House Tools Everyone Needs.

[bughunter99]

Exacto knives with bright colored casings, so you can find them again when you drop them in the grass after opening mulch bags.

Robo-grip wrenchs: Few sizes. I can open anything with these things, even with my destroyed wrist joints

Reciprocating saw: get lots of good blades, the ones that saw through nails and cement are my favorites.

Quick connect hose connectors, not really tools but make life much easier.

Extendable tree trimmer-with both loppers and saw, makes it super simple to open up light getting to the base of the trees.

Garden pick with Matlock design: Best tool ever for breaking into hard pack clay, I dug the whole pond with this. Makes really nice clean hole edges. Shovel is useless in hard clay compared to this.

Bench mounted thingy that you can use to hold anything really tight while you attack it with various tools. Love that thing.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by bughunter99

Quick connect hose connectors, not really tools but make life much easier.

Extendable tree trimmer-with both loppers and saw, makes it super simple to open up light getting to the base of the trees.

YES YES YES!!!!

Bench mounted thingy that you can use to hold anything really tight while you attack it with various tools. Love that thing.

The bench thingy is a "vise". And YES YES YES... on this, too.

[clkeiper]

So, in other words...
We need to go to the hardware store and purchase ONE OF EVERYTHING and TWO of a few of them?

[hoefarmer]

Okatsune 304 hand clippers and Mule Tape

[pauldavid]

Gorilla glue!

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

So, in other words...
We need to go to the hardware store and purchase ONE OF EVERYTHING and TWO of a few of them?

Carolyn,

Sometimes many more than two. I honestly have no idea how many leaf rakes we have. There's a special small one for raking in restricted areas...One with an extra long handle/pole so I can rake under huge bushes...A huge plastic one that my brother uses for raking masses of leaves...My favorite two or three that just feel good, and then all those metal rakes and each has their special purpose/s.

It just depends on where you live and what is helpful to maintain it.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Carolyn,

Sometimes many more than two. I honestly have no idea how many leaf rakes we have. There's a special small one for raking in restricted areas...One with an extra long handle/pole so I can rake under huge bushes...A huge plastic one that my brother uses for raking masses of leaves...My favorite two or three that just feel good, and then all those metal rakes and each has their special purpose/s.

It just depends on where you live and what is helpful to maintain it.

...
Just like I said... One of everything and two of some. We also have several different styles of rakes. My FIL cut every other tooth out of the yard rake and a landscape rake for rocks. We have regular landscape rakes, leaf rakes, skinny leaf rakes, a retactable metal leaf rake that is pretty cool, yard rakes, short handled rakes to get under the apple trees...and I am sure a few more. We have an excavating business... I can't even begin to list the number of tools in the garages. If we don't have it or someone misplaces something my dear husband is not at all backward about going and buying a new something. shovels... digging shovels, spades, scoop shovels, track spades for cleaning the tracks of the excavators, heavy orange rigid shovels and a couple of those awful wavy edged digging shovels, stone shovels( they have holes to lighten the weight of the shovel for shoveling stone..."ditch"shovels for cleaning the last little bit of stuff out of the ditch before laying pipe. It has a narrow blade that is about 12" long. I have no idea what there real name is. I have never seen them for sale anywhere. They must come from a specialty supplier. I can't even begin to imagine an auction or a sale or moving...


Don't forget a workbench grinder.

[kurt]

Although not tools.

Abc, CO 2 ,fire extinquishers placed close to possible ignition/fire sources i.e.sheds kitchens,BQue pits,fuel/fertilizer/chemical storage areas.In combo with some smoke detectors a must.

A good first aid kit.

[taboule]

Safety equipment of course. Eye protection/goggles, ear muffs and dust mask for some jobs.

[bower]

re: sharpening, I have a bench grinder and learned to use it for wood turning tools from a skilled buddy in the days of our wood lathe experiments.. but last year had to sharpen some axes and refreshed my knowledge about that online.... mostly folks recommended the file over the grinder for axe blades. So I did them by hand and I was pleased with the results.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by bower

re: sharpening, I have a bench grinder and learned to use it for wood turning tools from a skilled buddy in the days of our wood lathe experiments.. but last year had to sharpen some axes and refreshed my knowledge about that online.... mostly folks recommended the file over the grinder for axe blades. So I did them by hand and I was pleased with the results.

bower, your post reminded me of an old tool I want.

There is a grinder type that I've wanted to find for decades now. I Met my stepmother's grandfather back in 1975. I was 10 years old, he was over 90. He was a very interesting man who raised chickens commercially. He showed us the whole place, and it was fascinating. In one small barn, he had a grinder for sharpening tools. No electricity - you cranked a handle. You could make it go as slow or fast as you wanted. That hand powered grinder impressed me more than everything else combined on his unique farmstead. Seeing and using that grinder really made me look at life in a better way.

It looks a lot like this one https://www.google.com/search?q=hand...56%3B624%3B416

[Worth1]

I like the big foot pedal grinders with the huge wet grind stone and a drip can.
I would give anything if I could find one like I used to use.
I use my grinders all of the time I have a small and large Milwaukee right angle grinders and a bench grinder.

Worth

[Worth1]

Strap wrench to work on faucets so you dont mess up the finish.
The faucet wrench you use under the cabinet to disconnect the lines in tight places.
They also make a valve seat wrench to replace faucet valve seats.
Good propane torch flux and solder to sweat copper pipe.
Kerosene lanterns and lamps in case the power goes out.

Worth

[bower]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

bower, your post reminded me of an old tool I want.

There is a grinder type that I've wanted to find for decades now. I Met my stepmother's grandfather back in 1975. I was 10 years old, he was over 90. He was a very interesting man who raised chickens commercially. He showed us the whole place, and it was fascinating. In one small barn, he had a grinder for sharpening tools. No electricity - you cranked a handle. You could make it go as slow or fast as you wanted. That hand powered grinder impressed me more than everything else combined on his unique farmstead. Seeing and using that grinder really made me look at life in a better way.

It looks a lot like this one https://www.google.com/search?q=hand...56%3B624%3B416

Salt, that looks awesome!
The real hitch with cheap power tools is that you can't control the speed... the old fashioned way was actually better.

In my adventures with metalwork I had need for some highly polished hammers and work surface, such a tedious job I tried every possible shortcut... I went to several machine shops and paid to have the anvil ground as fine a surface as possible... it was ridiculous! I had to start all over and do it myself by hand.. there simply isn't a better way.