I have a couple of items to share with you today on our Throw Back Thursday - Patriot Picking.

I came up with this great old oil can a few weeks back. It had a great look to it and was in really good shape, as a matter of fact, so good that is still has oil in it.

The can has this great long neck on it that is in good condition. All of the caps are on the can and it has a great patina. The oil can is from the M&O RR Co.

M&O Railroad Co was chartered in 1848 and was planned to run from Mobile, Alabama to Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois.

Times had been bad for the economy in the Mobile area during the panic of 1837. In an effort to bring more commerce to the area, the railroad for formed to give a way to transport items to the gulf and ship it out from there.

In 1852 the first section was opened between Mobile and Citronelle Alabama. By April 22, 1861 it had made it to Columbus, Kentucky where material was loaded and off loaded to steamboats and then connected with the Illinois Central Railroad.

The start of the Civil War caused the railroad to be converted to mostly military use with both confederate and union armies using the railway. The Civil War was hard on the railroad and a most of it had to be rebuilt after the war. It was in financial ruin with the confederate government owing 5,228,562.00 and caused the railroad to be placed into receivership in 1875. It took more than eight years for it to pull itself out.

Although it was in receivership, they continued to work toward finishing the railroad and on May 1, 1882 to extension to Cairo was completed. The railroad continued to expand and even acquired the St. Louis to Cairo railroad.

In 1901 the M&O stockholders agreed to a Stock Exchange plan with Southern Railroad. M&O Continued to operate under the Southern Railroad name.

Southern Railroad sold its bonds to M&O in 1940 to Gulf Mobile Northern Railroad.

I was pretty excited to add this to my collection of vintage/antique oil cans.

This is another great tool I ran across recently. Another picker found this and contacted me. I told him to get it and bring it for me to see since I was not getting around much yet. He brought it and I was excited when I looked it up to see what he located.

This is a Stanley No.198 Honer tool.

I started going through the Stanley Tool catalogs I have and found that this neat little tool was only made between 1936 and 1942. I haven't found any documentation as to why it was dropped but my opinion would be due to the war. With the effort to conserve metal and use as much for military use as possible, then product lines would be looked at hard and trimmed to items that would make the company the most money. But hey that is just my opinion.

Of the catalogs I have, the 1939 was the first one I found it listed.

This one is in great shape with most all of the japanning still intact. What really surprised me was the rarity of this little tool. All of the websites I found it listed on considered it very rare.

It is stamped on the back that it is made in the USA and you press down on the lever and the jaws will open for you to slide in a blade.

Here is one of the listings I found on eBay for a Stanley No.198 Honer.

This is a true treasure to add to my collection. Just goes to show, you have to always keep your eyes open to what is out there. A small piece that you may think is nothing may be the piece that turns out to be that treasure piece you have been looking for.

Who would have ever thought a paint scraper would be a rare tool?

Thanks for reading and share your treasures with us.

Till next week we will be out Patriot Picking!

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John Moody
Site Administratorhttp://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com
“Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.†Shaker Saying

John, is that about a quart?

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

Wow what a tool, I always wondered how they scraped paint in the old days

That oil can looks cool too.

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Ron yes it is about a quart size.

Ron Dudelston said:

John, is that about a quart?

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

Reminds me of my Grandpa Lew:

At the time he died, he had 54 years on a Railroad he called "darn Tiresome, & Inconvinient"

Started out as a section hand, made all the way to a foreman of section hands, which he called "Dagos Tramps & irishmen"

If you wanted to know the EXACT time, he would tell to the second what time is was.   

People in Quincy, Ohio could even set their clocks by watching Lewis walk home every night.    Same exact time

One of his ways of getting around was the old pump wagon, the kind where four men would push a handle up and down to move along the rails.    When Grandpa lew was killed at Morgan Tower in Quincy, he was trying to get that new-fangle gas powered speeder car to start.   It did, and with a lurch, the car flew across the diamond at the tower.    There was a CCC& StL "Big Four Passenger train cruising along at 80mph at the same time....

The Railroad he worked for?   The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton RR.    At one time, old Henry Ford himself owned that road.

Dad worked there for awhile, as a Fireman.   He said he had shoveled coal from Ironton by the OHIO river, all the way to Flatrock MI.   He was SO glad when the railroad bought stokered engines.     His last assignment was on deisel switchers as the DT&I was onverting from steam power in the mid fifties.    Then Dad got a job as a mechanic.  

Just a little bit of my history....

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Planer? I'm the 'planer', and these are what I use...