Before I get into today’s post, the winner of the Feels Like Home Giveaway is Joanne B. (Joanne81931)!  I loved reading through all of your comments about what feels like home to you.  Seriously, it was a pleasure and they all made me smile.  Lots of references to family, pets, coffee, books, and comfy chairs by the fire.  I will be having more giveaways as we get closer to the book launch date.

About the same time I found the Victorian Reeves watercolor box, I found this beautiful box of drafting/architect’s tools and I decided to spend my birthday money on both.  After learning lessons about buying things on impulse, I let both sit in my digital shopping cart for a couple of days.  Would I use these?  Would I love them more than something I already have?  The answer to both was yes and I had butterflies in my stomach when I opened each of the packages and I have loved them even more as I’ve spruced them up and started putting them to use.

The architect’s box has been exposed to some humidity, so the key and some of the tools were a little rusty.  The finish on the box was also a little worn in some places.

While the tools were a little rusty and needed some cleaning, the set was complete and came with so many little extra goodies.  The box was also sound and functional.

My favorite pieces were the bone ruling pens (it came with three of them) and a small ebony and brass parallel ruler.

I cleaned each tool with steel wool to remove the rust and gave them a good wash and dried them thoroughly.

I even scrubbed the key with steel wool and was able to remove most of the rust.  I polished the box with just a little bit of linseed oil.

The brass tools are just stunning.  I just love old things!  Not only were they made well, but they are just so beautiful.

And I love that the little nubby pencil and lead are still in the set.  I wish I could just rest my hand over the tools, close my eyes, and see who used this set and what they created with it.  The set came from Australia, so who knows where this set has traveled.  Some things will just remain a mystery.

I cleaned up all of the little bits and pieces along with the rim of the box (it was black with ink that would rub off on my hands.)  I still need to oil the rim, though, to rehydrate the wood.  I sorted out all of the little bits to see what I had.  I’ve never seen little clips like these and I’m not sure how to use them.  It looked like they would hang from something or perhaps hook into a surface (maybe cork) to home papers in place.  Any ideas?

I polished up the ebony parallel ruler with some steel wool and rubbed it down with Hemp Oil to bring out the shine of the wood and brass.  It’s a beautiful piece and I’ve already found it to be a quite handy tool when sketching.

I’ve also given the ruling pens a test run and they are such fun little pieces to sketch with.  They are similar to a dip pen, but the ink is held between two metal points instead of in a channel.  You can adjust how close or far apart the metal pieces are in order to change the width of the mark you’re making.  If you spread them out far enough, you’ll make two parallel lines, although the pen doesn’t hold ink very well when used like that.  I made a little pen and ink landscape sketch in sepia ink just to test it out.

Aren’t these tools just so pretty?

And I’ve been using the large compass as well…

Of course, it works great!  Over the weekend I worked on a little pet project and made a cyanometer (a color wheel that captures the blues of the sky) and it was the perfect tool to make two large circles.

I find I’ve been going into the box pretty regularly since I cleaned it all up and I enjoy it every time.

As I wrote about yesterday, our house should be full of favorites…right down to the little pencil nubs.

If you’re looking for a similar box, I found a beautiful set for a good price.  It also has brass tools, an ebony parallel ruler, and a bone ruling pen in a beautiful wood box.

set is almost exactly like mine, but it doesn’t have all of the extras and it’s more expensive.

You can find more antique drafting boxes and tools .