Yard Sales, Flea Markets and Antique Shops 2024

[42rocker]

Thoughts and Prayers for you and your Wife.

Later 42rocker

[Aragorn243]

Thank you, she's doing a lot better today. Made her own breakfast and is feeling a lot better. She'll have a fourth surgery which was surgery 2 on Friday. Until then, she has a drainage tube in her kidney and has a drip bag for it. No showers or baths until this is done so I hit Walmart today and got sponge bath, dry wash items for her. I also don't have to cook as it's Veterans Day and I get free meals all over the place. Applebee's already agreed to waive the dine in requirement for this evening also, just have to call our order in and pick it up which saves a big line and wait. Applebee's is five minutes from our house. The tube will come out after surgery, but she'll have a catheter in for a few days at least.

[Aragorn243]

I almost didn't go to the flea market today. They kept my wife in the hospital two nights after this surgery. But it was only a minor detour off the regular track, so I figured 15 minutes wasn't going to hurt anything. Only thing that caught my attention was this RAF Air Traffic Controllers helmet. One of those things you have to wonder how it would up in central Pennsylvania but here it is. I can find nothing online concerning them other than the instructional paper.

















About my wife, surgery is considered a success this time, but it is not the last one. She will have a 5th next Friday. This is beyond our wildest expectations, and we are not happy about it. I do understand it a bit better today as I was thinking they were talking millimeters, but they were talking centimeters. The damn thing was the size of a golf ball. Now there is a fragment left that is the size of a marble. They couldn't get all of it because the bleeding made it impossible to see to continue. They have to break it up and then bring it out a tube that a pea could fit through.

[browningautorifle]

About my wife

Good luck with all of that.

[Low & Slow]

Golf ball!? Geeze. My best to you both.

[Aragorn243]

Facebook group posted this about my helmet. Original is in Spanish but it translates pretty well.

casco brit?nico ATV

[Aragorn243]

Probably my last post for a while as deer season is the next three weekends, plus it's getting cold and not as many dealers are showing up. Today was the smallest I've seen so far this year. Still made out pretty well with canteens covers, cups and mess kits.

In other news, I started the restoration of the WWI training rifle, it's a tough bird. 3 attempts with gorilla glue to close the crack on the bottom. From the exterior its good but the interior just keeps splitting again as soon as I release the clamps. As the barrel fits in tight as it is, I'm going to epoxy the crack so it won't get worse. Then walnut plugs where needed.

1948 Pith Helmet, decent condition:









USA marked (first I've seen) 1954 AGM CO canteen



US 1945 MASSILLON AL CO canteen



US 1945 EA CO canteen



1952 Collett MFG CO canteen cover USMC marked (faint but on front)







US 1953 AS CO canteen cup



US 1953 MIRRO canteen



1942 JEFF QMD canteen cover





1945 US SM INC canteen



1963 COL MILPAR mess kit



Can't read a date but has to be WWII due to the color web belt.







This last is from APEX not the flea market. They claim it's a WWI Finnish shovel. No date so who knows. It is SA marked so Finnish. It came a mess of thick black paint and cosmoline. Of all the things I've cleaned up over the years, this was the worst, the black paint turned into a goo that stuck to everything. 5 coats of citristrip.

[Surpmil]

Interesting design. How wide is the inside portion of the grip? Looks like there is a reinforcing rivet through the grip? A washer on either end I'm guessing to inhibit splitting?

It's debatable which hand position is better for digging, but the one thing about grips like that is they pretty much rule out using the e-tool as a weapon or any one-handed slashing motion. Something like a wooden paddle grip might be the best compromise, but the shape is problematic from a splitting point of view.

I cleaned up a WWII P.37/39 entrenching tool recently that came from a garage sale. Someone had used it in the garden until the handle gave out, leaving the collar still stuck in the socket of the head. No name or date, but it has a good ring so well tempered and is clearly no heavier than it needs to be. Overall, I think it's a better concept than the typical miniature shovel e-tool for making a shell-scrape. In hard/frozen or rocky soil the ability to "chop" or "pick" and "drag" seems to be the most effective and the least energy-consuming movement

[Aragorn243]

Inside grip is pretty narrow. It's uncomfortable for me and I don't have huge hands. I could use it but it's tight. There is a reinforcing rivet with washers.

[Aragorn243]

Not motivated enough to go hunting this weekend so hit a couple of antique shops instead. Didn't find much, an IDF tool pouch of some sort that I can't figure out exactly what it's for. Possibly a rifle as they seem fairly common.

Same place had a WWII mess kit, galvanized steel which puts it in 1942 but I couldn't find a marking on it anywhere. After about an hour of looking at it and rubbing it at the house I did find a very faint mark I can't read nor can I match it to any known examples. The US is the only part that can be seen clearly and possibly an O or a C below the U. Might be one I haven't seen yet. I compared to Vollrath, TACU Co and Knapp Monarch but the letters don't line up even close. Markings do not show up at all in photos, even the US. Basically they are filled with the galvanized metal.

Last is a leather holster I had made for my little Austrian pistol. Met the guy at an arts and crafts festival a couple months ago and sent him some photos of original holsters. He finished it a couple of weeks ago but because of my wife's health issues, I couldn't pick it up until yesterday. He got it close. The brass pin isn't correct and I think the magazine pouch is to far forward but it looks nice and I don't plan on carrying it anyway. It's a little sloppier than I like, the magazine pouch area has some cuts and threads that are a bit awkward. For a one off, it's OK.

I've been waiting on a phone call about some bayonets at another shop, I guess I'll have to head up there this morning and see what's up. One's an Italian Vetterli I wouldn't mind having but this guy tends to be on the high side with most items but occasionally he's ridiculously low. Hoping for the later.