IS INNOVATION IMPROVING OUR EXPERIENCE OF USING TOOLS? - BY PETER BRETT FEATURE


Our resident tool guru Peter Brett examines how changes in tool design provide options for all


LOOKING in the tool box of most UK tradespeople is often a sobering experience for me. I expect to fi nd sets of tools carefully stored and looked after in a well organised system. However, I usually fi nd a toolbox or bag into which is thrust a varied selection of tools in no particular order, and sometimes not even related to the trade of the owner of the tools. Let me say that my toolboxes are a model example for others to follow… if only. The current mode of systematised cases - where trades can carefully store their power tools - pose a complete contrast. By the week, tradespeople are becoming just as pernickety about the way they treat their power tools as the German workers on the telly. However, they don’t sweep up as often as the Germans do! So why does this happen? Is it because trades don’t care about their tools and how they are looked after, or is it just the way they work and the conditions under which they work?


I have had many, many


conversations over the years with tradespeople about their


tools and yes, there is a minority who would use a chisel as a screwdriver and vice versa.


They would also never sharpen any bladed item like a plane or chisel, but then seem to miraculously manage to get jobs done. My view is that perhaps the jobs might not be done to the highest standard.


But my most frequent experience during ‘tool’ conversations is that trades are very aware of the contents of their tool chests. They can wax lyrical about the individual tools they use, why they bought them, how much they paid for them and how they suit their particular circumstances. During a conversation with a bricklayer during his lunchtime, I noticed he sat with a sandwich in one hand then repeatedly plunged a new trowel into a bucket of sharp sand.


24 TBH September, 2018 www.toolbusiness.co.uk


Builders might choose from well-known American brands like Marshalltown and Estwing or European brands like Stabila, Pavan and Ragni. With cordless tools, the battery platform of the chosen brand will then be the deciding factor in future purchases. However with hand tools, there are many fewer restrictions - leaving the fi eld open for users to choose a brand and quality to suit their needs and budgets.


I was intrigued – and wondered if it was a bit of OCD behaviour. He explained that he was simply abrading the blade of the trowel to the perfect fl exibility he needed to suit his bricklaying style. He was doing this with his new trowel, because his old trowel had become unsuitable in his eyes – and hands. This example shows the extent to which some people value their hand tools. And my feeling is many trades choose their tools according to the brand that they know and trust - or after conversations with their mates.


Buy the best quality


I was taught by my uncle – a qualifi ed joiner/carpenter who worked on the wooden aeroplanes that constituted the Southern Rhodesian Air force in the 1930s. He said you should always buy the best quality (and therefore the most expensive) tools you could aff ord. The saying went that you looked after them, and they looked after you. Saws, planes and chisels were sharpened regularly and always put in cases, plane socks or tool rolls to protect them. It must have made some impression on


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