Vintage Wing Compass Caliper

Wing Compass Caliper Divider

This is one of my favorite photographs in the Tool Project. A wing compass caliper stretches down the center of the frame, surrounded by several of the toothed grinding-wheel dressers that appeared elsewhere in my dad’s garage.

I love the openness of this arrangement—the long, slender legs, the curved adjustment arm, and the repeating circular shapes scattered around it. There is more space here than in many of the other photographs, and it gives this single tool room to really stand out.

My dad understood exactly how tools like this worked. I mostly remember seeing them as part of the landscape of his garage. Photographing them later gave me a reason to slow down, look closely, and appreciate the shape, wear, and character of something he would have handled without a second thought.

Part of Donna Dufault’s Tool Project, a collection of 19 black-and-white still life photographs created in 2002 using tools from her late father’s garage.