Welcome

Rocky Mountain Tool Collectors (RMTC) is a regional club incorporated in Colorado as a non-profit corporation. There are no specific geographical boundaries; however, its regional character is intended to make communications among its members easy.

The purpose is to promote the collection, restoration, study, and understanding of the tools of early trades and crafts and to share this understanding with interested people and institutions.  Members’ interests cover all areas and trades, from carpenter & cooper to wainwright & wheelwright. Some members specialize in collecting tools of one trade, or even one brand of tool, while some have collections that are more general in nature. But having a collection is not a requirement for membership; all you need is an interest in old tools.

Colorado RMTC meeting: May 21st

May 21st, 2023

Smokey Hill Library
5430 S Biscay Circle Centennial Co 80015

Hosts: Tom Wiersema, Steve Gosselin,Buz Engleman and Phil Aumiller                                                      

12:00 Meet – Greet – Lying – Buying – Selling
2:00 Business meeting
2:15  Presentation: Don Burd: “ You Too Can Give a Presentation” 
3:00  Auction: Members tools, Donated tools
4:45  Pack Up & Skedaddle

Directions to meeting location:

From Northern Colorado:
Take I-25 South
Use RIGHT lanes to EXIT 228 for E-470 toward DIA Airport/Limon
Continue onto E-470 S/Colorado E470 S (35 miles)
Take EXIT 10 toward E Smokey Hill Rd
Keep RIGHT at fork, follow signs for Smokey Hill Rd -merge onto E Smokey Hill Rd
Follow E Smokey Hill Rd to your destination in Centennial (3.3 miles)
Destination will be on your right.

From Southern Colorado:
Take I-25 North to Aurora
Take Exit 10 from Colorado E470 N
Follow E Smokey Hill Rd to your destination in Centennial
Destination will be on your right.

Next New Mexico RMTC meeting will be held at the home of Jason Fink, June 3rd 2023.

Feb 25th RMTC Meeting

Photos from our February meet up! We had 8 members attend the first Albuqurque meeting n over 2 years. Write-up to follow in the newsletter…

Michael and Dave talk wood and Ken examines some miniature Snap-On tool chests on Dave’s sale table.

Ken and Dave in Dave’s shop space.

When Number ones all come out to play.

Scott ponders Theodolites vs. Transits

Connie and Dave looking at Ken’s ultra rare transitional Sanford Patent!

History of the Labor Day Annual Meeting

This is a scan of Bill McDougall’s history of the RMTC/SWTCA Joint Labor Day Meeting

2023 Annual RMTC Meeting

Celebrating 48 years of tool collecting.

September 9 2023
Locations being scouted.

• Early morning tailgating in the parking lot
• Tons of tools for sale inside, many never before seen
• Demonstrations, door prizes, and displays
• Saturday evening banquet, awards ceremony, and presentations
• Spectacular tool auction on Sunday

For more info:

„ see RMTC website at http://www.rmtc.org/

„ contact Tom Wiersema at twiersema@hotmail.com

„ Or contact any RMTC board members

All tool collecting clubs welcome

For more info contact: Jason Fink

A John Gilmore Display

A John Gilmore Display with sawsets

Spokeshaves, Scrapers and Beaders…

A Stanley Display by…

John Walters cover revisited…

John Walters cover revisited by Larry Haas

Making the deal

Cliff Fales Screwdrive Display

A Cliff Fales Display

Mystery Solved! by Steve Gosselin

Recently on a snowy December day when there wasn’t much going on, I went through my box of tool projects. It’s a box of incomplete, unloved, and sometime interesting tools. Some of the tools end up there on Sunday evening after a meeting because I don’t have time mess with them .That day I pulled out a wooden ship builders bevel ,user made , out of Mahogany I think. What interested me in the first place was the tool was signed in two places with the name, Alpheus H. Brooks Elliot. It was in ink done with a neat cursive writing. Who was so proud of this tool he had to sign it twice?

I typed the name into the computer and pressed enter. I was greeted with several Brooks Elliot’s as well as the” Elliot “Scottish web site. Elliot is a big clan I guess. No mention of an Alpheus though. I tried Alpheus by its self, no luck. Finally after many combinations I tried ‘Alpheus H. Brooks’ and was rewarded for my efforts. I was able to find an ’Alpheus H. Brooks’, born in 1810, and he was listed in the 1850 census as a carpenter living in Eliot, Maine, married with two children. I contacted the Eliot historic society and found out that in the early years many people spelled the town name Elliot as well as Eliot (the correct spelling).   I also learned the in 1860 census listed Alpheus as a ships carpenter. Eliot is across the river from Portsmouth, New Hampshire and at that time was a busy ship building center.   By the 1870 census, Alpheus had remarried, having lost his first wife, and he and his son, Alpheus B. Brooks were both listed as ships carpenters.