Rags

Rennie Heuer

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Today my thoughts went back to when I was about 6 or 7 years old. Even though we lived in a post-war 50's subdivision we, for a while at least, still had the weekly visit from the horse drawn carts of the sharpener and the rag man. I can still hear his raspy voice ringing out between the clop clop of the horses hooves, "Rags....Rags."

I guess business is good because, for the first time in my 50 years of woodworking I had to buy rags. It seems I am using them up faster than I can wear out my clothes. Unfortunately there is none of the romanticism of the old rag man in going to Menards and buying a plastic bag stuffed with T-shirt parts. Progress. :cry:
 
why would people by rags from a traveling sales person????
Good question, but remember this is a time before paper towels. Well, maybe. Paper towels have been around since the early 30's but I think they were mostly used in commercial and kitchen environments. I think rags were still the go-to for garages, shops, general clean up, etc. I remember my mom always used crumpled up newspaper to clean windows.


"The birth of paper towels

Come 1931, the company and Scott realized that paper towels had huge potential. A brand new grocery category was created in the early 1930s and paper towels were manufactured specifically for kitchen use. These rolls were eighteen inches long and thirteen inches wide, and given the convenience they brought to the average household, paper towels gained acceptance before replacing cloth towels."
 
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Acid brushes and rags are a couple of items I will react to when a really good sale is going on. So far, keeping an eye out for stupid-low prices on quality items (as happens now and again) has kept me in both :)
 
I remember my mom always used crumpled up newspaper to clean windows.

We (I) still do use crumpled up newspapers for glass cleaning. I'll admit, this may not go on much longer. It seems the newspapers are dying the same slow death as magazines. But while we have them I'll continue to use them for windows and such.
 
I knew of a man who traveled door to door sharpening knives and scissors but I never heard of a rag man although I can understand the need. I guess in my area there was plenty of rag materials as we used the feed sacks for rags. My mother would wash those sacks, cut them into whatever size she needed and hem the edges. They made attractive kitchen towels. When they started getting thread bare they became dust rags or ended up in my father's shop. Waste not, want not.... Like many of you I keep bags full of tee shirt material I buy at the store for shop use. And I use a lot of paper towels.

I guess I would rather hear the raspy voice of the rag man than any voice going door to door saying these words.... Which is what I feared we would hear at the beginning of the Covid crisis. Of course we still might hear it but hopefully these new vaccines will help eliminate this disease.
 

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I have a brother in law that pretty well keeps me in rags... If he has a tee shirt that has a hole in it or paint on it,,, it is classified a rag... His wife washes it and brings a bag of them every few months.... Some are nice enough I wear them of a while longer before they are rags to me! It takes a lot of wear for me to declare a tee shirt a rag....!!:D
 
I knew of a man who traveled door to door sharpening knives and scissors but I never heard of a rag man although I can understand the need. I guess in my area there was plenty of rag materials as we used the feed sacks for racks. My mother would wash those sacks, cut them into whatever size she needed and hem the edges. They made attractive kitchen towels. When they started getting thread bare they became dust rags or ended up in my father's shop. Waste not, want not.... Like many of you I keep bags full of tee shirt material I buy at the store for shop use. And I use a lot of paper towels.

I guess I would rather hear the raspy voice of the rag man than any voice going door to door saying these words.... Which is what I feared we would hear at the beginning of the Covid crisis. Of course we still might hear it but hopefully these new vaccines will help eliminate this disease.
I don't remember the knive and scissor sharpener, but I do remember the feed sacks that came with print and such... my mother used them to make shirts and dresses for me and my sisters... and dish towels for the kitchen.... also when I was little, she also used flour sacks to make my underwear... she would choose which bag of feed she wanted by how the sack was printed. I also wore home made overalls from the legs of my dad's overalls until I started school and refused to go back unless I got a pair of blue jeans to wear....
 
.... also when I was little, she also used flour sacks to make my underwear... she would choose which bag of feed she wanted by how the sack was printed...
I hope they had Batman or Superman flour sacks. :D

I remember having flour sack pillows that my mom made when we were kids.
 
the old man in the truck used to come around farmingdale NY where I grew up from around 5 y/o to 12y/o
my father used to give him the lawnmower and the trimming shears for the bushes.
wed hear his truck 3 blocks away as he had this annoying ringing bell, like a xmas bell but 10 times louder.
the guy had to be 90 at the time. and hed sit out in front of your house with the grinding wheels in his truck and sharpen away.

never saw a rag man.

I ask my entire family, nieces, nephews, sil, bil, please, any old tee shirts, dont toss, just bag em up for me.
 
Some are nice enough I wear them of a while longer before they are rags to me! It takes a lot of wear for me to declare a tee shirt a rag....!!

I have a lot of old industry t-shirts. I had moved some I rarely wear out to the garage for future rags. Some of the ones I had inside were slowly getting to the point where the boss was giving me grief so I went shopping in the garage bin and moved some of the inside ones out. I'm kind of curious how many times I can get away with that rotation.
 
Not too very long ago (maybe 10 years) we had a fellow around here that would go to the various towns In a van. He would sharpen anything you wanted sharpened. I'd get him to put a fresh edge on my crosscut/ripsaws and chainsaw blades. I haven't seen him in a while.

Alan
 
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