In my endless pursuit of economy (aka, being cheap), there are a couple of thrift stores I visit on a regular basis. The main thing I’m looking for when I go there are old cameras, since I collect and use them. But I also look for tools and furniture and other interesting things.

The normal source for thrift store merchandise is the generosity of people. Or, in other words, it’s a way for people to get rid of the stuff they just don’t want or need anymore. It’s a favourite dumping ground for the contents of deceased relatives’ houses. It’s the likely terminal location for almost every CRT television ever made. And sometimes some surprising things end up there.

Like the contents of someone’s workshop.

Near where I live, there is a Habitat for Humanity store. They accept donated building supplies from all kinds of sources, apparently, including retailers and construction companies. I’ve gone in and seen almost enough door hardware to do an entire school, for instance. Any day of the week, I can go there and get heavy duty hinges for almost nothing. They also end up with a lot of new light fixtures, doors, cabinet hardware, plumbing supplies, and so on. They are a regular thrift store for construction material.

Anyway, they accept donated goods from the general population, too, so they end up with various household items and furniture and sometimes some pretty good tools.

I went there a week or so ago and was astounded to see laid out on the floor the entire selection of tools from someone’s workshop.

The tools themselves were not the most expensive ones you can get but the selection more than made up for it. And I don’t think I got to see all of them. The lot consisted of radial arm saw, small table saw, contractor’s table saw, chop saw, tile saw, bench grinder, bench band saw, scroll saw, shop vac, small dust collector, router table, drill press, motorcycle lift, pressure washer, and there was evidence that there had been more. Some of it had already been purchased.

Thrift stores end up as repositories for all kinds of useful things and it’s great that other people get to find the true value of these old goods rather than just building up the landfill. But in the case of something like a workshop, when you see it all laid out there like that, it kind of brings to mind your own mortality, since it looks a bit like your own life there on the floor.

Those tools are not exactly like what I have, but they are essentially the same. So, that’s what becomes of the stuff I’ve spent so much time and money and thought and effort to get? You can get a bit sentimental. You can feel a bit of kinship with the person who owned those tools. You know that he didn’t give them up on his own.

At some point, we were all the same. So, as you look through the saws and sawdust, tip your hat to the fallen woodworker. Hope that he held the chisel in his hand until the very end, that his last stroke was a finishing touch, that he left no part unsanded, and that all his glue will hold forever. Because we’ll all get there someday.