# Stuff that lasts.



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Looking through a some old photos today and I noticed I'm still using the same cane basket after 25 years. This got me to thinking, there are a number of things that I've used everyday most of my adult life. Cast iron cookware, oven dishes, woodworking tools, cane baskets and many more. Then there are the other things that are just rubbish, buckets being one of them. 

What are your favourite 'old reliables'. Things that just seem to go on and on.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Guns, still have the cooey .22 I got as a kid
Leather saddles and harness pieces that are 50-100 years old.
Tractors
Knives


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Hubby has a Lithgow 1b .22 getting close to 80 years old now. Still with open sites and accurate enough to hit a 30mm target at 50 yards.

Still got my first saddle and it was ummm well matured when I got it... 

We have a Massey TEA 20 needs a bit of work now  but still has plenty of life in her. 

All my knives are Russels, some were granddads and some are a year old, love everyone of them.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Well, my body has lasted me all these years. Beat up pretty badly but hoping to get another 30 years out of it.


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## GrinnanBarrett (Aug 31, 2012)

I have tools my grandfather had that are more than wall hangers. I have fishing gear and guns from the late 1800s from my family. I have books my Dad kept. I have my Family's Bible that has notes in it from as early as 1875. I have pictures of my Mom's family taken on the Reservation in OK before 1900. I have meat grinders from my great grandmother. I have my grandfather's shoe repair equipment that was made before 1900. 

I have the memories that were handed down to me by my parents, grandparents and in one case my great grandmother. I am writing them down for my children and grandchildren. Like making soap with my grandmother (Mom's mother). I still have the old cast iron pots we cooked it up in over a fire. I don't want those things to be lost to my kids.


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## cranky1 (Oct 9, 2008)

I love using my 40-50s coleman lanterns. lots of young folks never seen them. a great conversation starter in the camp grounds. cheers .


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

I shoot my grandfathers gun sunday, 70 plus years old and still getting it done. My uncle owns it but brought it out for us to use. To much for his boy, so I let him shoot my .22. As far as things I use every day I use garden tools that belonged to the old lady who owned my house before the lady who I bought it from.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I got the lot of Cast iron cookware from both of my grandparents. (no one wanted them ) Then I also was given a treadle sewing machine (Grandma H) ... My yellow mixing bowl, I have a picture of me washing it at the age of 1... I ask mom where she got it and she said from her mom. (I love that glass bowl)

I have a number of quilts that are right at 100 years old. (No, I don't use them, just keep them) 

Leather saddles and harness and a few spinning items. (My wool winder had wooden pegs...)

My Grandma C garden hoe, the wooden handle is long gone but the metel has a place with my books. (Odd ... I know ... but I guess you would have to be there. lol)

The wringer washer ...

(Yea, I'm a pack rat  ... but if it works, why trash it.)


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Cast iron cookware, pre 80's firearms.the average Mauser or 303 lasts forever I note.
Any good knife from back then.Old army fatigues, vehicles made before the 80's, Faberware
cookery and crocks.London fog trench coats Xarges Aluminum gun cases.Colman cook stoves and
lanterns.Cabella's sleeping bags.the old Levi jeans and flannel shirts.Army boots.


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## Jerry D Young (Jan 28, 2009)

Nothing quite as old as some of the posts, but to me, sentimental value, as well as age are part of it. A pair of stainless steel mixing bowls from my mothers first electric mixer from the early fifties. I use them regularly. A bread knife/ham slicer (long straight blade, no serrations, and sharpened on both sides of the cutting edge so it cuts straight as an arrow) from the same period, with a burned corner on the handle.

A few other things, but these mean the most to me.

Just my opinion.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

How about a wooden dibble ... 

(How many folks will have to do a search ??? )


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

We have the old "Push Plow" my great grandmother used when she was gardening for her family, that would make it close to 100 years old. Dont use it anymore but I'm sure it would work fine if we wanted to.

It's similar to the one below, I dont have any pictures of it so looked one up.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

My great-aunt's wool blanket from when she served in the Army (nurse) overseas during WWII.

gardening tools (pitchfork, rake, shovel)

mixing bowl (mom's - it's a good 60 years old), and egg beater

dad's transistor radio (from the 70's) - picks up AM better than my newer radios

My DH and I talk about this a lot. We want to buy things once and keep/use them forever. But so much is geared to be disposable these days...


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## Jerry D Young (Jan 28, 2009)

*Andi said:


> How about a wooden dibble ...
> 
> (How many folks will have to do a search ??? )


Not me because... I know! I know! I know! 

LOL

Just because and just my opinion.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Thing about this post is we know that half of our lives are made up of stuff most youngins ain't heard of. No idea how things work, no idea of the labour that went into everyday stuff. How many people know you can/could buy leather patches for pots. How many have any idea what goes into making a pound of cheese, or a pound of bacon.......


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

In cold weather I use an extra blanket on my side of the bed that used to belong to my late first wife. She bought it before she knew me.


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## spregan (Aug 6, 2011)

I have some handsaws and some hardwood, wood clamps of my grandfathers that still work great. All of them are 60 + years old. Also some pre-80s firearms that I was given when I first started hunting in the 70s. We also have some kitchen items that we don't use that have been passed down through a few generations. They would probably work in a pinch though.


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## AdmiralD7S (Dec 6, 2012)

Wellrounded said:


> Thing about this post is we know that half of our lives are made up of stuff most youngins ain't heard of. No idea how things work, no idea of the labour that went into everyday stuff. How many people know you can/could buy leather patches for pots. How many have any idea what goes into making a pound of cheese, or a pound of bacon.......


But I DO know what goes into make a gallon wine 

...and I plan to start cheeses after I've played with yogurt in the fall.


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## machinist (Jul 4, 2012)

My Grandad's first toolbox that he made about 1900, and all the tools in it for making furniture by hand. Includes the Stanley No. 7 Jointer plane, a Stanley No. 45 plow and rabbet plane, several Henry Disston handsaws, socket chisels, auger bits and brace, and much more.

I also have Dad's carpenter tools dating from about 1948, my favorites being the Stanley push drill and a Sands aluminum level. Our daughter has Dad's Winchester Model 12 pump shotgun.

We use a paring knife my Grandad made from an old saw blade. The handle is wood from the steamship Alice Dean, sunk by Morgan's Raiders when that Confederate bunch came across the Ohio River into Harrison County during the Civil War. The wood is white oak, turned a pale blue from mineralization in the water for over 100 years. The handle rivets he made from copper wire. A cherry salt box of his hangs in the kitchen beside the yellow ceramic matchbox holder, for the old wooden matches. A cherry spice cabinet hangs in the dining room.

Grandad made furniture all his life. We still sleep on the 4 poster cannonball bed he made for me when I was 7 years old = 60 years ago. It is part of a suite made of hard maple. Our dining room suite (made for my parents in the early 1940's from timber Dad cut) is wild cherry, a drop leaf, gateleg table with 6 roseback carved chairs and a pair of Federal Style corner cupboards to match. The cedar chest in the living room is one he made for Grandma, handed down to us. Needless to say, we haven't bought any furniture, ever. It was a family tradition for him to furnish a home for all his grandkids.

Much more important is all the stuff taught to me by both Dad and Grandad. With what they taught, I made furniture for the living room. Here's a display cabinet I made:


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## PreparedRifleman73 (Nov 2, 2012)

Interesting topic. Being so young and having a major fire 2 years ago, I haven't owned much of anything for a long period of time.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

What really saddens me is how many of the old, well-made items are just getting hauled off for scrap metal each day. The folks that have these items are older, and when they pass, their kids just want all the stuff gone. I heard from a friend (about two weeks two late) of an older widow that passed, and their kids all lived out of state, and were interested in just selling the real estate. They hired one of the "will haul your scrap" ads folks from Craigslist to come clean the entire farm off, just to make the "property" ready for sale. The shop had a lot of machine tooling in it. I cry when I hear stories like that.


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## machinist (Jul 4, 2012)

I bought a couple hundred pounds of automotive tools that were thrown away by somebody's grandkids. Got 'em at the metal junkyard for 20 cents a pound. I got somewhere around $1,000 worth of tools for 40 bucks. Ignorance is the only thing that seems to be plentiful these days. 

Most of my shop is supplied with durable old things that someone threw away.


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## TheManComesAround (Jun 18, 2013)

Both my Great Grand Mother's Cast Iron Frying Pans, and an early 70's KitchenAid Stand Mixer given to my wife by a nun in her church!


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## HenryRules (Jul 12, 2013)

It's sad that my generation depends on technology to do everything for them. What happened to doing things yourself and being proud of it?
As for hand me downs all I've got is my great grandmothers opera glasses and my great granddads folding ruler. Wish I had more of his tools.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

> Stuff that lasts.


My marriage is still working at 35 years.


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

I have been carrying my Buck 5" folding lockback knife for approx. 44yrs. Granted I may only use it occasionally but would feel naked without it. I'm on my 2nd sheath but it needs to be replaced soon. My wife still uses her grandmothers crock to make baked beans, on a wood fire, several times a year.


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## dutch9mm (Jul 29, 2013)

Dog farts and herpies


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