I had the good fortune of attending the Perth, Ontario insulator show this past weekend. The show is now being held in a community hall in the village of Lanark, about 15 minutes away from Perth itself.

On the drive up I visited a collector's home I hadn't been to on the Thursday evening. Chris Minicola and I then drove up to the show together on the friday, and scoured the villages and towns along the way from his place near Peterborough, Ontario. We were able to find some interesting stuff at antique shops, thrift stores, and yard sales. It's always a lot of fun just visiting these places and chatting with their owners. Eastern Ontario was settled very early on in Canada's history, and a lot of towns and homesteads remain fairly isolated, so there's lots of good stuff still hiding out that way.

This lot includes some random oddities and oddball items that fit into some of my collecting somehow. An equipment builder plate from an early grinder or lathe; a bone saw; a well-worn larger size meat cleaver; a nice early trade axe (dating to the 18th or maybe even 17th century); a nice big biotite/phlogopite specimen from an eastern Canadian mine site; a Victorian patterned roller for comb staining wood; and a WWII MKII rifle bayonet.

I promise the next photo will have actual insulators, but this stuff is just cool so I had to share.