Tool Talk

larry merlau

Member
Messages
18,741
Location
Delton, Michigan
this may not belong here but it is about tools.. do you talk to your tools? do they talk to you? for instance today i was doing some chiseling and needed a mallet, well i have two, one for big jobs and one for smaller jobs. but they were both given to me from members here.. so they talk to me in spirit and i think of the many times i have actually seen the makers in person.. just as i have some old hand planes that have initials on them from old relatives or some that were acquired from different parts of the country and had stories behind them as well. maybe this is just old age and having no one to talk to in the shop, but i think not.. sometimes i can see and feel them watching over my shoulder as i start a process.. those special tools have no price tag, but others do that came from the tool store.
 
I have a few tools that were my father's, but I rarely use them. I keep them for sentimental reasons.

As to talking to my tools in that other way, I can honestly say I can't blame the tool for my ineptness at times! I'm more likely to talk to myself, as in asking, "Self, why did you do that???" o_O
 
Every morning I unlock the shop, turn on the lights, and wish everyone a good morning. Sometimes I tell them what is in store for the day. I have tools that came from brothers, friends, father and grandfather. They never talk back, but I know they are listening. M
 
I have a lot of my dad's tools, I hear his advice when I'm using them. I think the recently inherited bench and hardware chest that was my wife's GG-Grandfathers speaks to me the most. It's got some stories to tell that I'm seeing a little of at a time. I'm hoping to get a few other projects out of the shop this weekend while it's warmer so that I can spend time making a home for them out there.
 
I guess I do... some of them at least. I never blame them when something goes bad, I know it's my inexperience or sometimes sloppiness that makes things less than perfect, not the tools. I too have a few tools from my father's shop, but like some of the others here, I don't use them, I just like having them.
 
What're you trying to do to me Larry???? Talking to my tools! Trying to help Lou get a recording of such nonsense so I can be committed????? Got dad's tool box we always kept in the Power Wagon, pushing snow or hauling manure, never knew when you were going to need to open that tool box.

By the way, welcome Ken!!
 
I don't talk to my tools, but often have conversations with myself... one of us isn't always all that smart.

I envy all you guys who have your father's tools... my father was a carpenter and had many tools some of which dated back to his teenage years... when he died my stepmother offered me any of them I wanted, but at the time I wasn't into any kind of wood working and declined... today I would love to have any thing at all that he worked with. I did take his little pocket tape measure and carry that as a regular pocket item, but that's all.
 
i dont have many tools from my dad and he didnt have much of a shop i got him started in doing some stuff before he died but i have some of my great uncles which i use some. and more so when doing it for a living. have some old hand saws that came from my moms side i think.. but no interest in my siblings so they and some others will be leaving to another home who will appreciate them.
 
If you had a father who had and used tools---consider yourselves lucky--my father had few tools of any kind. I love good tools and over my many years have assembled a very complete shop---and here in Minnesota is always 60 degrees or warmer. Spent freezing youth on the North Dakota farm----spent two winters in Korea working on trucks mostly outside, so when I go to my shop I always feel really good.
 
I do talk to my tools, specially when I’m sharpening them, somehow it is like talking to your dog once or while you’ve bathed it. I also have a small bell that I gave to my master (who gave me all his tools r.i.p.) and that I got back when he died, so each time I start ww I ring it so that he may hear it wherever he is and know that I am using his tools. Call me sentimental if you wish, but remembering those we loved is a way of keeping them alive even if they are not between us physically.
 
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