My friend Ethan hit me up this morning to see if I had purchased another Panther Saw recently, and it got me thinking about the woeful state of my tool collecting.
I'm not sure if the Panther Saw I mentioned in February ever got relisted on Ebay. There have been a couple of others on Ebay in the last few weeks. One was in a similarly rough condition like the February sample, and the other was a very, very nice one.
Sadly, my tool purchasing is in hibernation at the moment. What have I been reduced to? Wisner Planes and Panther Saws are showing up on Ebay without a single bid from me. Full wooden boxed sets of Campagnolo tools are whizzing past without my ever raising a finger or screaming out a Dave Hester "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!" to piss on the tree and mark my spot in the bidding frenzy. I haven't even stopped into any antique stores to scour the corners for heavy, steel farm wrenches presented in large, flip-top jewelry boxes.
Patrick Leach's email arrived this week, and I didn't even want to open it. I sat there wondering what I would do if I saw something I had to have yet had no liquid cash available for its purchase. My mind raced to thoughts of emailing Patrick and asking about a tax season layaway plan.... Then, I finally just sucked it up and decided I was man enough to scan the tool list in a pure window shopping mode. Reading Patrick's email I now know what it's like for Wayne Gretzky to sit in the crowd and watch a hockey game.
Ultimately, I decided that, at the very least, I am still the Commander McBragg of Tool Collecting.
So, Ethan, did I ever tell you about the time I purchased all of the Mason's Tools used to build the Great Pyramid at Giza.............
