Wouldn't You Like to be a Studley Too...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

But truthfully, I don't really need those tools. Why would you need 5 mortise gauges?

Because when you are building an organ, piano, or whatever, and have 3, 4, or 5 dimensions you're using over and over again all day, it's a big time saver. Like using several wrenches instead of one adjustable.

Homemade boxes were common, more for carpenters, cabinet makers, and pattern makers, than other trades but in the mid-sixties I worked with a couple of old machinists who had them. Of course Studley's is just so beautiful and unique. I read when the Smithsonian got it the thing was filthy and some tools were missing. They cleaned it and a couple minor repairs then replaced the missing tools. They knew what was missing because nothing else would fit the pocket. There's only one pocket they couldn't figure out.

Most of the boxes look more like this...


In Studley's time there was a lot of things you built or paid dearly for.





Or just did without, as in the 1800s most people never went more than 25 miles from home and didn't need a steamer trunk.