Thin Man
01-15-2021, 01:04 PM
Yesterday a long time friend caught up with me to show off his father's handloading tool. He wanted to learn about it - what it could or not do, how it operated and so forth. He handed me a very old cardboard box that had a hefty weight to it. Inside that box was a tong style tool bearing the name Modern-Bond. It had all the appearance of an Ideal tong tool but was half again larger in every direction - height, width and depth. Must have weighed 4 pounds! Made from all brass, there were stations for case sizing, bullet seating, primer installation, and another feature I could not readily identify. This must have been a generic loading tool that could accept dies for various calibers as it did not have a mold block on it.
The tool was a bit covered with antique debris and small carboard crumbles, had not been wiped down in forever. His father passed away in about 1966 and no one had used the tool since that time but still kept it in the family. There were no signs of abuse or wear on the tool and even the rollmarks were as crisp as when it was made. He mentioned he was going to a local gun show this weekend hoping to learn more about. NO, it was not for sale (he made that statement before I could inquire...). A relic from a long ago time. All I could do was brag on it and talk generally about the Modern-Bond line of molds of which I have 3, perhaps 4 (like him, my molds are not for sale). Just as a pointer I wrote down the address for this site to let him do a bit of wandering and learning. Hope to catch him early next week to hear how he fared at the gun show. Learn anything? Offers??
Thin Man
The tool was a bit covered with antique debris and small carboard crumbles, had not been wiped down in forever. His father passed away in about 1966 and no one had used the tool since that time but still kept it in the family. There were no signs of abuse or wear on the tool and even the rollmarks were as crisp as when it was made. He mentioned he was going to a local gun show this weekend hoping to learn more about. NO, it was not for sale (he made that statement before I could inquire...). A relic from a long ago time. All I could do was brag on it and talk generally about the Modern-Bond line of molds of which I have 3, perhaps 4 (like him, my molds are not for sale). Just as a pointer I wrote down the address for this site to let him do a bit of wandering and learning. Hope to catch him early next week to hear how he fared at the gun show. Learn anything? Offers??
Thin Man