Waka,
Penzance? Not the greatest spot. I may have to assume a little travelling about on your part here:
There's a bric-a-brac shop in Penzance itself called "Curios" (Upper Causewayhead) that occasionally has a few interesting old tools, but at prices for 'Murricans.
If you fancy a car boot sale, then the one at Hayle on a Saturday morning can be good for tools (very busy if the weather's good). The best guy to head for usually sets up at the far right of the field towards the bottom, and generally hasn't finished unpacking until gone 10. He has a white Transit, a Scotish accent and, unfortunately, a pretty good idea of what everything's worth. Some good stuff though, if you're lucky. Pool Market near Redruth operates on Saturday and Sunday, and always has a good dealer on the corner - you just need to ignore the Blackspur junk et al and go inside and you should find lots of goodies. You never know, it may even help if you said a young lady recommended them to you, particularly for "Hilka Professional" planes (it's a running joke :roll: ). The car boot at Rosudgeon on Wednesdays is supposed to be very good, but I've yet to make it there so who knows? Depends just how much later this year you're coming. Pool Market is all year round anyway (and there's a car boot across the road on a Sunday morning too).
The only new tool sellers in Cornwall are Celtic Engineering in Helston (more lawn mowers than anything, but a few Scheppach things etc), Mallet's in Truro (a bit of everything, all at outrageous prices) and there's a place in Liskard that escapes me (bit far from Penzance anyway). South West Surplus Tooling in Bridge, near Porthreath, is an amazing place to visit - full of odds and ends, mainly engineering related but odd planes, chisels, router bits etc. There are a couple of clothes outlets there too, if that'd soften the blow for HID. :wink:
As far as wood goes, it's the pits. The only mildly interesting spot is the Tregothnan Estate Sawmill, east of Truro, which sells woodturning blanks. Beautiful countryside round there, and if it's late enough in the year and it's your thing, the nearby Fentongollan Bulb Farm has hundreds of daffodil bulbs for sale.
For things in wood, try Trelowarren on the Lizard for the Cornwall Crafts Association, and the gallery at Trelissick for their stuff too. Amongst others Scott Woyka and Toby Roskilly, both featured in the woodworking mags, are members. The Eden Project is apparently awash will locally made wooden stuff too, but I haven't been yet.
That's all that strikes me at the moment, but there are a couple of other car boots if you wanted to know about them. Really your best bet is to stop off at Axminster on the way down... Oh, and you could come and visit Alf Towers if you wanted of course. Charmingly situated between the back of beyond and nowhere. :wink:
Cheers, Alf