Great Old Photo

Jim Wooten

Jim Wooten

Just Me
Recently I was fortunate to obtain an interesting piece of Benchrest history, and thought some here might find it interesting as well. I bought a very early Benchrest book, "The Ultimate In Rifle Precision", authored by Harvey A. Donaldson, Townsend Whelen, and Frank Hubbard.

This book was presented by Harvey Donaldson to his brother Raymond Donaldson in 1949. It stayed in the family until now, and the owner was kind enough to include a photo of Harvey. To me this is a really interesting old photo that I hope you will enjoy as well.

Jim

HarveyADonaldsoncopy2.jpg
 
Jim ,
Great old photo( I love this stuff),thanks for sharing,
Looks like Harvey's basement( streaking light ray from above)and it's winter( heavy wool shirt and pants).Real slice of 1949 Americana( apologies to all my Canadian friends). Appears to be the average guy's basement workshop of the day(general assortment of tools,mostly wood oriented with a few taps on the wall,dies are probably in one of those drawers) The belt driven spindle machine appears to be some basic wood lathe( from the pile of shavings,dust,etc).Poor lighting(one worklight),nothing fancy.I'm not shure what he's doing,maybe shaping the cheekpiece on that sporter stock ? I don't see any chisles or gouges on the wall ? Probably just hiding from his old lady,in the basement ?
Joel
 
Butch,
You would know what a 1949 wood chisel looks like,that's a little before my time. :)
How 'bout the hand operated drill on the back wall.The cordless drill before the cord,before electricity !
Thanks for the stock making link. every thing looks so rough for so long before it gets beautiful. I Don't have that kind of patience. Gotta hand it to Duane. Wow !
Joel
 
Butch, as someone with ten uncoordinated thumbs the work by Mr Wiebe, and the engraver's work both amaze me. Great skill and beautiful work! Thanks for posting the URL.
 
Joel, This is Sharrett's first lathe. It is a Goodall Pratt.
35mh474.jpg

Does this look like the one on Donaldson's bench? It does belong to a friend. He needs to join this forum.
How do you like the Beaver that Duane roughs off all the wood? Scares 'ell out of me. Dad handed me tools in 1949.
Butch
 
Butch,
being scared is a good thing to be around machinery like that. Like so many guys I had to learn that the hard way. I guess the power for that lathe was whatever motor one had and an assortment of pullies and belts ?
Joel
 
Butch Lambert said:
Joel, This is Sharrett's first lathe. It is a Goodall Pratt.
35mh474.jpg

Does this look like the one on Donaldson's bench? It does belong to a friend. He needs to join this forum.
How do you like the Beaver that Duane roughs off all the wood? Scares 'ell out of me. Dad handed me tools in 1949.
Butch
Click to expand...


Note that this is not a cheap ChiCom knockoff. It is the real McCoy!

I used a much larger model of this lathe to turn and thread the prop shaft on Noah's Ark.
 
"Heavy wool shirt and pants...." TWO shirts and pants :) Must have been a bit snappish there, then. I like those old pictures, too, some nostalgia is good from time to time.
 
Workshop on the second floor ? Luxury !
Jerry, I was sucked in by the light ray. I do remember the old polaroid flash bulbs that would blind everybody in the room for about 10 seconds. The backsaw blade on the back wall has quite a light reflection bouncing off it ?
Hey,how do you know so much about Harvey's house? Is there something you're not telling us ? Did Mrs Donaldson make good pies ?
Joel
 
Nader said:
Workshop on the second floor ? Luxury !
Jerry, I was sucked in by the light ray. I do remember the old polaroid flash bulbs that would blind everybody in the room for about 10 seconds. The backsaw blade on the back wall has quite a light reflection bouncing off it ?
Hey,how do you know so much about Harvey's house? Is there something you're not telling us ? Did Mrs Donaldson make good pies ?
Joel
Click to expand...

And geat biscuits too...see me at Dublin and I will explain.
 
The photo that I liked in Precision Shooting was Homer Culver touching up the throat in his barrel between matches.

Some one really should put all these pictures on a web site i.e. Precision Shooting.

Glenn
 
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