10/31/2023
We started off in the early summer of 2023 with an almost accidental purchase of an older blacksmith's barn. He was the son of a blacksmith who was the son of a blacksmith who was ... you get it. He was retiring and moving and yet had a two-level barn simply filled to the brim! He said it had to go. We offered cash for the entire barn and spent the next 3 weeks moving it all out!
What did we find? Vintage and antique treasure after treasure everywhere we looked! Boxes filled with old trinkets, 8 or 9 crates of old horseshoes, older electronics and games, vintage jewelry, artwork, lamps, unique furniture pieces, crystal and silver pieces, ceramics, pots, vases, and .... TOOLS!
Oh my, did we find tools! Axes, steel vices and clamps, wrenches, hand saws, knives, bottle jacks, vices, vintage plumbing supplies, old drawer pulls, pulleys, anvils, hand-cranked blowers and forges, old oil cans, gas cans, dozens of old hand files, woodworking tools, blacksmith tools of all shapes and sizes, leatherworking tools, handmade creations, and so much more - miscellaneous items that were too numerous to count!
Let's not forget the HAMMERS! Wow did we find hammers! Most were in buckets of scrap metal, rusted and neglected and destined for the dumpster had we not purchased them!
We've also discovered a love of restoring old tools, so most of our tool-related items will have been cleaned and removed of all rust along with liberal brushing by hand and on soft wire-wheel grinders and polishers, followed with linseed oil for wood handles and WD-40 Drylube to keep tools from rusting any further. The result is a collection of beautiful lightly restored vintage and antique tools that we're slowly bringing online little by little.
This eventually spawned into Facebook sales and eventually into our own Etsy shop, and what we've since found was an undiscovered love for older things - what we like to call our treasures or "Jems from Jamie"!
Our shop is currently an eclectic mix of things based on the fact that the barn contents we purchased were so varied. We've recently begun to supplement with treasures found at estate sales, online auctions, and goodwill/thrift sales. Now our collection vastly exceeds our listings, and we're in a constant race to clean, restore, and finally get these pieces online for you to see!
We're really proud of our new little shop and the items we are putting on it, and we have to gain momentum and visibility in the future so that we can continue to share more and more of the treasures we discover!!
