AKC
Really? Must I? OK...
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Messages
- 9,653
Jus' takin' a cue from Vanguard41xx (and others)....
Let me backstory a bit here - When Alice and I moved out of the trailer 3 years ago, we left behind a couple of "battleship" desks, you know the ones I'm talking about - grey, steel, weigh about the same as their namesake. One was a semi-outdoor workbench and was pretty thrashed when I got it, but it was free and I didn't feel too badly about leaving it. The other was in really good shape, and was Alice's desk for quite some time. It was really tightly wedged into the nook in the kitchen where it sat, cost $15 when I got it and like the other one, I just didn't feel like moving it.
Once we got into the new place, we still needed a desk for Alice so I perused CL and found a nice Heywood Wakefield in decent shape for about $300. Ran out and picked it up, brought it home and put it in the little addition. I could tell from her initial reaction that it wasn't being met with boundless joy. But there it was. And it is a classic piece of furniture....
Fast forward to last Friday, and Alice casually mentions that she really wished she had her old desk back. Well, the trailer is long gone, ain't gettin' that one back....
What's a hubby to do? I could try to scrounge one here on the base, but they're actually getting to be few and far between. So he hops on CL and sees what's out there....
Ran across a couple, kinda far away, a little pricey and the condition was questionable. And I just wasn't seeing anything else that was happenin'....
Then I ran across an ad, a battleship desk in putty instead of grey with a matching hutch, all in decent shape. In Ventura. $150.00 for the setup. (My my, how times have changed!) I call the guy, he still has it, so I go to check it out. Nice young couple, bought a place that's about 2 notches above a scraper. They want to keep it, but it just didn't scale well with the rooms. They had paid about $200.00 from OfficeWorld (a now defunct business in Ventura) about 7 years ago, so they were pretty firm on the price. And it was fair. I knew I wasn't going to do any better so I went ahead and did it.
Got the two pieces loaded up in the 4Runner, took them home, emptied out the other desk and got this one moved in and setup (by myself!
) totally surprised Alice with it and she's stoked! Happy wife= happy life 
I had noticed that they seemed to be into mid-century modern stuff, and mentioned to Josh that I had the Heywood Wakefield at home, would he be interested? Sure, send me some pics he said. This was Saturday evening, so after getting it put in my room, I snapped a couple and fired them off. He gets back to me, says it looks good, what did I want? I figgered $250.00 was fair, and so did he.
It's now SuperBowl Sunday, neither of us are fans, so I loaded up the H-W and took it over there, got my $150.00 back + $100.00. Funny how things work out sometimes....
So right about now, you're going "What on Earth does any of this have to do with Traditional knives and Vanguard41xx, and what the heck is he rambling on about?"
Well, a desk requires something to sit on, so I was back on CL a little today looking for a chair. I could snag one out here, but they're all pretty fancy and Alice wants something simple and armless.
Ran across an ad for a second-hand shop I had never heard of before, just up the road in Oxnard. It was lunchtime, so I thought I'd run up there and take a look-see. Didn't find a chair, and there were a few cool items, some junk, and then I spotted some knives.... uh-oh!.... I'm supposed to be behaving.... 
....
I looked through them and this is what I ended up with;
Lessee', a Camillus Cub Scout, a Hammer Brand shell serpentine jack, a couple of Mystery knives and an Imperial Dodge/Plymouth "Key-Jack", all in good shape.
And a bunch of Mexican coins (I'm trying to fill a Mason jar as if a cowpoke had been traveling up and down through the United States/Central/South America. Silly, I know. I started out looking for just OLD coins, but that can get expensive quick. And it's hard to get many from South America, don't know why. Although I do have to give props to my sister for giving me an 1866 Maximilian silver piece)
I had seen a bunch of the items that Vanguard and others had run across and decided if I ran across similar items to add a few to the mix. The guys were willing to deal, so I got a pretty good price on the whole lot.
Thanks for putting up with the ramble, it did have a point. I think.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some joints to oil. While looking for a chair....
Let me backstory a bit here - When Alice and I moved out of the trailer 3 years ago, we left behind a couple of "battleship" desks, you know the ones I'm talking about - grey, steel, weigh about the same as their namesake. One was a semi-outdoor workbench and was pretty thrashed when I got it, but it was free and I didn't feel too badly about leaving it. The other was in really good shape, and was Alice's desk for quite some time. It was really tightly wedged into the nook in the kitchen where it sat, cost $15 when I got it and like the other one, I just didn't feel like moving it.
Once we got into the new place, we still needed a desk for Alice so I perused CL and found a nice Heywood Wakefield in decent shape for about $300. Ran out and picked it up, brought it home and put it in the little addition. I could tell from her initial reaction that it wasn't being met with boundless joy. But there it was. And it is a classic piece of furniture....
Fast forward to last Friday, and Alice casually mentions that she really wished she had her old desk back. Well, the trailer is long gone, ain't gettin' that one back....
What's a hubby to do? I could try to scrounge one here on the base, but they're actually getting to be few and far between. So he hops on CL and sees what's out there....
Ran across a couple, kinda far away, a little pricey and the condition was questionable. And I just wasn't seeing anything else that was happenin'....
Then I ran across an ad, a battleship desk in putty instead of grey with a matching hutch, all in decent shape. In Ventura. $150.00 for the setup. (My my, how times have changed!) I call the guy, he still has it, so I go to check it out. Nice young couple, bought a place that's about 2 notches above a scraper. They want to keep it, but it just didn't scale well with the rooms. They had paid about $200.00 from OfficeWorld (a now defunct business in Ventura) about 7 years ago, so they were pretty firm on the price. And it was fair. I knew I wasn't going to do any better so I went ahead and did it.
Got the two pieces loaded up in the 4Runner, took them home, emptied out the other desk and got this one moved in and setup (by myself!
) totally surprised Alice with it and she's stoked! Happy wife= happy life I had noticed that they seemed to be into mid-century modern stuff, and mentioned to Josh that I had the Heywood Wakefield at home, would he be interested? Sure, send me some pics he said. This was Saturday evening, so after getting it put in my room, I snapped a couple and fired them off. He gets back to me, says it looks good, what did I want? I figgered $250.00 was fair, and so did he.
It's now SuperBowl Sunday, neither of us are fans, so I loaded up the H-W and took it over there, got my $150.00 back + $100.00. Funny how things work out sometimes....
So right about now, you're going "What on Earth does any of this have to do with Traditional knives and Vanguard41xx, and what the heck is he rambling on about?"
Well, a desk requires something to sit on, so I was back on CL a little today looking for a chair. I could snag one out here, but they're all pretty fancy and Alice wants something simple and armless.
Ran across an ad for a second-hand shop I had never heard of before, just up the road in Oxnard. It was lunchtime, so I thought I'd run up there and take a look-see. Didn't find a chair, and there were a few cool items, some junk, and then I spotted some knives.... uh-oh!
.... I'm supposed to be behaving.... ....I looked through them and this is what I ended up with;
Lessee', a Camillus Cub Scout, a Hammer Brand shell serpentine jack, a couple of Mystery knives and an Imperial Dodge/Plymouth "Key-Jack", all in good shape.
And a bunch of Mexican coins (I'm trying to fill a Mason jar as if a cowpoke had been traveling up and down through the United States/Central/South America. Silly, I know. I started out looking for just OLD coins, but that can get expensive quick. And it's hard to get many from South America, don't know why. Although I do have to give props to my sister for giving me an 1866 Maximilian silver piece
)I had seen a bunch of the items that Vanguard and others had run across and decided if I ran across similar items to add a few to the mix. The guys were willing to deal, so I got a pretty good price on the whole lot.
Thanks for putting up with the ramble, it did have a point. I think.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some joints to oil. While looking for a chair....
