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Your oldest domestic tool

The Baron

The Baron

master brummie
What is the longest serving domestic tool you use around the home?
fridge, tv, lawnmower or what.
We have a fridge (GEC COLDSPACE) still on good working order after 47 year, I purchased it from the old GEC MAGNET CLUB SHOP Witton back in 1962. Its now used as my extra beer store LOL:D
 
I occasionally use a butter curler which is said to have come from the The Ponsonby Arms in Llangollen, North Wales over 100 years ago, when the present day pub was still an inn.
..... and a Morphy Richards toaster which was given to my mother and father as a wedding present on 17th February, 1946. db84124
 
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I think we should treat different appliances differently!

I still use a 1973 HMV portable TV in the kitchen.
And a 1972 Bush radio.
In the living room I use a 1982 colour TV with a Freeview box.
In the living room I also use a 1975 Pioneer stereo receiver (it is on most of the time).
And the computer I use the most is a 1995 Dell Pentium with Windows 95.

Can anyone beat these?

Regards

Paul
 
I have an Edwardian wind-up whisk; it's better, easier and speedier to use than any modern, electrical gadget. It has a lovely 'turned' wooden handle too. I always enjoy using it, it has such a smoooooth action.
 
I have thing for sharpening knives on that, as a part of a carving set, was a wedding present to my grandparents in 1906. Still works very well, though the knife disintegrated many years ago and the carving fork I don't use.
Mike
 
hello all
I have a blacksmith made 18/19 th C, hedge hook which I use every year for pruning and cutting back tall weed growth on the bottom of my garden I was given it some 20yr's ago by an elderly friend who used our local pub he was in his 80's and he believed his great grandfather used it on the land, and it was old when he got it. It works wonderfully.
paul
 
I cannot claim ancient tools from before I was born, but I do have a small yellow plastic-handled screwdriver with a reversible metal shaft that works for slot headed screws or cross-head screws.
It's about 7 inches long and I bought it in 1955. It seems to undo almost every screw I try it on except, of course, the tiniest ones.

I don't understand why it seems to fit every screwhead, as other drivers seem to be quite choosy about the head size of screws they will tackle without burring them but this one is like a terrier - it's modest in size but it'll have a go at anything.

I don't think I have found an instance yet where it has failed to undo a tight screw and then I have gone on to finish the job with another driver. If the yellow-handled one won't do it, then nothing will. It must be something about the size and grip of the handle and the dimensions of the slot and star shaped ends. I think it cost me one shilling and threepence so it's the best 6p I ever spent.
 
A Bread Saw can't think how old it could be, I use it every week I've had it since 1980 and it wasn't new and is still in its box.

Nobody in the house can use it, they use a modern one when they can be bothered to slice Bread:)
 
A panel saw I bought from Lewis's !! in 1968.
Used it ever since, but not too often these days.
Phil...:)
 
The Baron said:
What is the longest serving domestic tool you use around the home?
fridge, tv, lawnmower or what.
We have a fridge (GEC COLDSPACE) still on good working order after 47 year, I purchased it from the old GEC MAGNET CLUB SHOP Witton back in 1962. Its now used as my extra beer store LOL:D
Click to expand...

I've been toting-up how many fridges I've had since I inherited my first, an old fridge belonging to my parents, which was twenty years old when I got it...and it lasted me a further fifteen years. Since its demise, I've got through four fridges and three freezers! And that's within the time-scale of the original 'second hand' fridge! And we call it 'progress'...:(
 
Well, let me see.....it has been with me since I was born. It works just as good today as it did then, although for a different purpose these days. It is about five and a half inches long. Its very well used but still looks pretty good. It is plain, nothing special compared to some I have seen. It is a perfect fit in tight places. Its my christening spoon. I use it for mustard jars, silly, what did you think I was talking about?............honestly, you people!
 
I have the cutlery,dustpan/brush, pedal bin,fruit bowls,teas maid, numerous small things,that were bought by my mom and mother
in law for bottom drawer, 71/72 large things however in recent years have been replaced, because they broke,not because of
updating
 
A box radio made by Pye which I have had since 1956, bought at an electrical shop in Icknield St. Plus a kneeling pad given to me by my step mother in 1960 when she helped herself to it from the Tax Office in town where she was a cleaner. It still has Her majesty's property stamped into the rubber.
 
maggs said:
A box radio made by Pye which I have had since 1956, bought at an electrical shop in Icknield St. Plus a kneeling pad given to me by my step mother in 1960 when she helped herself to it from the Tax Office in town where she was a cleaner. It still has Her majesty's property stamped into the rubber.
Click to expand...
My stuff seems relatively new compared to your things,the kneeling pad that's incredible, do you think its valuable,i have a little ornament that my mother in law gave me,just sitting on the side and recently found out its worth £500
 
I bet none of it is valuable Liz. I like the sound of the ornament that your mother in law gave you though. Now that's worth having. Is it a well know make?
 
We,ve just had to replace our washing machine it,s finally give up on us, it still worked but it was leaking from underneath flooding the kitchen floor
we,ve had it nearly 27 years.
i,ve been looking for the garantee,to phone to see if it is still covered.
happy days regards Dereklcg
 
Hello Liz, I know what you mean about being able to enjoy it more not knowing the value. Now you are afraid to dust it I should think. I like the Hummel figurines. Wonder why your mum in law only had the one.
 
I have an electric Ferranti radio which was a wedding present to my mom on her marriage in 1939:)

(Still works brilliantly.)

Suzanne
 
My wife still uses a fret saw I bought from Woolies on Aston Cross,c1947.
I don't mind my wife using my fret saw,but she is not allowed to touch my wok,which is only 25 years old.:rolleyes:
 
maggs said:
Hello Liz, I know what you mean about being able to enjoy it more not knowing the value. Now you are afraid to dust it I should think. I like the Hummel figurines. Wonder why your mum in law only had the one.
Click to expand...
My mother in law worked as a cleaner in a small apartment block,one of the ladies who lived there used to chat to her,and she had her apartment redecorated, she came out one day with a small box of bric a brac and asked if my mom would like it as it didn't suit
any more,she was jewish, and told mom her parents had fled here in the war, they were restricted as to what they brought with them
this figurine was small and reminded them of home so they brought it,she had never really liked it, but kept it all those years because it was her moms,i think she thought because mom was a cleaner she was grateful for anything,lol,mom didn't like to appear rude so took it even though she didn't like it,so it was given to me,sadly mom passed away a few years ago and never
knew her little bit of bric a brac was worth a few hundred pound
 
Yes of course there were a few things in the box,i still have all of them,bit of a hoarder lol
 
The oldest thing l have in my kitchen is older than me....it is moms can opener ....she bought it for threehappence in 1929, l still use it and it has lasted well, it has a wooden handle and its the kind of can opener one has to make a hole in the can first to fit the" cutter" in, but its mainly used now to open bottle caps, who knows it maybe worth than threehappence now...Brenda
 
Brenda I remember them gosh fancy still having it after all this time,you had to bang it into the can quite hard as i recall,and the other side as you say was a bottle opener
 
Liz glad somebody knows what i'm talking about, the main reason l'm not able to open a can with the opener anymore is my "umph",has kinda wained, and one needs a lot of it to put a hole in a can...l guess it could be called a genuine antique now, the can opener not me...brenda
 
brenda barr said:
Liz glad somebody knows what i'm talking about, the main reason l'm not able to open a can with the opener anymore is my "umph",has kinda wained, and one needs a lot of it to put a hole in a can...l guess it could be called a genuine antique now, the can opener not me...brenda
Click to expand...
:)That is so funny because i was thinking its hard to open cans with them,it hurts your hands
so clearly my umph has gone,i have a turn thing one,i believe you can get electric,i certainly
can't cope with the ring pulls,:rolleyes:
 
My mom's 'thingy' for cutting crinkle cut chips. I think that it was old in the 1960's when she picked it up at a jumble sale. I moved to Belgium, the Belgians invented chips but they'd never seen crinkle cut chips before, and on a visit to Brum I took it back home with me. Now my daughter was fascinated by my weird chips so 20 years ago she 'borrowed' my cutter. Today it is still in her possession and it looks like being passed down to my grand kids & who knows g. g. kids!:)
 
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