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Eskilstuna Mythical Properties
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Not wishing to restart the eternal woodworking debate regarding
the merits of being a collector versus a user, there is a sidebar
that has to be heeded when creating a research vehicle such
as the Lee Valley antique tool collection. Ephemera, whether
in print or other form, always seem to accrue. They could be
advertising, packaging, internal documents or products that
have been assembled by a previous avid collector. The following
three items are good examples of this practice and are part
of the permanent Lee Valley collection.
Eskilstuna is a small Swedish city with origins dating back
to the 12th century. By the 1700s, there was a flourishing metalworking
trade there. This industry became extremely important and allowed
for Eskilstuna to sometimes be compared to Sheffield, England,
and Solingen, Germany, as one of the great world producers of
quality steel during the 1800s. Cutlery and other edged items,
along with machine tools and firearms, were among the products
produced and shipped worldwide. Most important, the quality
of the Swedish iron ore and its lack of impurities gave the
raw steel manufacturers an almost two-step start in the race
to market their products.
Some woodworkers today have a desire to own and use chisels
made from fine Swedish steel. Brand names include Berg, ES Steel,
TECOmaster (an Eaton's brand here in Canada). This cult has
many similarities to the one that espouses the 1959 Sunburst
Gibson Les Paul as the pinnacle choice of an instrument for
any successful rock-and-roll musician. The early chisels had
handles made with birch root burl, which were extremely attractive.
This reverence for early edge tools, with their almost perfect
steel, is another long-standing tradition. There is no doubt
that some of today's modern steel formulations can replicate
or even exceed the performance of cutting tools from the past,
much as modern sound technology can recreate the older Les Paul
sound, yet there is something about using an older item that
has an unexplainable mystique. |
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