Sears Tool Booklets, circa 1950 and 1952

Rob Zschoche

Member
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32
Location
Northern Virginia
I have a lot of old tools and other items that I inherited from my grandfather. I still use some of his old handtools on the job and in the shop. I was going through some old files and found these booklets that came from grandpa's shop-Sears Craftsman booklets from about 60 years ago. The price listed on the envelope containing each booklet: 35 cents.:)

If you read the table of contents and see something that is of interest, let me know and I'll scan individual pages for you. One that I thought was interesting was the detail for mounting a special blade on the table saw in order to be able to make your own dowel stock. There is also a section on how to sharpen your circular saw blades, which is something grandpa always did and I still have all the files that he used to do sharpening.
 

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Interesting that they call a scrollsaw a jigsaw and the table saw a circular saw. Those are really neat. One of the older teachers here when I first bought the farm, he showed a 1941 Sears catalog that had our house advertised in it. He wouldn't sell/part with that catalog for anything. They are priceless to the right person and it sounds like you are it! Thanks for the offer, enjoyed looking at the titles and pictures.
 
Cool. Do treat those well. Maybe not real valuable in dollars but certainly items of interest.

Hi Frank, It's true that they aren't worth much, but it sure is interesting to see how things were written up long ago. The grammar and syntax of the text is certainly more sophisticated than what we see in the standard tool manuals that we get today.

One thing that I have that I still use daily is my grandfather's old workbench. He told me he built it between the time my dad was born (Dec '41) and when he went into the Army (1943). I got the entire story about how he got Old Man so-and-so to sell him all this clear 1X12 pine for 10 cents a board foot and so forth and so on...and he used that and oak flooring to make the bench.:thumb: Typical midwestern farmer, he was.:) I helped him refinish the top once while I was in high school (early 80's), but other than that it's still in good shape and looks good....and all original.
 
Interesting that they call a scrollsaw a jigsaw and the table saw a circular saw. Those are really neat. One of the older teachers here when I first bought the farm, he showed a 1941 Sears catalog that had our house advertised in it. He wouldn't sell/part with that catalog for anything. They are priceless to the right person and it sounds like you are it! Thanks for the offer, enjoyed looking at the titles and pictures.

Jonathan...is it your actual house that was in the catalog? :thumb: Or the plans for your house? A buddy of mine has a Sears house, built in the late 20's or early 30's. He lives in a part of Alexandria VA that was a railroad workers neighborhood, and there are a lot of houses that were Sears (and other manufacturers) models that came in on the railroad, all cut and numbered-ready for assembly.
 
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