Last week a friend of mine bragged on her social media about acquiring a shiny new mint-green scroll saw. Before I could derail her moment and bemoan my failure to replace my long lost cordless Dremel, a slew of comments popped up voicing safety concerns and personal testimonies of complete inadequacy with tools. My covetousness was quickly replaced by another lost thing, my annoyance with women who claim to not be tool inclined.
One winter I worked in a bead shop in Alaska, wherein every day I heard women bemoan their tool-using deficiency. Yes, just women, as only about five men came into the shop during my employment and not a one whined that, “Oh I just couldn’t use a wire snipper!”, though one guy did mock our adorable mini anvil designed for detailed hammering work. Women, on the other hand—you know the ones who can use their bare hands to install contact lenses and feminine hygiene products into the most sensitive regions of the body—who can use forks, various brushes, and often even drive cars and run complicated machines such as clothes and dish washers, many of them claim they could never use a drill, which is basically a hair dryer with a thing on the end that you point away from you. I thought we were the DIY generation? This is not gendered genetic coding folks, it is an internalized sexist fallacy. In the interest of furthering advanced fine motor skills for grown people, herein is a sampling of the possibilities available to women who want to tool.
Zahrah Habibullah, Melbourne, Australia
Profession or major occupation: Photographer/Jeweller
Favorite tool: Torch
How long have you been working with a torch? A few years.
What do you do with your tool? I use the torch to heat up and soften metals I am working with, to manipulate the textures on metal and to mix different metals together. I have always been fascinated by the ability to make fluid what is solid, so using tools for melting metals is at the top of the list of my favourite processes.
Is there another, bigger, better or fancier tool you long to own? Not at this time, I feel like I still don’t know the possibilities with the torch/flame as there is much technique to learn about the application and intensity of heat on differing surfaces.
Sumayyah Talibah, Michigan, U.S.A.
Profession or major occupation: When not plotting to take over the literary world, I live a double life as a bead artist and jewelry maker.
Favorite tool: It is difficult to choose only one, but I would have to say that my favorite tool is a pair of serrated chain nose pliers.
How long have you been working with serrated chain nose pliers? I was dragged kicking and screaming into the shiny world of bead art about three years ago.
What do you do with your tool? Chain nose pliers are good for bending wire, connecting loops of wire, and opening and closing small pieces, like ear wires and crimp covers.
Is there another, bigger, better or fancier tool you long to own? I’ve always wanted a butane torch. I would love to get into welding and metalsmithing on a small scale.
Aaminah Shakur, West Michigan, USA
Profession or major occupation: Artist, poet, and doula.
Favorite tool: A brayer.
How long have you been working with a brayer?: I have only used a quality brayer a few times and very briefly. Owning one has been on my wishlist for at least 3 years. When I first taught myself to do acrylic transfers, which I used to transfer poems onto my paintings and iconic book covers onto collages, I wanted a brayer so badly because I was struggling with pressing the paper down with my hands instead. I saw other potential uses for a brayer as well and had a chance to borrow one from a partner for a bit but discovered that the one they had (and now I understand why they never used it) was not strong enough to hold up to the way I needed it to. The roller kept slipping out of its plastic handle because of the pressure I exerted on it. Then I began to dream about what kind of brayer I wish I had…
What do you do with your tool?: I use my brayer to lay flat collage work, putting together zines, to adhere acrylic transfers, and will soon use it for printmaking and paint printing onto fabric as well.
Is there another, bigger, better or fancier tool you long to own?: So, this brayer actually is my fantasy tool! I suppose over time I might see a need for this in multiple sizes, but otherwise this is just perfect to me! Someday I might find myself looking for a heavier stone one, which would be awesome with printmaking.
Fatima Killeen, Canberra, Australia
Profession or major occupation: Visual artist (Painter & printmaker)
Favorite tool: Printing Press
How long have you been working with a printing press? Close to 20 years
What do you do with your tool? I make collographs & etching prints.
Is there another, bigger, better or fancier tool you long to own? A Table saw for cutting large pieces of timber. [Go ahead and reread that last bit]
*
At this point I would like to address the collective grumblings out there: “Well these are creative people, and I’m just not creative.” One of these women insists that she is not creative and another is still coming to grips with using that word to describe herself. Let’s also address the fallacy of tech types. I admit that I totally hate learning new technology, but I do it, mostly because I would have to return to my paper route gig if I didn’t. Still, in 2014 I would expect that anyone with a high school education has the tech savvy equivalent to a young Bill Gates, yet we hear plenty of women bemoan “I don’t know how to use Photoshop/Excel Spreadsheets/Wordpress.” Maybe picking up a pink keyboard could be of help to these ladies.
LaYinka Sanni, London, UK
Profession or major occupation: Editor and EFL teacher
Favorite tool: Audacity
How long have you been working with Audacity? For about 3 years on and off.
What do you do with your tool? I use it to edit audio files from recorded online events I conduct, [LaYinka is being modest here. She recently began hosting live international, women-only literary salons. Very awesome stuff.] as well as use it to record audio versions of my poetry and short stories. Segmenting mini audio samples from a large file is simple to do with Audacity, and I can also clean up unwanted noises and clicks to produce smooth sound files.
Is there another, bigger, better or fancier tool you long to own?
I would absolutely love to own Adobe’s Audition. I first came across it when I worked as a freelance narrator for a media company in Cairo, and fell in love with the seamless operation and ease of use. There was no major learning curve with the software, so I see it as a massive upgrade from Audacity, but that upgrade comes with a hefty price tag.
*
A friend of mine pointed to the picture of Fatima in her dust mask and commented “Rosie the Riveter.” Exactly, I thought. Rosie didn’t happen in a vacuum called 1942. Women the world over have always used tools in various occupational settings, and perhaps that is part of the tool aversion. Maybe tool using is considered a lower class (or manly!) kind of thing for women to do and we just don’t want to be associated with that as we lightly draw our liquid eyeliner wand just above the lash line. Please continue (as if you could quit) to fill your homes and life with the stuff our tools make, but I urge you to try on some tools yourself. The Classic Hammer makes an excellent start, offering endless possibilities for both creating and destructing. As a bonus you can get an awesome vintage suede or shiny vegan belt for your new beloveds, maybe you’ll even want to make one yourself. Your tool selfies are VERY welcome in the comments!
Tags: brooke benoit, feminism, home repair, tools
This totally speaks to me — I love tools! I put a power drill on my wedding registry; my Dad was so excited that he got me that and a box of fancy drill bits. I don’t use it often, but man I love it. I’m in a small apartment now, but would love to have space for a workshop someday.
Adam Savage (from Mythbusters) has a great podcast called Still Untitled and a lot of the episodes center around creating and supplying your own workshop for whatever creative or home repair type work you want to do. They give a lot of tips for what type of tools to get as a beginner, where to find cheap but decent quality stuff, how to learn, where to find supplies, etc.
My cordless power drill is one of my very favorite things. I’m also deeply fond of the laser level I stole/borrowed from my dad (comes in handy for hanging pictures!).
I long for a butane torch, more for cooking-related misadventures but also because it seems like a handy weapon to have around the house.
Ooh, a laser level! My sister-in-law has scissors with a laser on them to help guide you to cut in a straight line. I was finding excuses to cut things the last time I visited there and may ask for one for Christmas.
Well those sound goddamn handy.
Laser-guided scissors? Damn, I need a pair of those. Cutting in a straight line is not one of my strong suits (if the wrapping paper/fabric/etc wanted to not have a wavy cut end, it should’ve tried harder, is all I’m saying), but surely with laser-guided scissors, I couldn’t go wrong. Too much.
I have a wimpy kitchen blowtorch, which I bought a creme brulee kit in order to acquire. I use it for 1) getting a fire going, and 2) heating flatware so I can bend it into jewelry.
The Neat Little Project series on Houzz has some great ideas for beginning carpentry projects, too. I love working with my hands and am a little disappointed that, as a college-bound girl in a white-collar family, I didn’t have anyone in my family who wanted me to learn this stuff as a kid, so this kind of resource is super useful.
I was just thinking that I would love to try a carpentry project and that website is exactly what I need. Have you made anything from there? I haven’t done any carpentry since wood shop class in middle school.
I’ve been wanting to forever, but still haven’t.
Ooh, they have guides on how to plant bee- and butterfly-attracting flowers!
Yesssss!
Although I was kind of hoping that LaYinka Sanni was saying that she is audacious, not referring to a program called Audacity.
That was my hope too.
Here I am saying I’m audacious… even as I use Audacity.
Hi. I rarely/never comment but I love tools!
My favorite tool is a chainsaw. Specifically this little stihl arborist saw that weighs nothing but can still blow through an 18 inch log. Unfortunately she is broke down right now and there isn’t a reliable stihl mechanic in my island-based town. I really like making firewood.
My favorite tool I use often is a makita cordless hammerdrill. It pushes screws into things without stripping them out. It gets used on various house projects. It has a clip so it can hang off my tool belt.
I will stop now because omg so many awesome tools to talk about.
I haven’t ever heard of a hammerdrill but damn if it isn’t the best-named tool ever.
They are the absolute best. I used to strip out all sorts of screws which was just frustrating. Plus it has a light on the tip that turns on when you pull the trigger.
Lights! Lights are great. Is the tip/bit magnetic?
Screwdrivers with magnetic tips are a gift from heaven.
Yep and the chuck is super easy to use so swapping out square/phillips tips is way easy. Woo drill evangelism!
Hammerdrill! Owning a house has been a huge learning experience for me with tools. Like, if you have plaster and masonry walls and you want to so much as hang a picture, you’d damn well better own a hammerdrill.
Is that what I’m missing? My house has old plaster walls, like below the recently-applied skim coat, you can see the old stuff with the horsehair peeking out. I just hang thingsonnthe existing, randomly placed nails, and figured that I’ll just prop everything else against the walls for the pets to knock down. But…hammer…drill….
Oh yeah. There are different kinds of plaster substrates, apparently, but I think you pretty much just need a hammerdrill. There was an epic saga in my household of trying to install curtain rods with a regular drill, which became one of those half-finished projects with all the pieces sitting in the corner for months, half-drilled holes in the walls, blah blah blah until the hammerdrill purchase fixed everything.
I want this so much.
YES! I LOVE Makita’s impact driver and I long to own one of my own (I borrow my friend’s all the time). Makita now makes cordless chainsaws and they are SHINY. Same battery base as their drill and impact drivers, though you have to put in 2. Apparently it’s much easier to get up into trees with the cordless, also no gas issues.
WHERE DO YOU LIVE
MY DAD’S HOBBY IS LITERALLY TAKING APART AND REBUILDING BROKEN CHAINSAWS
Southeast Alaska. I can’t air ship a used gas power tool very easily. There is a process for washing out the body with simple green because fumes are considered hazardous. Thank you for the offer! Are you anywhere close?
Nope, Canada 🙁 And Toronto, not the Canada that’s close to Alaska, unfortunately!
Well, dang.
Hmm, my boyfriend owns a store that sells Stihl and their mechanic is pretty good, and we’re in northern BC, but unless you’re in Hyder or something, it’s probably still going to require shipping and from what I remember cross-border shipping of dangerous goods is still a pain 🙁
Interesting! I’m scared of chainsaws but that one sounds like I might be able to handle it.
*mum voice* you stay away for abourist saws to start off with kiddo, they’re licensed (in the UK) because you can operate them with one hand and therefore chop off the other hand fairly easily. The ones available to the general public require both hands to operate, somewhat lowering the chances of sawing off your ‘spare’ arm, and therefore better for beginners!
Oh god I love stihl. I spent a summer with an hs81 hedge trimmer and that thing was magic.
One of the earliest connections that my co-parent/ex-partner and I shared was that we owned the same model of jigsaw (after a year or two we noticed a slight variation between them, which led to jokes about how our relationship was built on a lie). I also remember getting her a hammer drill for either xmas or her birthday one year (because her house has brick walls, and no one should ever have to drill into masonry with a normal drill). I’d like to think the hammer drill is still one of her favourite tools (but have a sinking feeling that it’s probably one of her crowbars).
In addition to a taste in jigsaws, one of the other things we shared was a loathing for what we termed “gender incompetence”. This was determined to come in two flavours: “traditional” gender incompetence, where the incompetence matches gender roles (e.g. men who can’t mend their clothes, or women who can’t fix a flat tire), and “liberated” gender incompetence where the incompetence runs contrary to gender roles (same examples but with the genders swapped). Together we longed for the Apocalypse to come, and rid the Earth of anyone who couldn’t be bothered to be broadly handy.
“many of them claim they could never use a drill, which is basically a hair dryer with a thing on the end that you point away from you”
Okay, I admit to being one of these women (despite the fact that I’m reasonably competent in most areas). Two reasons:
1. I’m mostly afraid of putting a hole in the wrong place in the wall, and not so much of the drill itself, and
2. I never really did master using a hair dryer.
Yes definitely agree with you on your first point. I actually did drill into the wrong place in a wall! Right now it’s covered up by the shelf I was hanging so it’s actually not that big of a deal. I would be totally fine with using a drill on a non-wall.
I have put many holes in the wrong places! It’s not the end of the world, you just have to spackle and touch up the paint. (Unless you are drilling somewhat deep, and the wall in question has got pipes in it. Then you should make absolutely certain that you’re drilling into a stud and not into your sewer line.)
Now that we live in a building with heavy-duty brick walls, my power drill is mostly relegated to widening/deepening the pilot holes for screws on Ikea furniture. Until I get a set of masonry bits! I’m hoping for them for Christmas.
Ack, this is what I mean. I’m 100% certain that I COULD learn to find studs and sewer lines and so forth, but frankly there are so many other things I’m responsible for knowing/ learning in our (heterosexual, cisgendered, married) household that I feel like taking on power tools would overload my circuits.
That is totally legitimate! I’m the handier one in my own heterosexual, cisgendered, married relationship, mostly because I have better attention to detail. My husband is the more improvisational one, which is why he is making me some kind of lunch out of tofu, zucchini & leftover pasta right now.
Yeah man, just do your best and drill the hole! (My landlord hates me).
I can’t use a hair dryer to style or shape my hair, but I can use a drill like nobody’s business. Try it if you’re interested. You can practice first on some scrap lumber if that helps raise your confidence.
That’s a good idea and actually sounds kind of fun!
hairdryers are so much trickier than drills. Drills you just hold still and push gently. Hair dryers you have to move around all the time and point at the back of your head and ridiculous shit like that.
Yes, AND you have to be using a hairbrush at the same time. Ridiculous.
THE ONLY TRUE FEMINISM IS BRAGGING ABOUT SAWS
I love this! And this: Women the world over have always used tools in various occupational settings, and perhaps that is part of the tool aversion. Maybe tool using is considered a lower class (or manly!) kind of thing for women to do and we just don’t want to be associated with that as we lightly draw our liquid eyeliner wand just above the lash line. was really interesting. I will be pondering this point for a while, I think.
My friend carries a wrench in her purse. For my 18th birthday, I asked for a Swiss Army knife. I received one small knife, which I keep on my keychain, and my “at home” multitool, which is bigger and heavier. Shoutout to my awesome cool parents for giving their daughter multiple knives upon her entrance into legal adulthood!
Go, women with tools!!
Ooh, I should put a wee swiss army knife on my keychain, since I have zero problems with an enormous keychain due to all my purses actually being large sacks.
It comes in handy all the time!!
My dad wore his Swiss army knife with his wedding tuxedo and top hat, and has given one to just about every member of the family; each of his 3 children (2 girls and a boy) received one upon graduating high school. I once used the Phillips head screwdriver on it to fix a dishwasher at work, and have terrified several men by whipping it out to slice something open. (In the interest of full disclosure, though, I got mine, opened the biggest knifey bit, and promptly sliced both thumbs. Ladies.)
My mom gave me a swiss army knife for my keys along with her old car when I got my license. The knife outlasted the car by like ten years, and I was very sad when I lost it.
yay! my (not particularly handy) parents gave me a small tool kit when I went to college, and I still use it all the time. also my brother in law is very construction-y and lets me borrow his drill because he is awesome.
I really wish I had a workshop and power tools and knew how to use them, but I don’t have the space right now. Some day, though, I’mma do it!
In the meantime, my tool use is all scientific field gear. I’m decent with a boat motor and very good at setting up quick little processing laboratories on nearby rocks, snow banks, or bits of flat ground. My favourite tool is an electrofisher, which is a Ghost Busters-looking backpack that sends electric currents through the water you’re walking in. The trick is to find the sweet spot between shock voltage, frequency, and duration that stuns the fish or brings them swimming to you without causing permanent damage.
ELECTROFISHER
It is my dream in life to use an electrofisher! My job involves working with watershed scientists, so I like to think it may someday become a reality.
I have had many feelings about scientific field gear! Particularly GPSes. They totally count.
My favorite shop tool is bolt cutters. They are probably the most useful thing that most people don’t have in their home. I use them for everything from cutting up dog treats to taking apart old furniture.
My favorite tools, however, are my pruning saw and my set of grafting and budding knives. I have Japanese versions of both that fit my tiny hands (I wear children’s gloves).
If you have smaller-than-average hands, you should try to seek out tools that actually fit in your hand. Often, (but not always) these will be from Asia. It makes such a difference in your ability to control them. I’ll never forget the first time I held a Japanese kitchen knife whose handle was a size I could actually grip.
I also make jewellery in my spare time and for ages I somehow lived without round-nose pliers. I would make loops with regular needle-nose pliers because my father collects tools and literally all I have to do is call him and be like “Yo Dad please let me borrow this”, and then I would forget to bring them back and he would forget he lent them to me. But then someone got me a pair of round-nose pliers as a gift and I am like WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE MY LOOPS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL AND SPHERICAL NOW.
I love tools because they’re like the Euclidean axioms: tiny simple pieces of machinery from which we can build an entire world.
Tools are SO GREAT, you guys. So far I’ve been able to keep my collection in the realm of what’s reasonable for a person living in an urban apartment with no yard, but I want mooooore. (what I really want right now actually are sawhorses, but the storage is tricky. Although I do have some extra room now that there is no longer a Man living in my space…)
Folding sawhorses! I have a pair like these: http://www.lowes.com/pd_77883-72596-SS-29_4294857…
And there’s also plastic foldy ones too that go nearly flat, like these: http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-060864R-Folding-Saw…
While I have no day-to-day use for one, and as such don’t own one of my own, I firmly maintain that soldering is incredibly relaxing. I totally get what Zahrah is talking about with the “solid made fluid” thing! It is weirdly meditative and deeply satisfying at the same time.
Okay, I am a total lurker, but I have been driven out of hiding, because I have to talk about how I love my staple gun more than I love more things. I have more powerful tools. I have more expensive tools. But put my staple gun in my hand and I start swaggering around the house and garden, just… fixing things.
Staple and nail guns inspire fierce loyalty. I have a friend who still gets upset about the very nice staple gun that was lost or stolen by one of her roommates ten years ago.
My teen son is forever bemoaning that our staple gun is at his grandparents’. Yet he doesn’t seem to have the heart to steal it back.
My chalk line reel! It’s basically string that’s coated in chalk, and you unroll it and hold it against a surface and then pluck it out and it bounces against the surface, drawing a straight line for you! I find so many uses for it here in my tiny little apartment, and I love that it’s so simple and so genius at the same time.
I LOVE a chalk line reel. What a fantastic little idea. They are so damn useful.
The chalk line reel reminds me of being little and hanging out in my dad’s shop. He would always let me snap the string and make the chalk line.
Tool selfies you say?
http://imgur.com/f3QO0QX
In my right hand I’m holding a Maxant hive tool. Don’t open up a box full of bees without one.
BADASS.
Ooooo. Tool, costume AND potentially dangerous yet awesome little creatures.
I would like to take this opportunity to go AH NO GLOVES YOU MADWOMAN.
Belt sander! God, I love a belt sander. I don’t own my own, I have to borrow my 63-year-old mother’s.
A QUERY! Do y’all know what a good gas mask/filter/whatever you wanna call ’em would be for doing things like, oh, melting #5 plastic with a butane torch?
(Or do you have any glove recommendations?)
When I moved out at 18, my dad gifted me with a toolbox and a set of good, solid tools that fit my hands. A hammer, a wrench, pliers (regular and needlenose), a saw, multiple screwdrivers, and a whole bunch of other various little things–work gloves and picture hangers and nails and screws and Allen wrenches and graphite-in-a-tube and all other bits of ephemera. I cannot TELL YOU how useful this has been and how many times I’ve used it. I truly do not know how people who don’t own tools get along–how do you hang pictures or fix things or whatever?
Of course, my dad is also the keeper of an enormous pile of tools in the basement inherited from his dad, who was a hobbyist carpenter and career assembly line foreman, so my dad’s fondness for tools is come by honestly, and he saw no reason why I should not be equally familiar with tools.
You know what low-tech tool I use the most? The Zip-it. It’s a long, very thin, bendy, hooked piece of plastic that I use for declogging hair out of the drain. You slide it in easily, and the backward-facing hooks grab all the hair, pull it out, drain declogged, done. It is so freaking simple and about ten thousand times easier than fussing with a wire hanger.
While I don’t deny that having tools is handy or that knowing how to fix things is cool, in the 10 years that I have lived on my own (more or less), I have had very little call to use them. I rent, so I can’t drill holes or hammer nails into things. That’s why God gave us 3M. I have not generally encountered a lot of things that needed fixing, and when I did, they were in the landlord’s purview. I still bought myself a basic toolkit when I moved into my first apartment, but probably the thing in it that I used most was the tape measure.
Yeah, my boyfriend and I have a few very basic tools (mainly used so far to assemble flatpack furniture), but renting means we can’t do anything to the walls and are supposed to contact the estate agents if things need fixing. Reading all of these tool stories makes me wish I had more of a chance to learn to use them. Maybe I should ask my dad to let me chop firewood this winter.
Chopping firewood is super empowering. Not only are you using an axe, which is cool, but you can now master fire and keep yourself and your family warm in the long, cold nights to come. POWER.
My dad’s response to being asked if he could show me how to chop wood this winter:
“Now as for chopping wood, it is traditionally a mans job, I offer the woodsman in Red Riding Hood as an exemplar (my favourite word btw), however should we need any chopped during the winter I will give you a call and you can hop on a train and come and chop for me.
x”
DADS. (PS any sexism is tongue-in-cheek; my dad does all the cooking, washing up and ironing.)
Oh, dads.
My dad also assembled me a toolbox when I moved out–a lot of it was extras of things he already had, but it all fits me well and has been great to have around. I am always so pleased when I go “damn, I need to [hang a picture/install a washing machine/get that thing out of that other thing/punch a hole in something” and then realize I HAVE A TOOL FOR THAT.
My landlord was over doing some work last month, lamenting the size of his pliers. I pulled out my toolbox and supplied him with every size pliers he could need. Later, when I expressed surprise that I was able to dig up the electrical tape he needed, he said “Nah, [my husband] seems like the kind of guy who keeps a place supplied.”
I set him straight with perhaps less courtesy than the situation warranted: Dude, you’ve been raiding my toolbox all day. Now you think the electrical tape is here because my husband is handy and prepared? COME ON.
My husband brought into our marriage a plastic grocery bag with some assorted tools in. I brought the @@ and one of those tiered double sided tool boxes that all my tools don’t even fit into.
When I move studios I’m holding out to get a table saw with a miter gauge and a bevel jig YALL. My boyfriend’s roommate has a circular saw, and I have a hand saw miter box,and it’s the MOST annoying to set up- I grew up in a house with a gorgeous cabinet saw- it had a steel frame top with custom jigs my dad built. The sawdust collector was a bin about 2×2 feet wide and 1 ft deep and it got full on the regular.
This year I’ve been on a power tool kick- I bought a jigsaw and an orbital sander.
My dad’s present to me when I moved into my apartment on the west coast was a drill.
I love making stuff. Here are the things I’ve constructed over the years:
a 4 foot tall and long planter box on legs with a storage area underneath, has a sub-irrigation well and a drain hole.
A wall frame to hold a rug.
I put wheels on my couch.
Wired several lamps
Took apart an ikea table, used the drop leafs to make one longer table, used the middle area and some scraps to make a landing bench.
Made a 6 foot 3-compartment cat tower with jigsawed cutouts for the cats to climb through
Built a wine rack that hides the backside of the microwave (it sits on the counter)
Built a white oak 5 ply credenza in my bedroom to hold the boyfriend’s clothing. Someday I hope to tackle drawers, but its too many options and I get overwhelmed.
Sheathed an ikea expedit in wood- put plywood sides, a plank top and some trim on it, so it looks classier.
Currently in progress is a pegboard for my craft supplies and I stripped down an old typewriter cart, oiled up the wood top and I’m re-coating the base with a grey spray paint, I’m hoping to turn this into a dedicated sewing machine station.
Dream tool? A flatbed laser cutter that can handle at least 3′ x 5′ pieces and will do thin metal, wood and paper.
I sell laser cutters like that at my work! The ones we sell are intended for advanced educational/light industry purposes, so they are wicked expensive, but they are SO DAMN COOL. And they do engraving/marking in addition to just cutting, and ugh, they are just the coolest freaking things you’ve ever seen.
I make intricate hand cut paper art and it’s boss and doing the work is meditative, but it takes SUCH A long time. Which is of course part of the artistry, but on the other hand, it makes getting a full show of pieces completed in my life time rather challenging. and doesn’t let me play around too much- I have to commit to whatever I make because I’m not tweaking it later. i’d love to go larger scale if I could save the time somehow, and keep the hand cuts in my back pocket for special occasions. I do know a shop that has one that I am going to go play with someday, but man the idea of having one of my own. Think of the custom frames you could put all your paper and wood cuts inside of!
I would like to be you when I grow up, please.
Oh thanks! You probably shouldn’t be me, because I do come with lots of other flaws, but you could definitely do a lot of these things! I’ll loan you my dad, he’s the one who taught most of it.
You seem so cool/ those projects are so cool/ I wish I had space to make things like that!
How much space do you have? If you are willing to live in a pile of sawdust, all this could be yours! I live in a 1 bedroom and I just spend weeks with an unlivable living room. that’s how I do it.
So hey, you’re pretty awesome.
I am the tool haver in my hetero relationship! My white collar boyfriend gets some heat from his blue collar friends for this, but mostly I just get respect.
My favourite tool is predictably my drill, because I am actually super white collar myself and don’t do that much toolin’, but not because I am a woman, just because I’m super urban and really busy with my job and my hobby of drinking and eating in bars, restaurants, or at home and I rent and so don’t do a lot of house DIY.
I also love my drill.
My boyfriend is technically much handier than I am, but I have way more time so in reality all the little household things that we do because our landlord is a lazy jerk tend to be done by me. Occasionally I summon him when I need a third hand.
I definitely love my drill too. It’s so USEFUL.
I’m a writer, and my favourite ‘tool’ is Scrivener, which is perfect for the way I write.
Basically, you can write your scenes individually and then move them around if you need to, and I LOVE it. When you’ve done with your work, you just click ‘compile’ and it spits out your completed work in standard submissions format. You can save it in a variety of document formats, for submission or for uploading and self-pubbing.
Physical tool wise, I like my expensive sewing machine and my beech wood knitting needles. More traditionally feminine, but still wonderful.
I have an early ’70s Kenmore and I croon to it on the regular. I love that goddamn sewing machine.
We have an ancient, still-working handcrank sewing machine, complete with case.
It’s actually REALLY GOOD for stitching leather.
There is a lovely little old man in my town who does house visits to mend sewing machines and last time he came round I had a long chat with him about how amazing it was that women* had had access to these incredibly sophisticated machines. After 60+ years of mending them, he is still all ‘this is industrial machinery really, it’s amazing that we have them in households’ and ‘oh, I can’t SEW, no way, I just mend them so women can sew’.
*I think he knew men are technically allowed to, and might be able to, sew, but I don’t think he was that bothered about them tbh.
Those are still tools! I love wooden (& bamboo) knitting needles, too.
Yes! I have a set of interchangeable aluminum-tipped circular needles and I use them almost every day. My favorite other needle is a 48″ circular with ebony tips (it was on sale!) which has handled making a sleeping bag-sized fair isle blanket and many others besides. It’s so pretty and so useful.
sleeping bag sized fair isle blanket?????
Fair isle completely daunts me but regardless this is an amazing feat.
can you post a picture???
I’ll try! I’m not great at posting photos:
ETA: Yay! That worked. And here is what it looked like before it was steeked:
I have my grandmother’s old tank of a sewing machine (an Elna Automatic). I need to figure out how to use it, but then I’m sure it’ll be amazing, because Grandma bought quality shit (at magical discounts). It has a really weird bobbin-holder, though, and I need to track down the manual in my email and figure out how the shit it works.
Oh man, I love my electric drill. I have hung ALL the things. I also have an electric sander, but that creates way too much dust to be my favorite anything.
I had a really terrible incident in grade 8 where I basically almost took out my shop teacher’s eye with a jigsaw blade that hadn’t been properly locked down. I’m not even joking. It made me terrified to handle anything ever, just as much for other people’s sakes than my own.
I also work for the labour ministry here, so I see a lot of industrial incidents. Power tools are terrifying to me, as well as factories and farms.
I enjoy the vise, P-Tex, metal scraper, lighter combo I use to repair my rock skis every season. It’s not much, but it’s what I know, and I fix my husband’s for him now too.
My first tool love is my hex key that has 15 different sizes of hex wrenches on it. I performed my first tool-needing household repair with it– unjamming our garbage disposal. (This is the easiest thing in the world to do, but Googling “garbage disposal won’t start”, realizing I could fix it myself, and actually buying the tool and doing it made me feel like a champion.)
Also because I own a hex key, I never have “just in case” Ikea wrenches floating around in the junk drawer.
I own more than one hex key, and I still have the ikea wrenches floating around. You are a wiser woman than I.
I think we have three hex keys (standard, metric, and “don’t know, but these are smaller”). Plus probably a dozen Ikea wrenches…They’re small, it’s fine.
I love my tools. LOVE. Everyone always raids my toolbox, because apparently my friends were all raised like wolves (who don’t buy their own tools? I don’t know).
I have a Swiss army knife with more functions than sense, which I’m going to call my favorite just because I can’t leave the house without it. However, I will always have a special place in my heart for my drill press, even if I have to keep it in storage right now. If only I had the space in my house…
This is awesome!
This reminds me of some reading I was doing about why there aren’t many women in STEM fields. Aside from the obvious institutionalized sexism, there is also a subtler kind of sexism that results in women being taught that ability is innate, and men being taught that skills can be learned. So when women first try something and are not instantly great at it, we tend to think “Well, that’s it — I suck at math/science/tools.” Whereas men are given permission to try and fail and try again until they master a skill.
So basically, all these women probably think they can’t do tools because after being taught that ability is innate they looked at a scroll saw or whatever and weren’t able to intuit how to use it. Just another way the world wastes women’s brilliance.
One of many brilliant things about my grandmother: she firmly believe that “if you can read, you can do anything.” She lived in a boxcar town until she was 3 (and they had to move into town to avoid bandits), was That Church Lady who ran everything, started a co-op savings & loan because the town didn’t have one and she wasn’t ok with that, and was just generally badass. When she died, her funeral was broadcast on CC TV, and the basement was standing-room only to watch it. It seemed like most of the 7,000 people living in the town showed up.
I’ve come to realize this is an advantage to frontier-type life. If you don’t have a skill, and wait for the “right” person to show up to do things you need, those things may never get done. So there’s still sexism, but it has to find different ways to express itself.
For Christmas last year my dad gave me a huge tool kit and I was SO STOKED. I’ve repaired plumbing, installed wiring, hung drywall (not my favorite, ceilings are HARD if you are balancing them on your head) and I used to joke that my favorite store was Home Depot. (I do really love Home Depot, though.) I have a Makita on my Christmas list.
The best tool I use currently though is probably my whale pump that we use for draining monitoring wells. To power them, we clip them to the battery of our truck. I perpetually feel badass when doing this.
I love tools, too! I love dremel tools, BUT my favorite tool that I own is actually a pretty small artist’s hammer. It’s great for tiny project, which I love. The coolest part, though, is that it comes apart and has a tiny tools inside it, like a small set of pliers and 2 screwdrivers. I am in love. Multifunctionality that doesn’t take up much room? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
UGH I am also totally in love with my multifunctional hammer. It’s so cool that you have pliers, too. I just have two screwdrivers, but never get tired of unscrewing the end of the hammer to reveal them. 😀
TOOL FILLED WITH OTHER TOOLS! I mean, how could that possibly ever get old?
I am basking in all this tool love.
I maintain it is totally reasonable to be afraid of power tools that can either put holes in you or take off pieces of your body if you accidentally bump something or get surprised or whatever. This includes chainsaws and table saws and pretty much any kind of saw, but also immersion blenders.
I would like to be a lot braver with tools, but mostly I stick with the things that cannot hurt me accidentally, like belt sanders and hammers and screwdrivers.
Swoon!
It is Right and Good to be afraid of power tools, especially while using them.
DON’T FORGET SAFETY GEAR, EVERYBODY
I have my own toolbox. My husband has his own. We both grew up in DIY homes and full liberty to use our dads’ power tools. It’s glorious. When we started dating, my husband bought my a hammer and a bottle of wine for my birthday. A good hammer too. Nice hardwood handle, has heft.
How do I chooooooose? I think my all-time favorite tool might have to be a lathe; I did woodturning a fair bit in high school, and the process of turning a hunk of wood into a delicate bowl or spindle still just seems … magical (even if I know, logically, how it works).
I also coveted one of my friend’s pruning saws real hard — it cut through things like buttah and was called (I shit you not) the “Silky Bigboy” saw. Every time I borrowed it to thin saplings or whatnot, I would spend half the time snickering while muttering “silky bigboy” under my breath.
My mom’s dad died when she was relatively young, and no one even asked if she wanted to inherit his power tools because, you know, why would a girl want power tools? She’s still PISSED about it 30 years later. That was what she most wanted of his stuff. Now she has a giant collection in the garage, and when I moved out she bought me a power drill of my very own. I rarely have opportunity to use it, but I appreciate the gesture.
The same thing happened to me and I am also still pissed about 25 years later. His workbench, his vise, all his tools, his scuba, rock-climbing, and archery gear all given away or sold. All I have is a sledge hammer with his name engraved in it. My grandmother also has a harpoon of his that probably doesn’t work anymore, but now that I’m thinking about it, I should take it!
I haven’t replaced a lot of that stuff on my own yet because money and space, so I rent it for now, but someday…someday…
A harpoon?! Whoa. You should definitely try to get that back.
I’m finally getting scuba certified this fall, so I’ll have an excuse! He did underwater photography and fishing, apparently (or harpooning, as it were). Now I have the opportunity to make up for all my lost childhood opportunities with my very feminist father-in-law who’s all, “Here are my bows, and my gun safe, let me show you them. Let us go do target practice.”
I love pliers of all shapes and sizes. I use big ones for turning big bolts, and little ones for fixing jewelry, and medium ones for pulling giant staples out of things.
But my favorite tool of all isn’t a tool in the truest sense…yet, until I am able to draw at least 35lbs. And that’s my 60″ recurve bow.
I really like my needle and thread and snips. I don’t have a saw, or a drill, and I don’t know how to use one. Someday I would like to own all the tools and have a workshop but I need more money and someone patient enough to teach me. I REFUSE TO RELINQUISH MY FEMINIST CARD.
There might be a community one!! My Dad is a woodworker and is involved with a local woodworkers’ guild. They have a shop in a senior center that anyone can use (don’t have to be a senior).
But, if you don’t have that, I don’t think there’s any reason to relinquish a feminist card. I have almost no tools (saw, drill, hammer, screwdrivers is about it) because he is so fucking good at everything I just let him do it for me.
If you go to the Home Depot or Lowes, they sometimes have free classes on things like basic woodworking, plumbing, electric, etc. I learned everything at my school’s theater shop, so maybe see if there’s like a community theater or something similar near you that might enjoy some volunteer help? I know the community theater in my hometown was always in desperate need of help for the grunt work. I am with you on the not wanting to pay for things, but there may be cheaper/free work-arounds. You will feel awesome. Power tools are great; they have POWER right in the name! Who doesn’t want power?
When I went to college, I had very few possessions, but my roommate’s parents gave her a huge toolbox when she literally didn’t know what a screwdriver was. I fixed her lamp for her, and then she let me have them. I also got (lower-class) cred as the only person in the theater department with a pick-up truck (amateurs).
For my last Christmas before heading off to college, my mom gave me a toolkit with a reminder that she was the handy one in the house, not my dad, and that I should learn how to be handy too. This glorious kit was filled small basics: pliers, tape measure, screwdriver (combo phillips/flathead in multiple sizes!), level, paintscraper (I was very confused by that one, as I figured I should leave the paint on the wall in my dorm room, but it was handy for removing “removable” contact hooks in the spring..), and the tool that remains my absolute favorite: a sleek, silvery hammer WHOSE HANDLE UNSCREWS TO REVEAL TWO SECRET (Phillips) SCREWDRIVERS. Even though I have a combo screwdriver with a real handle, etc., I’ll use the secret screwdrivers every chance I get. 6 years later, I still have the whole thing, and many fond memories of fixing things, for myself and friends. Wow, all of a sudden I’m feeling maudlin. ETA: I loved reading about other women’s favorite tools/how they use them! thanks!!
I feel like so much of how women relate to tools, especially power tools, is how we’re introduced to them. I, for example, am profoundly uncoordinated and clumsy, but my freshman year of college I started helping out at set builds to meet people in the theater department, where all majors were required to take a theater tech class. We had an awesome professor who was the department technical director and encouraged a lot of students to get over a self-deprecating mentality around tools (and unsurprisingly, most of us who demurred were women while the dudes rushed in without instruction). He was just a super legit guy who went out of his way to make sure everyone felt welcome hanging out in the shop and wanted the best people for the job. A bunch of the girls who regularly hung out in the shop making jokes and building stuff were some of my first college friends, and a lot of the upperclassmen designers were women, too. By second semester freshman year, I had an on-campus job working on the department theater tech staff, designed and built a set for a mainstage show, and was totally addicted to the feeling of mastery that you get from building things. For me, it was a huge confidence-booster and the practical skills I learned have been incredibly useful in other projects since. So I think awesome feminist dudes and ladies who know how to build things need to encourage and include the next generation!
Infinitely seconded. Theater techies are great, you find way less sexism/obnoxiousness than in some other tool-wielding spaces, and you can learn a bit of everything.
There’s something ultra satisfying about using a chain breaker…
Oh man, this is basically what happened to me! Except my first teacher/mentor was another badass lady college student who was like, “You need to know basic skills and no one else is going to teach you this. Here’s a power drill.” And then I got further training on the table saw, mitre saw, and jig saw from the contract techs for the theatre who were really just there to supervise, but always like to jump in and try to teach us tricks and shortcuts. I did a lot of work that I’m proud of in those years, but the rush of power and joy I got from using the shop tools was just like nothing else.
Also the part about women hanging back and making excuses, and boys rushing right in rings totally true for me. But by the time I finished university, I was capable and comfortable enough (and in a high enough position of power) that I got to be the one to stop them and go, “No, first you’re getting a tutorial.” And then I got to laugh at their feeble attempts. #MISANDRY
Everyone should have to take a tech theater class. Mine covered power tools, non-power tools, sewing, hand drafting, painting, and all sorts of other stuff that I have continued to use on an alarmingly regular basis (I don’t work in anything CLOSE to the theater field).
My dad introduced me to tools before anybody else had a chance to teach me that I couldn’t use them. He and I made my mom a napkin holder for Mother’s Day when I was 6, and (although I don’t remember it), I apparently used both the table saw and the drill press, very, very carefully.
Mom’s attempt to teach me to play baseball went less well.
This is the greatest piece. Thanks, Brooke, for writing it & introducing us to those cool ladies & their tools!
I think my favorite tool is my ratchet, because it makes screwdriving/allen wrenching so much easier. My other favorite tool is Excel, the choice of nerds everywhere.
omfg spud bar. my dad gave me one for my birthday last year. big holes in the ground. kind of a sucker for wheel barrows, too. mmm hammer, power drill, screw driver because assembling is fun. hanging out at a studio/gallery brought the joy of scissor lift + roller paint brush on a big stick + all kinds of paint brushes + paint trays.
I wish I had a wheelbarrow. I could buy one, but I rent, so a wheelbarrow seems like a ridiculously large thing to eventually need to take with me when I move.
My favourite tool to use is my dad’s compound miter saw, which cuts bevelled edges and makes me feel like a total fucking superhero.
My favourite tool to own is my cordless drill, which has come in handy more time than I could possibly count, which was a gift from my father when I went to university.
My favourite tool to have is my parents’ genetic handyman code, which meant I grew up with a variety of heat guns (for stripping wallpaper), nail guns (“Don’t put that through your foot,” my dad warned me seriously. THANKS DAD), staple guns (reupholster anything!) and various other home-improving guns. THOSE are guns I approve of.
I was shopping yesterday and found that I was just as entranced by the hardware section (so many types of hammer!) as the homeware section (so many types of pyrex!). Hopefully I will one day have a favourite tool!
TOOOOOLS. This is my new favorite post. No selfies that I can post, alas (stupid being at work). I will say that my perfect girlfriend got me a Dewalt power drill for my birthday and I LOOOOOVE it (for Christmas she got me a RuPaul doll, which I also looooove, SUCK IT GENDER BINARY). I did work study in my school’s theater shop for a year and I miss their tools so much. Someday I shall have a whole shop! BAND SAW, I PINE FOR THEE. My short-term goal is to get mini-shop setup (jigsaw, small power sander, etc) and put it in the corner of my NYC apartment (sorry not sorry, neighbors). I have also been learning stained glass making (glass cutters! solder! grinding!) and am hoping to start glass-blowing soon. I LOVE taking courses or even just looking this stuff up online. It has done wonders for my confidence. I feel like, if necessary, I could TOTALLY rewire a house. Hells yes. Once you get over the fear of screwing up (you will. it will not matter) and hurting yourself (if you’re careful, you should only have tiny awesome battle wounds), none of it is that hard.
tl;dr TOOLS ARE THE BEST EVERYONE SHOULD LEARN TO USE THEM.
My favourite tool is my chain-break. I can take the chain off my bike and take links apart and put them back together. It is seriously the best.
I am a baby bike mechanic, I have a repair stand and multi tools and a growing confidence in taking pieces off my bike and putting them back on. I can do all the things covered by a basic tune-up these days, but I still go to the shop to get a flat changed. Because they are so fast at it that the labour is almost nothing so it is not worth my time to wrestle with tire levers.
I am constantly offering to tune up my friends’ bikes. Usually it doesn’t end in disaster!
and my second favourite tool is the multi-head tiny screwdriver. It has 30 different heads, all of which are only useful for things like computer cases and eyeglasses. Hardly ever use it, but owning it makes me feel like I can fix anything.
Bike tools! I just got a cassette tool. It’s not my favorite (I love a good hefty allen wrench set), but I am very excited to put together my new wheels. I’m also lusting after a Kuat rack for my car with the built in repair stand.
I took jewelry in high school and it was so awesome using a blowtorch to soften and connect metal pieces. I was pretty good at it. Also I dissect ant heads with a scalpel YEAH TOOLS!
I fucking love my cordless drill, but the tool that gets me all nostalgic about childhood is an angle grinder, and there is nothing in the world more fun than cutting metal with a chop saw.
Yes! I’ve been scrolling down to find the angle grinder crew. Sparks! Hot metal! Spinning! Until relatively recently I would have admitted they had no finesse but I saw an exhibition by Ursula von Rydingsvard recently and that is some nice work with the angle grinder right there.
So hard to choose a favorite tool! One of the great pleasures of home ownership for the Mr and I was building our own workbench, complete with drawers for the power tools and a wall of pegboard for everything else. I would say at home I use the corded dremel more than anything else. For automotive work and misc, I have a fancy Gerber multi-tool. At the stable, my redonk-sharp Save-Edge rasp is da bomb on hooves.
I got into power tools as a youngish teenager doing stage crew work with the drama geeks. If (basically) the cast of Glee is unafraid to use a makita and vise grips, you have nothing to fear from them either.
I am not hugely into tools (lazy, no backyard, urban area/limited space, etc), but recently I was using a screwdriver in public and A Man suggested that I should get my husband to help me. And I thought, wow, I wish I had a greater capacity for interpersonal violence.
“Hey, do we have a screwdriver in this office?”
“Sure, what kind do you need?”
“Phillips head, that’s the one with the…”
*hands him correct screwdriver
“…the cross on it, oh, okay, thank you.”
derf.
Great post! I love my Leatherman multi-tool (it fulfills some of my Inspector Gadget fantasies) and I dream of owning a band saw…
This piece definitely inspired some self-reflection: even though I learned my way around most tools pretty early (handy dad, plus a childhood of watching “The New Yankee Workshop” on PBS) I STILL remember hating to use the wood shop at my art school when guys were around. I think it was a combination of discomfort at making a lot of noise, irritation at the all the unsolicited advice I often got, and performance anxiety; like, doubting I knew what I was doing because the people around me acted as though I might not know what I was doing? Now that I’m older and wiser, it makes me sad I can’t go back to make all the noise and cut all the wood with more confidence!
SOCKET WRENCH. The best tool is a socket wrench. Get one with all the different sizes and it will come in handy SO OFTEN.
Favorite tool of all time: a pair of 12 mm Allen wrenches (although I no longer specifically need them for what I bought them for, they are so rare, and big that I love them!)
Favorite tool this week: needle nosed vise grips that I used for emergency motorcycle repair on the road! ( which recalled to me the memory of being a youngster and not knowing how to operate vise grips!)
Tool I wished I owned: a great set of metric box wrenches. Or those Craftsman ratcheting open ended wrenches…!
I have a Milwaukee cordless drill that doesn’t have the ginormous brick of battery at the bottom and it has totally changed how I interact with the drill. It’s just way easier for me to hold and use.
In the garden, I really love my hori hori digging knife and broadfork (I don’t have one of those super-fancy ones though, alas).
Whenever I have pockets I am also carrying my Leatherman Skeletool, the pocket clip of which I have painted with my pink glitter nail polish because why not.
My favorite tool is my HAMMER OF MISANDRY, with which I smite the patriarchy whenever possible.
I am also very appreciative of the simple crescent wrench, which has helped me make so many small yet frustrating fixes.
Damn, wish I hadn’t gotten here so late. My favorite tool ever was my Leatherman, single blade (I, very sadly, lost it a couple years ago) and now I carry a small Case single blade in my pocket. Use it for everything from cooking outdoors (and indoors in a jam) to random fixes. This summer, though, my favorite tools have been my hand saw and my vise because I’ve spent all summer chopping up logs of oak for grilling and smoking food. The terrible storms in the DC area last summer ravaged my parent’s backyard, but at least I got some tasty oak logs out of it.
I’ve just gone down this thread thumbs-upping all these tools I’ve known and loved and…kind of forgotten about until now? Chalk line! We used that one all the time in tech crew in high school (which was run by my female friend who went pro in the field – I love all the theater tech love here). I also took a semester of shop class to fufill my tech credit in high school, even though I could have gotten it through more college-app-friendly ways, out of a strange desire to saw things.
I can probably creidt my parents for this. They gave me a toolbox for hannukah when I was probably between 8 or 10 (maybe younger?) It had a hammer, wire cutters, pliers, and a wonderful hand cranked drill that was like an egg-beater but better. Best of all though was the vise they gave me a few years later. It’s my absolute favorite, because it’s so heavy and solid and can clamp everything, and the screw parts just move so smoothly. I used it all the time as a kid to make dollhouse furniture, but now it’s just clamped to my desk and sometime I hang my bras on it to dry 🙁
My favorite tool to use is roomie’s compound mitre saw. He has a lot of fun tools though. The jigsaw, the drill press, the router. THE ROUTER! I love watching Router Workshop on PBS.
“Though one guy did mock our adorable mini anvil designed for detailed hammering work.”
I know the conventional answer is “compensating for something” but why are some men unsatisfied unless they’re using the largest possible tool, even if that tool is singularly inappropriate to the task at hand? I was cooking for my dad and uncle this week – bless them – and both of them wandered through multiple times and tried to make me use a much bigger knife, even though that would have made the act of dicing much, much harder.
ok here’s my Tool Selfie
http://38.media.tumblr.com/dae28d48552f6b234e1625…
caulking gun! stupid leaky roof 🙁
I love all the tool stories cited above. And I would like to put in a plug for kitchen implements as tools. Because they are and it deeply irritates me that the anthropological museum in my home city has a big display on the evolution of tools as a marker of human development that is ALL about the Manly Tools you find in the toolbox (wrenches, saws, pliers) and makes absolutely no mention of the tools that women traditionally use (needles! spatulas! scissors!). Because silly woman those aren’t REAL tools! Totally insignificant in the rise of human culture!
For me I would nominate my needle nose pliers, which I carry with me with my bicycle repair kit and use frequently to pull tiny bits of metal out of my tires. And my sturdy all-purpose whisk, which is balanced just right so I can use it for 5 minutes straight without getting forearm cramps and has exactly the right level of curvature at the bottom to lift batter out of the curve of a mixing bowl.
I wish I could recogonise the Right Whisk when I see it.
Favorite regularly used tool is probably my ratcheting screwdriver. Or vice grips. Favorite tool to play with is a drill press. So precise! Such nice holes! I could probably just spend hours turning wood into swiss cheese to no particular end, given constant access to a drill press.
Really, the best tool related thing in my life right now is my glorious red toolbox with three ball-bearing drawers. It was my christmas present last year and it holds all our tools and is beautiful and I don’t have to dig to find the damn tape measure any more.
Edit- and if anyone needs to do any shopping for breathtakingly beautiful, functional tools, the Garret Wade website is where it’s at.
Guys! I just got a ring mandrel off of Amazon! I’m excited to be able to make wire circles that don’t have slight corners from where I stopped partway through to make sure it was the right size.
I also asked my parents for a set of iron splitting wedges last Christmas, and I got two 5-pound wedges and a 3-pound engineer’s hammer. The hammer also happens to do very nicely hitting my (apparently non-tempered) hatchet, so I can split my own firewood like a champ. I still have to buy the cut logs from somewhere, but I can then turn them from 1/4 of a log into two 1/8 of a log, and it’s awesome. And! Since I often sit on my front step, the 7-year old girl next door sometimes comes over and asks me to teach her how to split firewood.
(My fireplace insert is very, very small.)
I also just got a rotary cultivator, and I plan to use it to change my gardening life. I can’t keep up with the weeds in the garden, because I’m lazy, but with spike wheels on a stick, I might actually be able to fight back against all the nature happening where I don’t want it to.
My favorite tool for the last 25ish years has been the giant drill press in my father’s garage. I used to get a milk crate or bucket to stand on and he’d give me a small piece of scrap wood and I would amuse myself for hours drilling holes. I wish I had room for a workshop. I am dying to make jewelry boxes for my nieces. My favorites I’ve recently used: cordless drill, DUCT TAPE, and the Kreg jig for pocket holes. That tool made building a desk a lot easier and faster.
Power. Hammer.
So I have arthritis. And am attempting to learn blacksmithing. And MOTHERFUCKING POWER HAMMER means I don’t have to hammer things and it’s wonderful.
I have a mini anvil for metal stamping and I love just how adorable it is.
There’s a certain satisfaction from hammering something that you just don’t get from knitting.
I actually store my pliers on the bottom of my thread holder. Hammers, pliers, and anvils sit merrily next to my sewing machine and cupcake stand which has all my prettiest yarn in it.
I also put up all the pictures in my crafty room by myself – with a cordless drill. Same with the curtain rail.
My boyfriend bought me a drill for my birthday. One of the best birthday presents just second to the remote control dalek.
I’d have a pink keyboard if they made it. Why does everything have to be “masculine” colors to be serious? Fuck it, put pink on everything, then smash heads with it.
this is actually kinda related to my problem with this piece? it just seems really Idk, harshing and snotty toward women who are not inclined toward saws and shit.
and it’s not coming from a place of defensiveness, like.. I really so badly wanted to love it, because I fucking love tools. I love them. so much (I’ve been sketching out plans to build/install library bookcases into my living room all day ffs – like, ok, I need a new tablesaw, because I just cannot possibly trust myself to rip all that shit with my crusty old skillsaw [I so want this green one she mentioned ughhhh] and it burns me, cuz I am not swimming in money. on the other hand? JUSTIFICATION FOR TABLESAW <3 – uh. my point is, I really enjoy tools ok. I am down with tools.) idk. it just. reeks a bit of ~better than all these frivolous eyeliner-wielding peasants who can’t with tools~-ness, with this lofty-ass tone, and it rubs me the wrong way. like, there’s more than one way to be a feminist. but the profiles are excellent and fab. /conflicting feels
also, I am so inspired to finally go get a torch.
Ratcheting socket wrench (I had to google that, it wasn’t in my ordinary English vocabulary. I hope it is what I Think it is. Wikipedia says it is.). With a switch.
I love a good spirit level myself, and there’s something very satisfying about drilling holes. I used to have a dainty mother-of-pearl swiss knife which I jammed into the leg of a bully in a playground in a misunderstanding of the wisdom that you should stand up to bullies.
I love me some pliers. It’s so satisfying to be able to get a good grip on a small, slippery thing and just yank on it until it does what you want.
I recently had to borrow a drill from my father and it took a lot of convincing to get across that I only want to borrow the DRILL, not the drill + my dad’s use of it in my apartment. This is the story of how I hung up my beautiful, billowy white curtains for the first time, and also how I found out that my walls are hollow and won’t hold up the rod (yes, I used drywall studs. I did. The wall is shit.)
Also, tiny cone-shaped jewelry pliers that I bought when I had delusions of craftiness. I’ve since given away all my beads and things, but these are great for repairing jewelry because they will bend the wire back into a perfect little loop.
I thought my favorite tool would be my credit-card size happy hour tool- it was a wine opener and little knife and a tiny fork and it’s great. I’ve actually only used it as a wine opener once- but I’ve used it for all kinds of things, most notably fixing staplers and copy machines and things.
But then I just remembered that I’ve recently started using a stringed edge trimmer and O! how I love it. Just pulverizing the weeds. I may hate the lawnmower but now I have a reason to look forward to lawnmowing day.
I love my spindles probably more than any(non-living)thing else in my apartment. There's something profoundly satisfying about a stick that makes yarn from a pile of fluff.
Second favorite is definitely my dremel, followed by the giant box of wrenches my dad left me when we finished assembling my apartment. I think I've used those at least once a week since moving in. Everyone should have wrenches!
My Dad would always have me help him fix cars, build things and fix things using tools. He has a pretty extensive tool collection (he’s a fix-it-yourself kind of dude with a pretty extensive knowledge of How Things Work). I liked helping him and I learned a lot! I really like power drills. It got me ready for when I took theatre shop in college and had to use a lot of the same tools (and even some fancier ones). We used big saws and I would be relegated to a lot of wood working because I wasn’t afraid of them.
My favorite tool isn’t really mine, but I am the lead operator for it at my job. It’s a 5’x10′ CNC cutter that I use to cut signs made of various materials into various shapes. It has a router, an oscillating knife and a tangential knife; you can also swap out the knives for scoring wheels and other neat things. I’ve printed & cut signs for state and local government, our NBA team, and our minor league baseball team, some of which have ended up on the news. One of the projects I did for our NBA team was even shown on ESPN! It’s pretty satisfying to have your handiwork seen by such a wide audience.
It’s also privately satisfying that the two guys in my department who are the only other operators are both fine with basic stuff like cutting to a dieline but will come get me whenever a blade needs to be changed or re-calibrated or if the machine has an error 😉
One year, contributing to the family game of ‘could I get that for Christmas?’, I asked for lockpicks. And my father found me beautiful antique-but-still-working ones. I’m fairly good with them, although I don’t have them now, because I live abroad, countries have weird laws and there’s no acceptable reason why I’d be bringing them in my suitcase. But I love them.
My Makita cordless drill. And my screwdriver with the reversible bit. And my favorite red garden clippers. Oh yes, and my new professional weight dog shearing tool.
I have diagnosed motor skills problems. I'm female. Despite these setbacks, I can still operate tools.
My favourites are my set of Allen keys, as they are useful for anything.