Some my favorite tools are my worst tools

[Steve Griffin]

I love high quality hand and power tools as much as the next guy, but today I was pondering how much I love my "bad" tools.

For example, I have an old Stanley chisel which I call my "trash chisel". This is the guy I use for rough construction, knocking off glue and prying on things. If it's lucky, it gets sharpened on a crude grinder once or twice a year. No buffy wheel, wet oil bath, slow italian stone grinder for this chisel.

I have a super cheap Dado set too. I keep it around for rough work and for long grooves with the grain. It's so cheap they hardly gave it any teeth, and as a result it actually cuts smoother and faster with the grain than my dado set which cost more than some table saws.

I also have a $9 combo square that I adore. Unlike my $80 square with graduations to the 1/10,000 of an inch (which looks like a foggy day in England for those who don't have bionic eyes) this cheap puppy only bothers with 1/16 of an inch. Perfect for laying out multiple pilot holes during assembly or closet rod setbacks. I can throw it in a 5 gallon bucket of tools with wild abandon. No velvet lined padded case with cute frenchy hinges for this bad boy.

And then there are sawblades. Sure I have nice selection of the 300 tooth solid gold ones from Tiffanys stored in a glass display case, but sometimes a guy just needs to cut some wood. Those big box store combo blades which are missing more teeth than that eskimo gal I dated are sometimes all I need. And if you hit a staple guess what: not a tear is shed. (unlike when I broke up with that gal).

Anyone else have some junk tools that they can't do without?

-Steve

[Van Huskey]

I am bad about being in love with my beater tools. I have always been a "saver" and will often use a poor tool to avoid putting a "good" tool in harms way. If I had room for two of every machine all the newer nicer ones would never get used. OK, I am a little crazy.

[Richard Shaefer]

I have a 14.4V dewalt (I guess they were still B&D industrial at the time) pistol grip cordless hammer drill that I've had since probably 1995. It's been beaten, run over by a truck, left for dead, and has paint on it from just about every room in every house I've lived in for the past decade or so. I have other fancier cordless drills that have nifty LED lights, more tranmission speeds than my Toyota, lithium-ion freakiness, and eleventy one tourue settings on the collar. I still reach for the old beat dewalt first.

[Terry Beadle]

I too have an old chisel that does the first duty on glue, rough shaping, and what not. It's a Craftsman chisel designed for the basic framing carpenter to use for opening paint cans, fit a 2 x 4 etc. Surprisingly it has some really good steel. Must have been a fluke but I'm not sure. It was made to fit in a carpenters tool belt. I have a set of 3 similar bench chisels by Craftsman that I use for heavy work as they are thicker than all my other chisels other than the mortice chisels. They keep a good edge too.

I do keep the old Craftsman beater sharp but it doesn't get hit with the 10,000 Ice Bear. 1000 grit seems to do the job. The handle twists around and occasionally I put it back to rights with a quick mounting in the vice and some channel lock adjuster doing the tuning. Good for another year ! Hoot !

Now that I think about it, I may celebrate and give it a bit of time on the 3000 grit Blue Mountain... of course I wouldn't want to spoil it or anything !

[matt wormmeester]

I have a 14.4V dewalt (I guess they were still B&D industrial at the time) pistol grip cordless hammer drill that I've had since probably 1995. It's been beaten, run over by a truck, left for dead, and has paint on it from just about every room in every house I've lived in for the past decade or so. I have other fancier cordless drills that have nifty LED lights, more tranmission speeds than my Toyota, lithium-ion freakiness, and eleventy one tourue settings on the collar. I still reach for the old beat dewalt first.


I have an 18V version and feel the same way.

[Ron Natalie]

I know about the chisel one. I have a set of really nice Marples, but my two "junk drawer" Stanley chisels are the ones that get all the use.

[Chris Fournier]

I have two Swedish Gransfors crowbars that are anything but beaters but certainly get beaten upon. The 35"er and I have been through a lot together and it shows. It even bit me once but all is forgiven. I love these two tools as much as any handplane in my shop.

[Neil Brooks]

Grandma never used the good china, either, and kept plastic slip covers on the furniture :)

I confess, though: I haven't been at this that long, and haven't bought that much used stuff, so ... by definition ... nothing I have is that old or beaten up.

But ... give me some time ;)

Cool concept for a thread, though :)

[Jim Summers]

Count me in on the chisels. I have a couple that hang on the wall that I generally goto first.

[David Hostetler]

Not sure how to respond to this. I have a couple of sets of screwdrivers, one set, Snap On, which could be considered high end, but it is an old set (20+ years) and has seen an awful lot of use and abuse, and a 3 year old set of Stanley screwdrivers I bought because the Snap On screwdrivers were buried in a box somewhere...

Generally speaking, if it's a tool, and it's in my shop, it gets used. If it's a "Fine" tool, but is a pain in the backside to use, it gets sold. No matter the price tag on a tool, it has to work for me, cheap or expensive, if it is just too much hassle to use it goes away...

[Jim Rimmer]

This has been a guilt relieving thread for me. After reading all the posts about chisles and scrapers and planes, Oh, MY!, I thought I was the only one that had a couple of beater chisels that I scraped glue with and pried staples with and other not-so-nice tasks. I was afraid someone here at SMC would find out and I would be banned from the site. :rolleyes:

[Harvey Pascoe]

Here's heresy for you: my favorite plane is an old hardware store Stanley. Sometimes very effective tools are not the highest quality or price. I've got ten chisels and nine of them sit in the drawer 95% of the time. The other hangs front and center at my main workstation. Of course, I don't cut mortises.

[John Sanford]

I've got a single "old" plastic handled Stanley chisel that I found in the street. It's my "beater" chisel for glue removal and the like. I also have the Veritas flush plane which gets abused a bit. Pretty much though, I treat all my tools the same. Use them, don't abuse them or baby them.

[Bill White]

Don't know that I would call it a "beater", but I reach for the drafting square more often than the expensive try square. Hey! It is orange. Can't loose it.
The old trusty cross pein hammer from the now defunct AMT company is my go-to for light tapping.
Bill

[Bruce Volden]

I love high quality hand and power tools as much as the next guy, but today I was pondering how much I love my "bad" tools.

For example, I have an old Stanley chisel which I call my "trash chisel". This is the guy I use for rough construction, knocking off glue and prying on things. If it's lucky, it gets sharpened on a crude grinder once or twice a year. No buffy wheel, wet oil bath, slow italian stone grinder for this chisel.

I have a super cheap Dado set too. I keep it around for rough work and for long grooves with the grain. It's so cheap they hardly gave it any teeth, and as a result it actually cuts smoother and faster with the grain than my dado set which cost more than some table saws.

I also have a $9 combo square that I adore. Unlike my $80 square with graduations to the 1/10,000 of an inch (which looks like a foggy day in England for those who don't have bionic eyes) this cheap puppy only bothers with 1/16 of an inch. Perfect for laying out multiple pilot holes during assembly or closet rod setbacks. I can throw it in a 5 gallon bucket of tools with wild abandon. No velvet lined padded case with cute frenchy hinges for this bad boy.

And then there are sawblades. Sure I have nice selection of the 300 tooth solid gold ones from Tiffanys stored in a glass display case, but sometimes a guy just needs to cut some wood. Those big box store combo blades which are missing more teeth than that eskimo gal I dated are sometimes all I need. And if you hit a staple guess what: not a tear is shed. (unlike when I broke up with that gal).

Anyone else have some junk tools that they can't do without?

-Steve

This makes me feel a whole lot better---I have several 5 gallon buckets scattered about here on the farm!!:D

Bruce

[Joe Angrisani]

Richard wrote: ".....and eleventy one torque settings....."
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I love a good Tolkien reference.

[Chris Ricker]

I have a 3/4 and 1/2" Dasco chisels that I use and abuse all of the time, I stole them off of my Dad (who stole them off of my Grandpa) and I have 2 wooden handled screwdrivers(philips and slotted) I reach for first even though they are right next to the Kleins.
I was thinking about this (and laughing to myself) recently as I was looking over my generous assortment of screwdrivers and realized that I only use two of them!!

[Bruce Wrenn]

For me it's saw blades. I have two Forrest WWII's. One has NEVER seen a piece of wood, and the other hasn't since Forrest rebuilt it. Instead, I keep a Delta 7657 from Cripe Distributing on the saw most of the time. Cost $17 plus shipping. I also own a Forrest Dado King and Freud "Dial a Width" dado set, but my Freud SD 208 gets the most use.