My favourite tool

[HeltorChasca]

 My Japanese gardening tools. Herbaceous sickle, secateurs and Hori Hori. I also have a 10' Japanese tripod ladder. It's almost 5' at the bottom. Stable, light etc. My best purchase last year.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

My paint-stirring stick.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

..

At the other end of the scale, a 3ft Wrecking Bar. Nothing beats the satisfaction of getting out a big bit of kit to move something that you can't otherwise shift.

2 very useful tools not usually found in the garden shed:





The lower one is c.2m long and very heavy.  Excellent for stubborn buried rocks and also body-building while you work.

[mattc]

Anyway, just came across this, which seems relevant (if perhaps NSFW for language):

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/BbDXdoM_Lkg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/BbDXdoM_Lkg&rel=1</a>
https://youtu.be/BbDXdoM_Lkg

I've heard of "vloggers" who trim their films down, taking out every millisecond pause between sentences to "keep it tight".

Now I know how that turns out. 

[Vince]

I have many tools, some good (mostly traditional hand tools); some that never delivered what they promised. I have one tool that gives me pleasure whenever I look at it.

[ElyDave]

I was getting great enjoyment out of a pencil, tapemeasure, carpenter's square, hand saw and glasspaper today.

Enjoyment didn't make me cut any better though.

[Kim]

I have many tools, some good (mostly traditional hand tools); some that never delivered what they promised. I have one tool that gives me pleasure whenever I look at it.

I'm not allowed to use those without adult supervision, but I agree that it's a prime example of elegantly functional simplicity.

[hatler]

And it fits the hand beautifully.

[Tim Hall]

Mine is my cut down 15mm spanner, so's it fits in the saddle pack on my fixer.  It started life as a bog standard combi spanner until some hamfisted idiot I flared out the open end when tackling a stuck pedal.

Favourite "proper" tools are the set of ball ended hex keys that I bought a few years ago for not much, following a tip off on here.

Favourite "thing" in my tool box is the GBFO nut and bolt, bottom bracket cups for the removal of.

[T42]

..

At the other end of the scale, a 3ft Wrecking Bar. Nothing beats the satisfaction of getting out a big bit of kit to move something that you can't otherwise shift.

2 very useful tools not usually found in the garden shed:





The lower one is c.2m long and very heavy.  Excellent for stubborn buried rocks and also body-building while you work.

Turf-cutter's spades?

[Exit Stage Left]

One's a mushroom-headed digging bar. http://www.cwberry.com/Hand-Tools/Builders-Hand-Tools/Digging-Bars--Large-Crowbars/Bulldog-BCB70MB--70-x-212-Mushroom-Head-Digging-Bar_05070181.htm

and the other is a Newcastle Draining Tool  http://www.cwberry.com/Hand-Tools/Builders-Hand-Tools/Shovels--Spades/Draining-Shovels/Bulldog-5NDAM--16-Newcastle-Draining-Tool---All-Metal-D-Handle_05070531.htm


I use the latter for tree planting, having cut the ends down. I've got four of them, and I've got favourites depending on ground conditions and species of tree I'm planting.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I have many tools, some good (mostly traditional hand tools); some that never delivered what they promised. I have one tool that gives me pleasure whenever I look at it.

It looks like you have the older UK made version.  The US patented version was cheaper and more lightly made.  The two versions are shown below in two halves, UK first.

[Torslanda]

I remember an issue with Newcastle drain tools which arose with <REDACTED> ($Utility) company when I was working for a tooling and logistics co. We had just begun to supply them - exactly to their spec, glassfibre handles in the correct colour, company logo embossed etc. - when I got a call to see $BigBoss who informed me that he had received several complaints of blade failure from one depot.

I got on the blower to speak to the depot manager and arranged a courier to collect the 'faulty' units and get them back to the manufacturer for analysis & comment. Once they were back in our warehouse I looked at them and rang the depot manager. The blades were bent backwards at nearly 90^o. I asked how the damage had occurred and was informed the blades had failed when they were being used to lift stone paving slabs, which was obviously outside their intended use. I pointed out, politely I think, that they were shovels not crowbars and didn't bother to send them back to the manufacturer. $BigBoss then tried to roast me for pointing out the blindingly fucking obvious, despite the fact that we'd replaced them FOC. I wasn't happy about that and told him so pointedly.

Oh! The depot? Newcastle . . .

[Exit Stage Left]

I went on a tour of the Bulldog forge in 1981, and they said they'd had complaints of the tines breaking on forks. They'd been used for lifting manhole covers.
Even then they said that if they didn't already have the plant it would be uneconomic to start up. They moved all the forging machinery to India a couple of years ago.

I had a think what my favourite tool should be, and it's the one that's made me most money. A series of mid-weight Stihl chainsaws, starting with the 036, which became the MS 360, and then the MS 361.

[hubner]

1950's ( I lie, it's 1930's ) Record No.8 jointing plane with rosewood knob and handle........gets stuff flat and straight.

I've got a "war finish"* Record no 7 which I bought on Ebay for £15 but I had to cycle 60 miles there and back to pick up. It also has rosewood knob and handle, but the label on the handle is missing. But I do have various 50s Record planes (no 4, 4 1/2, 5, 6) that still have the label.

No 8 planes much less common though, I don't think I could get one for a reasonable price, I probably don't need one either.

*no plating during WW2

Makita cordless Li-ion 18v thingy.  I'm wearing it out though .  I had a ni-cad equivalent but can't be bothered to replace the batteries.  Bosch laser tape measure.  Box of chisels, the best being a  morticing job by Robert Sorby and a 1.5 inch bevel by R.M.E Huish of Fetter Lane EC4, (none of my chisels match).

Other than the above, which I carry around, my favourite tool is the one I need next.  It's usually in France when I am in the UK or vice versa.

R.M.E Huish would be Melhuish, a tool dealer:
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Richard_Melhuish_and_Sons
1925 catalogue:
http://toolemera.com/Manufacturers%20%26%20Merchants/Mfg.%20mno/richardmelhuish.html

If your chisel has "EC4" on it, I would date it to between WW1 and 1930s. The 4 in EC4 was added during WW1, before that it was "EC", and going by the http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Richard_Melhuish_and_Sons page, their last advert was from 1933.


I like planes, I've even made my own, but my favourite tool are chisels and gouges (including carving tools), only with wooden handles though. I've got several hundred! My favourite brands are Ward, I. Sorby, SJ Addis, Herring Bros.

[hubner]

My favourite cycling related tools are:

Campagnolo T shaped 6mm allen key 8mm box spanner combo tool.

King Dick 15mm combo spanner.

Although both are general tools as well.

[Exit Stage Left]

I still remember how amazed I was at the amount of labour that goes into making spades, shovels and forks. This is a 5 minute video of the process at Clarington Forge in Wigan, which I saw in 1981. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN6cFnpzQKo

It's not surprising that production moved to India.

[hubner]

I still remember how amazed I was at the amount of labour that goes into making spades, shovels and forks. This is a 5 minute video of the process at Clarington Forge in Wigan, which I saw in 1981. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN6cFnpzQKo

It's not surprising that production moved to India.

The "labour" in the vid is almost entirely moving the workpiece from one machine to the next. Maybe that's what you meant but the actual labour is all done by machines.

[redshift]

My Elu MOF96E router is probably my favourite power tool for use in the hand.

I have a feeling that it may be supplanted in the near future, once we've sorted out the new home for this:



My original resin handled BBC/GPO toolkit terminal drivers (made by Footprint) are fantastic, but sadly no longer available.  My favourite pocket knife is the Fallkniven U1.

[hatler]

I'm still undecided, but I have at least started narrowing it down.

I fancy that lathe though ...
(If only I had somewhere to put it.)

[ElyDave]

I've come across those Newcastle Drainage Tools before in the utilities industries, they had a nickname though that I can't remember, I'm thinking Persuader, but I think that's probably wrong.

All that talk of planes, I'm going to check mine tomorrow, they've come indirectly from my grandad, but not sure about the age.

[Jurek]

My Elu MOF96E router is probably my favourite power tool for use in the hand.

I have a feeling that it may be supplanted in the near future, once we've sorted out the new home for this:



My original resin handled BBC/GPO toolkit terminal drivers (made by Footprint) are fantastic, but sadly no longer available.  My favourite pocket knife is the Fallkniven U1.

Ohhhh!
Nice.

[barakta]

I still remember how amazed I was at the amount of labour that goes into making spades, shovels and forks. This is a 5 minute video of the process at Clarington Forge in Wigan, which I saw in 1981. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN6cFnpzQKo

It's not surprising that production moved to India.

I love these how stuff is made videos!

[Torslanda]

Ohhhh!
Nice.

Wait till you see the vertical milling machine that goes with it!

[hatler]

Ohhhh!
Nice.

Wait till you see the vertical milling machine that goes with it!

[knees tremble]Ooo errrr.[/knees tremble]