Curioser and curioser

A woman has been renovating a house a couple down from us and she finally moved
in.  She invited us over and showed us around and for some reason (a-hem) the
topic of old tools came up.  She said when they were tearing down a wall in the
bathroom they found a chisel in the wall and would I like to see it.

The chisel was a Stanley 750 (common red-handled tool, Jeff) and it looked like
the craftsman had bought it that morning, honed the edge, hit the handle lightly
half a dozen times, and dropped into the wall.  The steel was shiny and brand-
new looking, the bev(z)el was shiny like a mirror all the way up - a big flat
mirror.  The handle could pass for new, and it was still extremely sharp.

The house was built in 1921 and the bathroom was installed in the early 30’s
(was an outhouse before that).  According to Walter, these chisels were offered
first in 1930.  85 years in a wall and looking perfect.

Ed Minch