Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 I moved to Louisville, KY in 1991 because I found a job in a blacksmith shop here. Almost immediately I noticed there was a building that said 'blacksmith shop' on the side. It was in an old industrial area right between where the downtown business district ends and the residential neighborhoods start. I ask the smith I'm working for about it, he's says it's an old guy who doesn't want to sell. I peered in the windows a few times, but never caught anyone at home. Several fairly eventful years later, I'm back in Louisville and I've got my own shop now, I drive past the mystery shop and the lights are on! I stop in and introduce myself, there's an old fellow in there sharpening hammer bits. We chat for a bit, he's the third generation of smiths in this shop and it's got one hundred years of blacksmith accumulation. Fred gives me an old bit to make some hardie tools. I stop by and show him the tools a couple of weeks later and I try to spin by and show off if I have some interesting blacksmith stuff in the truck. After a few years I find out I'm going to be losing my shop space to redevelopment. I stick my head in and ask Fred if he knows of any space available, it's an old industrial area and it sure looks like there are a lot of half-full buildings. A couple of weeks later I get a phone call, Fred's only been coming in to keep the lights on, why don't I rent his place? I sometimes wonder about the stuff that must have gone to the scrap yard to make enough room for me to squeeze into the shop. Then I look at some of the stuff that didn't get scrapped and think that the stuff that left must have really been junk. I'm sure it's a little of both. I bought the shop from Fred a few years ago. It was not a financial windfall, but I feel really lucky to have it. I did a lot to put make it possible for that luck to happen and I tried to be prepared to act when the time was right, but I still needed a little luck for that preparation to pay off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainely,Bob Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 I bought the shop from Fred a few years ago. It was not a financial windfall, but I feel really lucky to have it. I did a lot to make it possible for that luck to happen and I tried to be prepared to act when the time was right, but I still needed a little luck for that preparation to pay off. There`s an old Irish saying "There is no luck except where there is discipline". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Seelye Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 A few years ago, I got a flyer in the mail about a blacksmith auction. I went and found out that only members of our association were invited. The guy belonged to it when he was alive, and when he died, his kids, having no interest in it, decided to have two auctions. One for blacksmithing and one for the other stuff. Now, just maybe the family thought that they would get more money by doing it this way. But when I got there, the family was all there and plainly said that they didn't want to open this up for resellers and dealers but they knew their dad would have wanted the stuff to go to people who would use the stuff like their dad had. I bought a cool hammer rack and a hardy, and am thankful that the family thought to do it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fciron Posted November 14, 2010 Share Posted November 14, 2010 There`s an old Irish saying "There is no luck except where there is discipline". Thanks, I knew there was a quicker way of saying that. I think that you can often find a thread in any of these stories where the lucky guy did something to put that luck into motion, even if it was just showing interest beyond the mere purchase. (Except for Grant's story, he's just a lucky dog.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted November 14, 2010 Share Posted November 14, 2010 About 2 months ago I was viewing Craigslist ads for anvils. A guy was selling an anvil, but I noticed in the background he also had a swage block. I wrote him about the swage block and he said he didn't want to sell it, but would keep my information for when he changed his mind. Last week he emailed me and that he decided to sell it and he would give me the first chance before he listed it. I committed to buy it and we had a great phone conversation. He is elderly and his eyesight is starting to fail, but he is extremely happy that it is going to a place where it will be used properly. He also wants to send me all sorts of literature and books he has accumulated on blacksmithing over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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