Gentlemen, choose your tool


      Discovered in a barn at the weekend. A tool wonderwall.
      This is an Aladdin's Cave for tool collectors and there is everything from slubbing shovels, billhooks, slashers, sickles, potato forks, weed forks, eel spears, chain measures and things the owner doesn't know the name of or how they would have been used.
      Here we found the ordinary mixed with the exotic, beautifully patinated wood and steel and the collection continues to grow along with the obsession. Many of the tools were made long ago by local blacksmiths, used for years by their owners and then sold at farm sales after long years of disuse.
      One good thing though, at least they're not hanging on the wall of a theme pub gathering dust and being ignored. They're in a dusty barn and some are still being put to good use.
      Talking of the pub, perhaps not, it's a bit early!


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