Day 3 dawned bright and clear, much like the previous couple of days. On tap for today however, was a little side trip. For those that have never been to Pennsic, the first week of the two week event has very few scheduled activities. It’s the vacation part of the program where folks roll in when they can, setup and hang out with friends.
Scott and I picked this early day to check out a used tool store nearby over in Ohio. In the vintage tool world, there are a few stores that are heralded as “can’t miss” tool locations. Now, both Scott and I sell vintage hand tools. So we aren’t expecting to buy much, if anything. But we are always looking to do a little market research.
After breakfast, I grabbed the truck, fetched Scott from his camp and we set off for the wilds of Ohio. Oof. Check the route Google plots for you route carefully. This place was more than an hour from ANY interstate. We spent forever on two lane roads witnessing “Americana”. While it was only 2.5 hours, it seemed longer in some ways.
Just outside Millersburg, Ohio sits Colonial Homestead, an unremarkable white building on the roadside deep in the Amish country. To be fair, most of the buildings are unremarkable. But furnituremaking seems to be the local industry. We passed dozens of show rooms and makers.
From a shear magnitude perspective Homestead delivered. Check it out:
It’s 4000 or 5000 sq ft of vintage woodworking, blacksmithing and machinist tools. In back, the owner has a small shop where he makes Windsor chairs. There were a few hanging high on the wall near the checkout, Shaker fashion, but out of reach to inspect of guess the prices.
As for the tools. They were very accurately priced. Basically, exactly what Scott and I would have put on the tool. If the price was lower than what we expected, we’d look for the flaw that warranted a discount (and there usually was one). So while we had pockets of cash in case there were bargains, we didn’t find any.
I picked up a decent corner chisel for about what I would pay for it at auction but usually get out bid because I want it cheaper 🙂 Also a nice wood bodied jack plane to experiment with. Again, about what I would sell it for. But once I am done playing with it, I can sell it for at least that much as it’s now cleaned up and razor sharp.
The trip back was uneventful and about as long even though it was more miles. I spent some time in the parking lot of the local gas station/convenience store beating Google into sending me to the nearest Interstate by the fastest route even if it’s not the “fastest” way back to Pennsic.