Yesterday I looked with some pride around my shop. After completing a project I like to reorganize and clean it before starting something new. But yesterday it made me a little sad. That’s because I don’t know who might want and appreciate a lifetime collection of fine woodworking tools when I’m gone. I wonder if anyone else has thought much about their precious tools and materials and how they plan to get them into the right hands when the time comes.
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Timely question for me. I am in my mid-60's and hopefully have a few more years in the shop but this is a topic I have been thinking about. I promised my kids a plan.
I would love to leave the whole shop to one of my kids. Although they may be interested they are not in a position to take it on. That may change as they get more free time as their kids grow a bit.
I am not interested in a sell piece by piece option. First I told my kids I would not leave that burden on them. Second, the return on investment is just not attractive to me. For reference I have a stand alone shop (750sq ft) fully outfitted with high quality hand and power tools for a serious woodworker. The value of he tools is a high five digit number I do not sell my work but the shop could easily support a professional woodworker.
My current thinking is to give the shop (contents) away. I would love to find a young relative or close family acquaintance that was seriously interested in woodworking as a lifetime hobby or profession. I have even considered gifting the cost of a woodworking education as part of the deal. I have also considered donation to a school but that has not developed.
I will continue to look for right home. I am beginning to discuss the gift option with various family members to plant the seed and spark some conservation. In the meantime I have also done something I would highly recommend you (or anyone) do. I have a very detailed inventory of what is in my shop. That includes purchase dates and prices, model numbers, serial numbers, and pictures.
Good luck with your plan.
When a wealthy woodworking and then construction client offered to finance a new company as a silent partner, we did a lot of research before settling on a kids' film business (weird, right?). We both were photographers, we both had young kids, and we recognized the power of educational videos, so we started the company and were very successful. There's no way we would be now with streaming and a fragmented market, but in 1993 it was a solid idea. I got divorced in 1996 and 2 years later my now-ex wife said "when are you going to get your equipment out of "my" shop?" I was 44, so the legacy aspect of passing my tools and equipment on to my then 5 year old son didn't come into play. I had a sale, everything went in a weekend, except a Record shoulder plane, a Garrett Wade dovetail saw, and a couple of misc. things. I think it was $65,000, which was a lot to me in 1996, for a weekend's work. :-) After years of film work, which I still do, I've amassed a big collection of machinery again. Although my now-31 year old son might appreciate the tools, he doesn't really have a place to put it all (and he's actually living in my old woodworking shop that I built in 1983, we renovated it a couple of years ago for him and his wife). In my case I'll probably leave my poor partner to deal with it if I die before her. :-) Hard to know how things will go, but I'm a very healthy 69 with no plans to slow down any time soon, although I have no say in the matter. I still cut down big oaks, hickory, ash, & pine trees, drag them out of the woods, and saw them into lumber on my step-son's mill at his farm. I like jdstreet's inventory idea to make things easier for me or anyone else down the road. I also like the opportunity they might give someone who has the dream, but maybe not the wherewithal to pursue the dream.
A dollar sale. Every item in my shop $1.00 each. Not bad right, PM 66, one dollar, jointer planer one dollar. 3 wood lathes,3 Bucks! Stanley planes a dollar a piece. But there is a catch,you have to buy it all! So, thousands of drill bits a dollar a piece,punches and nail sets, ragged old chisels sitting in a box somewhere. Hardware. All those jigs that no one will know what they do and often i dont even know! There has to be 50, 60 thousand items all and all! Bring a moving van---
Figure my daughter may want some of the tools. As for the rest, happy for them to be sold in an estate sale to whomever wants them. Another possibility, would be to offer them to one of the woodworking schools out there as loaners or gifts to new incoming students who need tools.
Yes. To find a determined young student/apprentice with limited means is something I have imagined as the answer. How a school could delicately make that determination is a question.
The same goes for my tool boxes of Snap-On mechanics tools from that part of my work history.
Thanks
How to find them is indeed a good question. I'd likely reach out to Hyperkitten as well as Timeless Tools and Treasures since they sell used woodworking tools. They might know of a client who is new to the trade and in need of tools. I could also see reaching out to North Bennett and Krenov School since they have programs for new woodworkers. To a large degree, I'm ok myself letting those places decide if push comes to shove. It would be nice if I could meet the invidual.
My grandma gave a lot of things away before she passed on. I appreciated that for several reasons. She got to see my and my brother's joy in receiving some items. It made things a bit easier for us. As I get older, I do plan to do similar and reduce what I have in excess tools that are back ups that I don't use.
I have some friends that plan to be lined up at the door 2 hours early for my estate sale. Nice guys, right? I've informed them that the #1 won't be in the shop unless I go out suddenly.
When the knife-fighting is over for the house someone will be forced to deal with it. If I decline physically to the point that I can't use the shop anymore I'll sell it off or give it away. As far as I'm concerned none of it owes me any money.
That's pretty much where I am.
I suspect most of us if not all understand that a well equipped, organized shop is more than the sum of its parts. For those of us with a stand-alone shop, finding some younger person we can mentor to move into the shop and business we exit is desirable, but seems pretty difficult these days. Not to mention the years of experience we have in our heads that we would like to pass on.
My impression is there is not much market for the heavy industrial machinery that has served me so well and would last several more lifetimes. Hand tool prices and interest seem much stronger than some years ago. Possibly because of the YouTube videos helping people learn how to sharpen and use hand tools.
I have no easy answers. I suspect what I do will be in great part determined by the length of time between when I can no longer do woodworking and when I can no longer deal with my stuff. And if I find the right young person, the course could be completely different.
I think about this too. Nobody in my family is likely to want any of my tools or to be aware of the value of some of the hand tools. And willing to take the time to deal with them. I go to a lot of estate sales, some involving woodworkers, and see how good tools can go for practically nothing. My recommendation to one widow with a basement full of high-end tools, was to contact the local woodworkers guild for help.
I think you have to decide whether or not your goal is to help your heirs prepare for this and getting max money out. If so, start with a detailed inventory, and estimated value, so they know what not to just give away. If you think they are going to just wash their hands of it, then just let the estate sale deal with it.
My plan is to start phasing out of woodworking now (late sixties), and selling off tools as I decide I don't need them anymore, including the large power tools. My heirs wont want to deal with them.
It is definitely a worthwhile question to ponder. I have been preserving and conserving antique furniture for many years. That means the workshop has many wonderful traditional tools as well as a healthy (that is my take anyways) "breaker" collection of old timbers and furniture parts. In this part of the world (Australia) there is a strong network of community sheds and wood clubs. Many of these organizations gratefully receive donations to support their community activities. But I have come to learn from years of discussions with people selling their fine furniture, it is not only on the passing of people. It is also from downsizing through different life stages. It has taught me to hopefully have the presence of mind to sort my stuff out before going to the big woodshop in the sky.
I am 81 and the day of reckoning is close at hand.In the last ten years of searching I have not found a single younger person interested in inheriting a shop with every tool known to mankind.A more recent example might say it all.A great unnamed crafts organization was approached to find a home for my EXTENSIVE chair making tools housed in an 1872 traidsmans case.I made many chairs and was not interested in making more.The organization consulted with a famous chairmaker who suggested a young person.When he picked up the case and tools I found he not only never made a chair but never made a piece of furniture.When recently contacted he admitted not having attempted to use the tools.
I dont have an answer.The Philadelphia the schools dont want the stuff and there are no up and coming woodworkers
I have made over 200 pieces only some of which can be seen on;
carolynprue.com
My painter wife does not think I deserve my own site
The pieces you have made are beautiful examples of master craftsmanship. This is your legacy.
Your tools are the instruments of your art. Like Michelangelo’s brushes or da Vinci’s chisels. Like them, your work will long outlive your tools.
We should all aspire to achieve a small degree of what you have accomplished. Congratulations.
PS. You deserve your own site.
You made some beautiful furniture. Thank you for sharing the website and photos.
Only last week, I helped a lady in the neighborhood whose husband had passed suddenly. She wanted someone to look at the tools and advise whether to try to sell it by the piece herself or turn it over to an estate sale company.
Bottom line was that most of it was entry level stuff. There really was not enough for an estate sale company to be interested. I gave her some estimates of what I thought various pieces would bring. She had a garage sale advertised in our retirement community (948 homes) and she was able to sell most of it. I bought a near new Bosch jig saw, even though I really haven't used the one I have in years.
She donated the remainder to a local vets organization, they will use some on various projects for disabled vets and sell the rest.
This underlines the need for a PLAN ! (and I don't have one and turned 78 yesterday)
I rarely stop at rummage sales but I went back to their 2 car garage and sitting in there was grandma, the daughters and grandchildren all watching me hoping I would buy something. Layed out on tables were grandpas tools. I walked around the tables noting all the stuff I have, used to have and stuff that never was any good. Stuff my grandfather had used in the fifties and sixties. Every hinge, nail, screw hammer, screwdriver that should never have been saved. Every removed light switch, bit of wire, old extension cord, trouble light, switch plate. Every rusty worn file, used hacksaw blade, boxes of dull drill bits, odd collection taps and dies, old yard sticks, tape measures, hand drills and tables of other rusty dirty junk that only meant something to him.
I went home and started to reduce my collection of treasures with an eye I to not putting my family through that.
I don't think there will be a good home for it, all I know I'm not moving that tool box up those stairs again.
My grandparents got married during the great depression and they both had jobs and had to support 6 other family members with their income. As such, nothing that was potentially useable was tossed away. Having gone through that, my grandma for the remainder of her long life would keep thing (very neatly) just in case they needed to be used.
The old vibe that I'm afraid my wife will sell the tools for what I told her I paid for them applies...
I don't believe my tools are attached to one another. If the No4 and the No51/2 got together and produced a few No1s then I think I would notice, and goodness knows what a sliding table saw will do with an ancient lathe. The offspring of a spiral cutterhead planer-thicknesser and a mitre saw is the stuff of nightmares...
Neither if I am dead do I particularly care as being dead by definition involves a lack of ongoing concerns. Either the Christians are right and I am happily in the arms of God, or Hawking was right and I am nothing. Per Pascal, neither state implies any interest in such worldly stuff as woodwork, though I believe Jesus was known to participate in the craft betimes.
For a charitable purpose, it is probably better to sell the tools you have accumulated so that people who want that specific item can own them, love them as you did and make great things with them. The money could then be given to an institution which supports a cause you like and they can buy with it whatever they need. That's the thing about money - it's fungible.
I use my grandfather's hand tools, and my 80 year old lathe is precious because it was owned by a patient I loved and lost. I use these in their memory, but that means nothing to my kids who never knew those people - to them they are what they are - obsolete old crap. Keeping them because I used them would be foolish, unless they too met a need, emotional or otherwise of the offspring.
Whoever gets my tools when I am gone, I hope they enjoy them, even if they are ultimately recycled into knitting needles.
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