Here is a little of the story behind it…

My great grandfather lived in the Flint, Michigan area.  He was a machinist and machinists love to have their Gerstner tool chests!  The interesting part is this is a Dayton, Ohio company.  So, when I inherited this after my dad died, it came back "home".  In the top center, you can see it had collected some dust, dirt from use, and wear & tear.  You could still see the name plate and "God Said It" saying he'd attached to the front.  It turns out, he won the tool box and all the tools in a raffle from a man that had retired in 1956 (he saved the flyer showing the date, inventory, and price of the tickets).

On the top left and right corners, you can see the price of new ones (left) and what used ones are going for on eBay (right).

The lower right and nameplate insert show when I discovered it was indeed a real Gerstner box (Missing nameplate, but we could still make out the name with low-angle lighting.  It was also printed inside the box under the last drawer).  I checked on-line, and they offered to send us a replacement nameplate as long as we could prove ownership. :)

The lower left and center show how it looked after we were able to clean it out, clean it up, and give it some TLC.  The wood grain turned out great!  I love the little drawer for the machinist's handbook that pulls out of the middle!  It still has the original book it came with.  That was printed in 1939 so gives us timeframe for when the box was built.

In a final funny twist, Andy was at a customer's house two days later and noticed one of these sitting on the husband's work bench.  They got talking and enjoyed stories/pictures about the origins of both of them with each other.  Two days after that, I had a few things for sale at the street (including some scraps of steel from the tool box) and a guy stops by wanting to buy them.  He said he used to be a machinist and always wants spare steel stock… I told him they came from my great grandfather's machinist tool box.  We both smiled and laughed, then he said, "I bet I saw pictures of that box two days ago!"  It was the customer of Andy's…!  He went on to rave about my son, his work, his professionalism and his pleasantness.  He thought it was especially neat to see how much pride Andy showed in his work and having his great great grandfather's heirloom.  

What a small world and a proud papa to share all this with my son. :)