The Leach Factor

A trip to Massachusetts for me now is not going to be complete without visiting the home of Patrick Leach. You may know Patrick from his monthly tool lists which contain a plethora of quality tools, including a couple of special categories for wooden and Stanley planes and the like.

Or possibly from his reproduction of the famous Stanley No.1 under the guise of the The Superior Works.

Then there's Patrick's Blood and Gore, his famous information overload regarding Stanley planes. Or perhaps you just remember the post I wrote about him the last time I was here in 2011. Here it is - Patternmakers Chest.

But which ever is the case, a visit sure makes for a fun afternoon and Patrick did not disappoint this time round either.

I had purchased a few tools here and there from previous tool lists and had asked Patrick to hang on to them rather than send them, as I knew that I would be here to collect them in person and what better excuse for a visit.

On arrival we were greeted with the view of a 'barn fresh' 1922 Buick sitting outside the garage. According to Mr. Leach, he is the second owner and from memory I think he said that it had done less than 25,000 miles. Pretty sweet eh?

The original green paint was terrific. What a great colour.

Got to love that tail light.

So down to business and I had a look over the things Patrick had put aside for me. A hatchet and set of number stencils made from copper sheet, a Millers Falls sharpening jig and a nice old Slick- cranked too!

A quick look around the rest of the tools and Pete asked if Patrick would mind showing Charlie the 'Inner Sanctum' to which Patrick readily obliged.  ( see above post for some insight ) While we were all collectively drooling at the museum quality pieces jammed in like sardines I spied something I hadn't seen last time. A canon.

in situ

Yup, you read it right. A canon. Sitting there, plane as day under the work bench. "What's the go with the canon Patrick?" "Oh that's just a Winchester canon, they made a ton of those things, drag it out."

Although only smallish in size, the little canon was a beautiful bit of work. Apparently they were made primarily as a starters canon to fire blanks and operate with a 10g shotgun shell blank.

" Oh what the hell, we didn't let off any crackers for the 4th, let's go and fire off that little b*#%@d!"

                                      

Need I say more :)