Chefs' go-to spot for good old gear

There are metal shelves, steam tables, and pan racks. Refrigeration units nestled under a ceiling dripping with icicle-like stalactites. Stock pots, coffee urns, and molds for Boston brown bread.

There are vintage soda fountains, some procured for studio sets. Artists have bought whisk attachments - 50 at a clip - to make into lamps.

It is on these upper floors that Goettner points out the hints (sawdust vents, for one) of the building's founding purpose - to make Planet Jr. brand farm implements, and by the dawn of the 1900s, a patented steerable sled called the Flexible Flyer.

The sled (or "coaster") employed novel bendable runners and a signature crossbow-like steering piece.

But for its Quaker inventor, Samuel Leeds Allen, it served another role: It gave his farm-tool workers jobs in the summer, and kept things humming at Fifth and Glenwood.

Not a sled was left when Goettner moved Sander Supply in from Fishtown.

The one on his office wall?

It was one of the last built in North Philadelphia in the 1960s.

He got it, used, on eBay.

Contact columnist Rick Nichols at 215-854-2715 or rnichols@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/ricknichols.