Collectors

A son’s loving tribute to a special dad and his unique collection

Iam writing this in memory of my wonderful dad Ray Mosher. Dad’s hammer collection started when he was a rookie policeman in Galt, Ont., and was told to throw out some old stuff from the police station as they were moving to a new location. The one thing that caught his eye was a hammer used to break open a safe. He asked if he could take it home and that’s how his hammer collection started.

Dad was born and raised in Suffolk, P.E.I., on a small farm and learned respect for good tools. He also enjoyed any building project that he could be involved in.

Over the years, Dad acquired hammers, hatchets, axes and other assorted hand tools. He’d have friends and acquaintances give him the odd hammer to add to his collection. When he retired from the Waterloo Regional Police in 1988, it gave him even more time to collect hammers. Mom and Dad spent a couple of months each year in Florida and Dad always kept an eye out at garage sales or flea markets for any antique or unique hammers. When he’d acquire a new one, he’d first clean up or replace the wooden handle, then grind, file or sand the steel to a shine. He’d then varnish it to make it look like new.

Mom and Dad even had a gift of a hammer engraved for their 25th wedding anniversary. When my son Jacob was born in 1996, Dad came to the hospital to see his new grandson, bringing with him the tiniest of hammers to give Jacob as a keepsake.

The hammers have taken over Dad’s workshop in the basement of their house, where the peg board walls are filled with his collection. He also built racks to display them on. Although we’ve never counted them all, we figure there must be between 800 and 1,000 hammers. Dad was very proud of his unique collection and any visitors to the house were always given the grand tour of the hammer workshop.

Dad passed away on December 13, 2015 and while he was in the hospital, before entering longterm care, I brought him a shoebox with an old hammer, a file and a piece of sandpaper to help him pass the time. Upon Dad’s burial, we made sure to include one of his beloved hammers to take with him on his final journey.

Dad would have been ecstatic knowing his collection was featured in Our Canada, a magazine he so enjoyed reading. n