Alex Primmer, a few words about myself

I first came into contact with antique tools when I left school and I was looking around for work during my gap year. The great plan was to spend a year working before going on to university. A good friend, Mike Hancock, (former partner in The Tool Shop and now of Classic Hand Tools fame) asked me to help out at an auction. Having never been involved in any auction houses before, I did not realize what I was letting myself in for! 5 hours, 1200 lots, and one bad back later I had just experienced my first Tool auction. It was absolute mayhem, but it was strangely enjoyable in a sadistic way.

Rather amazingly it did not put me off, and I continued to work for Mike Hancock and Tony Murland, taking on more responsibilities by the day. Within a short period of time I had become Auction manager, whether or not this was by default I do not know, most other mugs had ran a mile-they must of seen me coming!

Whilst Tony and Mike wrote the catalogues for the auctions, I did all the photography including this year’s International Sale that was held in July. I jumped at the opportunity to do the photographs, as I had been interested from a young age –like ‘my old man’
in photography.

I also started to take an active role in their website. Every week there would be a number of tools posted. My job firstly was to clean the tools so that I could photograph them and then be given descriptions for each tool. Once I had all the information on the tools then I would load them onto the website. This is where I really started to learn about whats what in the antique tool world. I saw the whole process through by packing up what had been sold. The website side of things was the most interesting and enjoyable for me as I got to learn about the tools.

By this time I had decided to forget about university as I had realized I was learning a trade that no university or college could give me. It was a strange realization for me as without consciously knowing it I had been learning, something that I did not particularly enjoy during my schooling years. For this I am very grateful to Tony and Mike and all at The Tool Shop.

During the Spring and Summer months there was a busy show schedule that Mike used to do. I would accompany him on most trips around the country selling a mixture of new and used tools. The shows were very hard work, but we soon learnt how to party just as hard. If I had loaded and unloaded one Ford Transit of tools and tables I must have done a thousand!

The new venture that we both set out on was to create a web site that could sell antique tools whilst creating a meeting place for tool enthusiasts, and making it as informative and interesting as we could possibly make it.

Please join us in our adventures!

Alex Primmer