For this week’s Toolbox column, I want to cover “homely tools,” those “nothing special” items in your toolbox that you couldn’t live without — that awesome pair of scissors you got from your grandmother that you use all the time, the hammer who’s balance, weight, and grip you always appreciate whenever you wield it, the pocketknife you’ve had since you were a kid that you use every day and cherish. They’re not sexy, they don’t usually show up in surveys of cool tools, but they’ll pry them from your cold, dead hands. That’s the sort of thing we’re looking for.
Please email me a short description, any good tool tales associated with them, and ideally a picture of your tool. I need them by Wednesday night. I’ll choose my favorite and send you a Maker’s Notebook.
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When you’re a kid, you really can’t use an all-metal hammer, they’re too unwieldy. Instead you have to use the kind with a smaller head and a wooden handle. So Dad’s hammer takes on a certain mystique — at least it did in my house. And of course as a solid chunk of steel, the dad hammer is basically immortal. Sure it will get paint splotches, scratches, dings and maybe a little rust if it’s not used for a while, but it will mostly last forever. My sister got my dad’s hammer, but I bought my own and it makes me happy that one of my kids will snag it some day.