Selling your tools before age defeats you.

I am currently selling tools as i catalogue what i have moreover due to having issues with arthritis in my hands ,I want to do this before it becomes something my family might have to deal with in the event I cannot do it .

None are keen on having the tools so I find it's best to deal with it whilst I can .Over the years I have doubled up with the Stanley's as well as L&N's & Veritas Lee Valley more recently when I retired quite a number of years ago.My Stanley's are the users I generally go to having bought a lot of nice tools on retiring before it was announced,
we were going to see the world on a number of cruises when my better half retired.

Hence quite a few of my (nice) tools are unused being offered here for members benefit first before using other means.
Whilst I still would endeavour to have a presence with hand tools as comfort allows it is often I have to use the machinery to task out a job.
This might explain why some of the tools I offer up are unused.

We all approach an age where practical decisions need to be made more for others benefit rather than yourself.

Gday JS

I know about age and arthritis.
Just wishing you the best.
Good luck with your tool sales.
cheers
Keith

Yep its something I've thought about for a few years now "leave all my tools to the kids (after I've passed) to sell and in not knowing their value sell for a pittance" or I sell and squirrel away the benefits.

John, damn arthritis among other things post 60! I've got it in my thumbs at the moment and wondering what more the next few years will reveal. It might only be me but nobody in my family gave me much of a heads up about aging, even with the benefit of googling there still seem to be lots of gaps on what men in particular can expect and when, seems to be much more info out there for the ladies.

We're moving house soon which will downsize on the maintenance at least, and I've got a new workshop planned that I'm hoping gets a bit of a decent workout before I have to start moving on the some of the stuff. My wife is wanting me to catalogue my tools now so she has some idea of what they are and what they're worth if I drop off the perch unexpectedly.

Take care.

I've been telling my family that I will sell all my tools before I meet my maker and spare them the agony of having to get rid of them. But I'm still reasonably healthy and am still enjoying this hobby.
Will be watching this thread with interest, as to how people decide when is the right time to sell up.
Stay well.

When our son left home he left his room in such a mess that I've told him we're leaving the whole house in a mess for him to today up. In terms of downsizing on tools machines etc, if I have not paid anything or much for a specific item I'm tending towards giving it away to worthwhile home rather than haggle over this sort of stuff and dealing with the endless stream of tyre kickers. In some ways finding a good home is harder than selling but I'd rather things get moved on to where they are going to, at least in the first instance, be used/repaired/maintained as opposed to sold to make a few $.

I think this is a great idea.

In my mind - get rid of everything except your favorite stuff and use the heck out of that... There's nothing like the joy of using your favorite tools.... It's unlikely you will manage to actually wear it out anyway...

It also gives you a much better opportunity to get some actual $$$ back out of your "extra" tools.

I have seen too many people wait too long and then they don't have the energy/interest to deal with their collection or worse. Then their kids pile it all up and bin it... They don't even sell it in most cases...

If you do decide to leave it to your kids - I think it would be worthwhile to attach information for tool friendly auction houses or tool resellers if they decide to sell it vs simply binning the whole thing... At least they would get something vs nothing....

It is something that has been exercising my mind also.
I have made a list of my machinery and tools with purchase prices and also my stash of good timber but I hope to use that before too long.

I bought this subject up with the other half just last week but she insists she won't be selling any of it if I drop prematurely - 'sentimental value', even though he doesn't even know what each machine does! - just gonna leave the shed locked as it is she reckons. Now I have the job of convincing her it is better off sold so she can benefit from the value of it but I really do have to put that list together - one day!!! If the arthritis gets me before the reaper arrives, I'll probably sell it all off, give the wood to the club and just wander off into the sunset :shrug:

This thread brings back some memories,

A friends father was well into restoring motorcycles and had well over 60 in various stages from fully restored & running, partially restored, through to basket cases and buckets / boxes of bits. He kept a ledger of all the bits originally then had updated to an Excel spread sheet.

His wishes were pretty well set out with recommendations on who he would like to have first option to purchase, who may be interested in parts, right down to "never to go to these ba$tards." We all knew of the ledgers existence and often made fun of it, & whether we were in the good or naughty column. Joke as we may it certainly helped the family move a lot of stuff to good homes and to restorers who really appreciated the parts.

Pretty much my plan @Mobyturns - got a spreadsheet all ready to go with replacement values (insurance) and will be adding a column for instructions should I pass. Will include these with my will.

Do whatever makes you comfortable. However, remember that the dead don't really care.

We own lots of nice stuff and if you can be arsed to come to the clearing sale when we eventually fall off the perch then you might get a bargain... otherwise, it's just scrap. Best not to pretend otherwise...

It slightly ironic, I needed to do the exact opposite.... give up all my lovely machines and use nothing but hand tools.

Life can be unpredictable and cruel....

He who dies with the most tools.... Wins.

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Originally Posted by riverbuilder

He who dies with the most tools.... Wins.

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Even if you could take them with you, i doubt there would be much space to use them. :D

To add another dimension to this, estate planning! Please think ahead and discuss with family, as it will save your family a lot of grief and potentially angst when (not if) you pass.

I was the sole executor for both my parents, my Dad passed some 30 years ago, Mum only 3 years ago. Both had wills, well sort of. Dad's was a hand written very simple document and met all the requirements save one very important bit the "attestation" clause - "the action of being a witness to or formally certifying something." i.e. the witness's identification other than their signature. Mum's was a generic "will kit" that thankfully was "complete" and had not been "tampered with." Apparently a simple innocent act such as removing staples to "photocopy" the will then re-stapling the document can be very problematic legally!

Both wills were simple, sell up & divide the proceeds equally between their three children, as Mum & Dad had divorced prior to Dad's passing. Sounds simple except for the very strong sentimental connections each of us had for specific items. My sister wanted Mum's recipie book. My brother asked for some "heirloom" books of Dad's. For me it was a very sad thought to sell of all of Dad's hand tools for a paltry sum, when they had an almost priceless value to me as I had used all of them working alongside my Dad who was a Registered Builder. I would have sacrificed all of the $$$ to keep them, and I said so. I still use Dad's Stanley hand planes daily!

Fortunately we all agreed that for some items the sentimental values were far more important to each of us than the real world small $$ value they would attract. I had Dad's tool's valued at "retail rates" by a registered second hand dealer who we all knew and trusted and adjusted the distribution accordingly.

With Mum, she down sized a couple of years before she passed, so we assisted her to hold a garage sale over a few weekends to de-clutter. Very sad to see a houseful of stuff fetch virtually cents on the dollar on "current replacement values."

It seems that some things just do not sell, Bohemia crystal ware, fine china dining settings etc. Very expensive luxury items in their day, now almost valueless. Same can be said about specific hand tools, very limited potential market, something my friends father had recognized with his collection of motorcycles and restoration parts.

FIL (a clever amateur furniture retire) passed away 13 years ago and all his personal stuff was left to BIL but being a non-tool person and a very busy fellow (animal epidemiologist) BIL did nothing about the tools and they may have stayed that way for some time but I quickly noticed they were rusting away being located in a beachside property. With MILs and BILs permission I collected up the better tools and took them home and derusted and stored them until last year when I suggested to BIL that I organise a "select what tools you want" out amongst the grandies and great grandies. I photographed them, added numbers to the photos and email them out. BIL, and some of the grandies and great grandies just took a memento tool or 2, only my niece and son took tools that I believe will be used. That worked pretty well and most amicably. I ended up with the remainder - the best of which was a set of 100+ year old BSP dies, a set of BSW dies, couple of nice hammers and 7 hand saws. The few power tools were all well past their use by date so got tossed out and the some of the remaining hand tools went to a mens shed, but the bulk ended up in the metal scrap bin at the local recycling centre. Several trips were made to the local recycling centre to dispose of rusty fixings, pipe, rusty metal shelving, white anted wooden shelves, unprepared furniture etc.

As for the rest (the over stuffed content of two houses and beach house) - when MIL passed away last year the Grandies and great grandies took some of the pieces of furniture, and a few other kitchen things. The considerable cellar contents were divided up by raffle between the family members. I started to sell a few small items on GT but that became a PITA real quick. The remainder which included most of the books, clothing, linen, geegaws and furniture was donated to Vinnies and Red Cross. I put a few items up as FREE on GT but that also wore thin real quick. About 5 skips worth of stuff (mostly junk) was put on the front lawn and a free notice put on GT and about 4.5 skips worth of the stuff went. There were still endless trips to the tip and recycling centre. I'm still stumbling across boxes of "stuff" in our house the SWMBO has brought home to sort out. Last December the back veranda of our place became storage for boxes of, antiquarian books, boxes unused laundry and cleaning chemicals and equipment, several sheep fleeces, a wooden box full of rusty metal chains etc and 3 wooden ladders, that still need sorting by SWMBO.

Meanwhile SWMBO has started using her spinning wheels again!

I speak to this from the other side. My father passed somewhat rapidly, having only had a chance to divest himself of about 1/2 of his tools and vintage car collection. As a son, I had absolutely no idea what any of it it was, what it was worth, etc. I suspect that other people in his car club just began pilfering all his hard-worked pieces from a shed he used to lease, and I ended up giving/long-term-loaning most of it to another son-of-a-vintage-guy round the corner, who was actually in the hobby (I live in a different country!). There was probably $50k of tools and parts, from a lifetime of engineering and car building/collecting; plus the one vintage car he didn't manager to sell.

So don't underestimate the value of at least a ledger, or downsizing tools.

As others have mentioned it 's a task not easily given to sort out deceased estates ,my main reason initially for posting this was because for others to have to dispose of my collective gains from over the years, it definitely would not be easy as we are distant from any relatives.
What has to said that it could be your partner in life left with the task as we know they all get on our case about this or downsizing ad nauseum.

I am thinking that perhaps re-enrolling my better half in weightlifting at the gym to be able to move stuff after I know longer can might be the go LOL.

I reckon by easing the burden to be left to others to sort out then why not .If as age progress's to a point where the difficulty in using what you have then becomes an issue then surely the decision to clear what you can whilst you still have the energy to apply yourself.
There's still no reason why you have to clear away all that you enjoy using, just leave enough that still gives you purpose for enjoyment.

About 25 years ago my FIL then aged 76, had radical stomach cancer surgery, where his stomach and other parts of his intestines were removed. The tough old fella was balancing on a knife edge and very close to falling off for a long time. He and MIL sold the house and bought a small unit, sold all his tools and concentrated on his recovery. Miraculously, he gradually got fitter and fitter, got out of the unit and moved to a house with a shed but he had no tools! He then had to go through the ordeal of reequipping himself with cheap rubbish tools that he wouldn't have considered in his working days. He lasted 15 years after his operation and often warned me against prematurely disposing of my tools.
Cheers,
Geoff.

I will be dead I won't care

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Originally Posted by China

I will be dead I won't care

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The people who have to deal with it will wish you had cared, I have been through this problem several times over the years and I won't subject my family having to do it for me if it can be avoided.

Been through it myself 4 times, most relies will enjoy the process, they will learn more about you that they did when you were alive.

Dealing with both my Dads and FILs tools was the easy bit of the process. It was the non-tool stuff like the 156 (mostly empty) rusty coffee cans that we though we should open to check what was in there - mostly fixings and bits of wire or string, and the disposing of junk and unusable furniture that gave us some irrits. But China's right we learned a lot about the families this way.

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Originally Posted by BobL

Dealing with both my Dads and FILs tools was the easy bit of the process. It was the non-tool stuff like the 156 (mostly empty) rusty coffee cans that we though we should open to check what was in there - mostly fixings and bits of wire or string, and the disposing of junk and unusable furniture that gave us some irrits. But China's right we learned a lot about the families this way.

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I can't imagine that.

I remember reading on this forum, some years ago, a formite saying that when he passes he hopes his wife will sell his tools for what their worth, not what he told her he paid for them.

This is a great topic.
Pretty sure an entertaining book could be written about it.

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

This is a great topic.
Pretty sure an entertaining book could be written about it.

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I could write a few chapters on the deceased estates I attended on behalf of the mens shed and others.
Not sure about the entertainment value - some were pretty sad and sorry setups.
This was one of the saddest
Under the sander on the RHS - the metal bowl on that stool was his ash tray.
Attachment 478307

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Originally Posted by BobL

I could write a few chapters on the deceased estates I attended on behalf of the mens shed and others.
Not sure about the entertainment value - some were pretty sad and sorry setups.
This was one of the saddest
Under the sander on the RHS - the metal bowl on that stool was his ash tray.
Attachment 478307

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Judging by the saw dust he got plenty of work done.

Sent from my SM-A505YN using Tapatalk

The deceased may have thought his particular shed was just ACE.
You know, there are ear muffs, a fan, and a dust collector.
Plus he was smart enough not to throw his butts in the sawdust. That might start a fire.

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

The deceased may have thought his particular shed was just ACE.
You know, there are ear muffs, a fan, and a dust collector.
Plus he was smart enough not to throw his butts in the sawdust. That might start a fire.

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He probably thought his house was ACE too. His shed must have been too dusty as he used 2 of the bedrooms for sanding and finishing so his entire house was covered in a layer of fine dust. The deceased was in his late 60s and died of coronary complications. His family said it can't have been the dust or the smoking as his lungs were OK. Now we know that dust can affect your heart just as much as lungs.

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Originally Posted by BobL

He probably thought his house was ACE too. His shed must have been too dusty as he used 2 of the bedrooms for sanding and finishing so his entire house was covered in a layer of fine dust. The deceased was in his late 60s and died of coronary complications. His family said it can't have been the dust or the smoking as his lungs were OK. Now we know that dust can affect your heart just as much as lungs.

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Some folk just do not worry about dust at all. I remember copping many a ribbing from some of the older guys for wearing a paper type mask in the filthy patternshop of my apprenticeship. Was told that dust wont hurt you.
How about this old picture from Wittenoom of an asbestos shoveling competition.
Attachment 478319

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

You know, there are ear muffs, a fan, and a "dust collector."

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Yep. Its collecting dust all right :)


All the OH&S points covered off in this one picture.


IS THAT a circular saw mounted UPSIDE DOWN to act as a "table saw"?.......strewth!

I've let it be known that any of my heirs and descendants can choose whatever tools they want before it goes to one giant clearing sale. I think it's worthwhile cataloguing items like Japanese chisel sets, Veritas and Lie Nielsen planes etc. so they're not thrown into a box lot to be sold for sixpence.

My dad was not much of a woodworker so the only thing I have of his is a wooden handled awl. But every time I use it, I think of him. Same with a Stanley 112 Scraper plane given to me by an old mate from New York who gave it to me the last time I visited. He died last month but his memory lives on in this well worn tool.

Poignant memories...

mick

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Originally Posted by BobL

Now we know that dust can affect your heart just as much as lungs.

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???? More information please.

My two bobs worth. When someone dies, and they leave a shed full of gear and tools, go and change the locks and secure the shed as well as possible. Within a week of my old man passing, persons unknown, which Im certain were the next door neighbours, got into the shed and relieved it of any snd all of it’s contents that could be carried across the fence. In a week they took $90,000 worth of stuff, probably more than that because I only remembered some things after the claim was settled. The worst thing was the one of a kind stuff, like toys and models dad had made for us as kids, irreplaceable.

I’m at the other end of the timeline and just starting out on woodworking and personally i would love to have an experienced mentor who could teach me about different tools and techniques.

It may be really great for someone young in your area that you can potentially take under your wing. Teach them, help them grow and in the process sell them your tools


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My main concern is that my wife may sell my tools for what I told her I paid for them.:D

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Originally Posted by Lappa

???? More information please.

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https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...505-6/fulltext

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We estimated that long-term exposure to ambient PM2·5 caused 4·2 million deaths and 103·1 million lost years of healthy life in 2015, and exposure to ozone caused an additional 254 000 deaths. PM2·5 caused an estimated 7·6% of total global mortality in 2015 and was the fifth-ranking global mortality risk factor. Although global rates of mortality due to PM2·5 exposure decreased from 1990 to 2015 as a result of improved air quality in high-income countries and declining mortality rates for cardiovascular diseases, the absolute numbers of attributable deaths and DALYs increased as a result of increases in pollution and the absolute numbers of deaths from non-communicable diseases,

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I see it’s on air pollution and not specifically wood dust so to tie the guy’s death due to coronary disease to the wood dust in his shed ( which is what you seemed to imply) is a bit of a stretch hence my question.