THE BEGINNING
Before Forgotten Tools, there was Forgotten Steel — a small Australian business built around finding, restoring and giving old axes and tools a second life.
The tools were out there. Plenty of them.
The problem was finding the right ones.
Searching through Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, eBay, community forums, antique shops and wherever else old tools turned up was often hit and miss. You could spend hours searching, scrolling and sorting through listings that had little to do with what you were actually looking for.
And the more specific the tool, the worse it became.
If you were looking for a particular Millers Falls brace, a Stanley plane, a barn drill, an Australian-made axe or a specific vintage tool pattern, there was rarely anywhere designed to help you narrow the search down.
You could type in what you wanted, but that didn’t necessarily mean you’d find it.
A search for a particular tool could bring up dozens of vaguely related items — and leave you doing the hard work of figuring out what was actually worth looking at.
THERE HAD TO BE A BETTER WAY
That was when the idea behind Forgotten Tools was born
A marketplace built specifically around old, vintage, traditional and collectible tools.
No more generic searches that give you everything listed under “tools” no matter how specific you try to be.
A place where the things that make an old tool interesting actually matter — the maker, pattern, model, age, country of origin, materials, condition and the details that help collectors, restorers, tradespeople, makers and enthusiasts find exactly what they’re looking for.
Forgotten Tools is about making that search easier.
It is about bringing together the tools that are scattered across countless marketplaces, sheds, workshops, collections and cupboards — and giving them somewhere they can be found by people who actually appreciate them.
KEEPING OLD TOOLS ALIVE
We believe old tools are worth more than their age or their price.
They represent a time when tools were built to be used, repaired and passed on. They carry the marks of the people who used them before us, and many still have plenty of work left in them.
Some need restoring.
Some need nothing more than a little care.
Some are valuable because of their history. Others simply happen to be exactly the tool someone has been searching for.
Whatever the reason, we think they deserve to be found rather than forgotten.
That philosophy has always been at the heart of Forgotten Steel, and it is the same philosophy behind Forgotten Tools:
- Create something useful.
- Build it properly.
- Make it worthwhile.
- And help keep old tools alive.
A MARKETPLACE FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT OLD TOOLS
Forgotten Tools isn’t intended to replace every other marketplace.
It’s intended to give old tools their own place.
A place where a collector can search for a particular maker.
Where a restorer can find an obscure replacement tool.
Where someone can finally track down the brace, plane, drill, saw or axe they’ve been looking for.
Where a retired tradesman can pass on the tools sitting in his shed.
And where an old tool that might otherwise be overlooked can find someone who understands exactly why it matters.
Because sometimes the best tool isn’t the newest one.
It’s the one you’ve been looking for.
FROM FORGOTTEN STEEL – TO FORGOTTEN TOOLS
Forgotten Tools began with the lessons learned through Forgotten Steel.
What started with buying, restoring and selling old axes grew into a much bigger realisation:
There are a lot of people looking for old tools — and there are a lot of old tools looking for new owners.
The problem was connecting the two.
So we decided to build the place we wished already existed.
Forgotten Tools.
A marketplace for old tools, built with the same principles that started Forgotten Steel — quality, usefulness, respect for the past, and a belief that good tools deserve another chance.
Because tools shouldn’t be forgotten.
They should be found, used, restored, collected and passed on.
FORGOTTEN TOOLS
Find the tools worth keeping.