Measure twice, cut once

Has this happened to you? You want to measure something, but you can’t find your trusty tape measure?

Last week when I couldn’t find my Stanley tape, I began rummaging in an old tool box. No tape measure there, but I did find a fold-up six-foot ruler, the kind carpenters would tuck into their overall bib pocket. I had picked this one up years ago at a flea market. Sadly, this ruler was broken, so I kept on looking.

What I found was another fold-up ruler, this one in a box of things passed down from my wife’s grandfather. A carpenter in Lowell, he worked for the mills, then for one of the large lumber stores.

Forgetting my original errand, I held the antique tool in my hands, marveling at its smoothness. Its tightly calibrated brass hinges opened with surprising ease, given it must be over a century old.

It was made of boxwood, I guessed, a pale, fine-grain hardwood sometimes found in old tools and musical instruments. I wondered if Grampa Durrell had used this rule as he crafted the marble-top dresser we have in a bedroom, or doll furniture for a granddaughter.

Grampa Durrell’s first name was Pearl, an unusual name for a boy. As an adult he went by P.T. No taller than five foot eight, P.T. enlisted in the Army in 1898 and served in the Spanish American War in Cuba. On our wall of photos, he poses in his sergeant’s uniform beside an American flag. For a while we had his military sword, before passing it on in the family.

My wife remembers visiting him and her grandmother Nellie at the house he built on Stevens Street in the Lowell Highlands. Grampa Durrell would give her change to go to the neighborhood store to buy popsicles. Then, at evening before bedtime, he would announce that it was “grapefruit time.” Everyone would assemble in the kitchen for a grapefruit nightcap.

P.T. attended church regularly and “paid for his pew” at the Baptist Church in the Highlands. We have his Bible. Besides that and a few pictures, we have some hand tools. They include levels, wood chisels, planers, and hand drills. Also a carpenter’s square with PEARL stamped into the metal.

And, of course, the fold-up rule. Examining it under a bright light, I detected a faint stamp in the boxwood: Lufkin, No. 761.

One thing led to another, and before long I was at my computer looking up the Lufkin name. The company was founded in 1869 in Cleveland, Ohio, by a Civil War veteran, Edward Taylor Lufkin, and was named the E. T. Lufkin Board and Log Rule Manufacturing Company. In 1967 the company was acquired by Cooper Industries. Lufkin is now a brand of Apex Tool Group.

Often, now, I take Grampa Durrell’s ruler down and open up its smooth arms. Although I never knew P. T., I keep it to remind me of the care and craftsmanship he brought to his work. And I remember the old adage, good advice for more than carpentry: measure twice, cut once.