A Versatile Tool

Frank Pellow

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Location
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
In a post in the thread: http://familywoodworking.org/public_html/forums/showthread.php?t=1070, Joe Mioux said:
I think you are missing something in your tour Frank.

I seem to remember a screwdriver that has served you well over the years.

I also believe you could tell a bunch of stories about this multi-purpose tool.

I know some may know this already, but since this is a new forum with new members, you might want to mention a few. I know I enjoyed reading about it previously.​
I found the notes in my journal from which I extracted the thread on Saw Mill Creek that Joe is referring to, so here goes.

Probably the oldest tool I own is William Thornton’s Screwdriver (picture attached at the bottom of this post).

William Thornton was my wife’s grandfather and we know that he gave this screwdriver to his son Bert Thornton in the early 1930s and that it was old at that time. It came in a BIG wooden toolbox and I still have that toolbox as well (at Pellow’s Camp).

I inherited the toolbox and screwdriver (the only tool left in the box) in the early 1970s and I have put both those items to good use since then.

William Thornton’s screwdriver is just about my most versatile tool. Here is list of the ways that I can remember having used it:

1. screwdriver
2. pry bar
3. hammer
4. paint can opener
5. paint stir stick
6. chisel
7. clamp (to hold floor boards in place while nailing through the tongue)
8. awl (to poke holes in canvas when rigging a sail for our canoe)
9. plumb bob
10. hook (hammered into tree to hold up various things)
11. marker stick
12. fish exterminator
13. jammed into the crack between two rocks in order to tie up a boat
14. tent peg
15. tent peg extractor
16. ice pick
17. fire poker

I am sure that there are others that I have forgotten, and I bet that both William and Bert Thornton could add to the list.

By the way, many of the unusual uses came about because the screwdriver was in my fishing tackle box for about 10 years. Now it has a place of honour in my workshop.
 

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I've got a question, If I may........

How long after using the screwdriver for a fish exterminator would it be used for an ice pick? How would the ice taste? :D :D :D
 
How long after using the screwdriver for a fish exterminator would it be used for an ice pick?

I hate fishing, but I have done it a few times. I would have thought that this tool was used by reversing it, and whacking the fish on the head with the handle. In which case, it would be perfectly sanitary. :rolleyes:

And if Frank used it to actually stab fish... well I don't want to know about it. :p
 
I hate fishing, but I have done it a few times. I would have thought that this tool was used by reversing it, and whacking the fish on the head with the handle. In which case, it would be perfectly sanitary. :rolleyes:

And if Frank used it to actually stab fish... well I don't want to know about it. :p
Actually both ends have been used to terminate the lives of fish. And, both ends have been used to chop ice.
 
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