New to me, but very old

I went to my parent's house to get a jointer that they had been storing for me, it was my grandpa's.  I will write another post on the jointer soon, but what else I received while there is what I am sharing now.

While Dad and I were working to get the jointer out of the garage Mom came out from the house with a old wooden hand plane and showed it to me. 

After moving boxes of canning jars we got to the jointer and pulled it out of the garage, then it was pointed out that a wooden box sitting next to the jointer was my Great-Grandpa's tool box. I moved a few more things and peaked inside.

The tools inside belonged to my Great-Grandpa, but there is one saw in there that was his Dad's, and one that was my Grandpa's. I was thrilled when Mom and Dad said I could have the toolbox and the tools. When I got home I took all the tools out to study them more and make note of any markings I could find on them so I could try and see how old these tools are. 

 The lower saw was my Great-Great-Grandpa's and the one above that one was my Grandpa's

 The larger of the two planes and the one picture above were both made by Scioto Works, which was a company owned by Ohio Tool Company, and were produced between 1893 and 1907.

 The smaller of these two was made by the New York Tool Company. On the side of it is stamped "Boston Navy Yard Oct. 1870".  So I believe that this tool is around 142 year old.

 Here are two saws that were Great Grandpa's.

 I plan on getting some brass tags made for each tool to mark who it belonged to.  I also am going to be doing some more research about these tools.

A little back story

As a kid and even still I watch wood working shows on TV with dreams of being able to build my own furniture instead of buying it. Norm Abrams on The New Yankee Workshop always made it look so easy. My passion to build furniture is still fueled by some of the magazines I read that are full of large bookcases, and entertainment centers that would look great in our house. We would rather have furniture made from real wood, and not particle board with plastic veneer.

Previously most of wood working experience has been using construction grade materials to build outdoor furniture. I have done some carving but not much beyond tiki pole looking faces, and I have attempt some other small projects that failed.

Back in the fall of 2009 there was a book case in The Family Handyman magazine that my wife and I like and she wanted me to build. For Christmas that year she got a Kreg Jig Jr with the plan being me building the bookcase. Well the idea of building a bookcase from $400 worth of material scared me away figuring I would mess up and have $400 worth of scraps.

Since then I have been trying to find good projects to practice on. I've built some simple projects in the shop for my 3 year old daughter to use, and recently finished a shoe cabinet (more to come in a future post).

I have most basic hand power tools and am working at adding other tools needed for this hobby. I got myself a miter saw during the black Friday sale at Lowes, and have some of my grandfather's wood working tools that I can use. I recently started working on tuning up Grandpa's band saw. I am looking forward to learning more and trying my hand at making some more traditional joining methods (mortise and tendons, and hand cut dove tails).

So that's a little history of my wood working experience and where I want to go.