Geraint Slim Llewellyn Ball - Market Trader in Vintage Carpentry Tools 

Portrait and interview - 1994

Although living in Salcombe, Devon, Slim, as he is known, is in his thirteenth year as a stall holder in Totnes market which runs every Friday.  He deals in early carpentry tools and ones which are no longer available.

Ninety-eight per cent of his stock is of British manufacture, though engineering tools/bits can be German, Swedish or American.

He calls his a nostalgia stall and feels he could charge fifty pence a look!  Being able to source obscure tools, he attracts many interesting traders such as wheelwrights, millwrights and musical instrument makers from Dartington.

There is no wholesaler he can go to, so when not at market, he attends farm sales and auctions.  The searching and the cleaning of tools takes time especially when it has become increasingly more difficult to find them."

Update:  Some years ago, Slim ceased trading from his market stall in Totnes.  He died on 18th September, 2017 in Salcombe