Selections from the 1948 Union Hardware and Supply Catalog By Mister Jalopy

BLAST F PR_AO M_ST H_TE

Old catalog provides glimpse of how modern civilization was built without laser levels or pneumatic nail guns.

THE POST-WORLD WAR II ECONOMIC BOOM in Los Angeles required tools and materials to meet the latent demand for everything from housing to airplanes. Union Hardware sold it all. The 1948 Union Hardware and Metal Supply Catalog is a wonderfully illustrated peek into how things were done yesterday. Though some of the tools seem quaint, like a butter churn, there are some great ideas that are still applicable today.

Vaughan Vanadium Ripping Hammer

Certainly an elegant-looking hammer with the octagonal neck and white hickory handle, but what is vanadium? Thanks to Wikipedia, we learn the element vanadium (V, atomic number 23) is added to steel to create a rust-resistant alloy. And what about the wax hole? When hammering a nail into hardwood, the wood will sometimes split instead of yielding to the nail. Not surprisingly, there is an elegant old-world trick to avoid this problem: lubricate the nail with beeswax. Clever! As soon as I saw this picture, I immediately drilled a hole in a hammer handle to create a handy wax reservoir.

Hammer with beeswax reservoir, ¹⁹⁴⁸..............................................$3.00 Today’s dollars......................................................................... $23.51 VANADIUM, HICKORY HANDLE HAMMERS ARE AVAILABLE TODAY.

Barnes Junior Mini-Hacksaw

Instead of trying to unscrew a ridiculously corroded galvanized pipe elbow, professional plumbers will often gently cut the offending pipe off with a close quarter saw. With patience and attention, you can remove the old component without damaging the threads on the underlying pipe. I can’t tell you how many pipes I have broken off in the wall before my hometown’s best plumber gave me the killer tip. (Thanks, John!) I should have asked years ago. The trick is the very thin, very hard, and very sharp blade that makes a regular hacksaw look quite crude in comparison.

Mini-hacksaw, ¹⁹⁴⁸..................................................................$0.41 Today’s dollars......................................................................... $3.21 AVAILABLE: $10.15 LENOX CLOSE QUARTER SAW FROM amazon.com

180 Make: Volume 08