Embarassing Tools

[British Red]

A while ago we had a thread about "working knives"

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111562&page=2

- and I showed my working knife..



This week I axed out a load of tree roots



Now this is not a job for a Cegga axe - so I brought out my "ditch axes"



Cheap B&Q synthetic handles, padded throat wrapped in Duct tape..a real horror show

However when, after a days work, they end up like this



...and then go on the belt sander for a cleanup (I know, I know, stop shouting )



But after a scrub with a wire brush, a sharpen and a grease, I can hang them on the wall again until the next filthy job




So....have you got any embarrassing...but useful...tools?

 

[HillBill]

Aye, the first two knives i ever made.

Here they are when i made them..


And here they are now. They get used for horrible cutting jobs like shed roofing felt, chiselling ice so i can get into my workshop, cutting roots and any other job which i know will not do a knife any favours. They have weathered the storm well though, both have a couple of small chips near the tips, and in the 5 years since i made them, i have not had to resharpen them, one of them still shaves hair for most of the blade too.

 

[Badger74]

What's embarrassing Mark, is the fact you haven't took the tar off. Other than that, its a testament to you as a knife maker that after 5 years of abuse, they are still usable.

 

[John Fenna]

I do have a couple of hatchets that get "abuse" jobs and some of my "workshop" knives are ... rough.
Like the others here these are tools that work but do not look as good as they might... in fact I would worry about photographing them in case it broke the lens!

 

[HillBill]

Thats just character It'd need boiling off now i think, its been on since 2011 lol

What's embarrassing Mark, is the fact you haven't took the tar off. Other than that, its a testament to you as a knife maker that after 5 years of abuse, they are still usable.

 

[Tony]

Roofing felt is a nightmare for knives,i've killed plenty over the years on roofing felt

Buckshot took my Ray Mears Woodlore for a clean last year, it was in a very poor state, rust, green copper stains etc

 

[demographic]

Not got one of these but its got to be on the list of tools that site agents buy for labourers during demolitions work then everyone who uses them hates.
Then they get in the site container for the next ten years.
Ladies and gentlemen I bring to you the Stanley Fubar.
I don't know anyone I dislike enough to buy them one.

Ahh, just remembered one that I find embarrassing to use.

Epoxy wood filler, using it generally means I'm filling the hole made when I've drilled a hole in the wrong place. Site agents have this super sense smell thing going on though and can smell a carpenter using it at three hundred paces. Gits.

 

[British Red]

Ahhhh fubars....they are so well named Just a wrecking bar with pointless doodads really - but you can buy me one if you must!

 

[HillBill]

That FUBAR looks like it would make a half decent rock hammer type thing for digging out rocks and splitting geodes open etc.

 

[Shewie]

I have an old lock knife somewhere which is well and truly battered, it's one of those cheapy ones with the wooden handle and the brass ends. We use it for hacking the weeds out of the cracks in the cobbles and path, it's been broken and resharpened numerous times.

It's in the shed somewhere but I'll try and get a piccy one day

 

[demographic]

Ahhhh fubars....they are so well named Just a wrecking bar with pointless doodads really - but you can buy me one if you must!

I don't dislike you enough
A far and away better prybar is one of THESE. I've had one for maybe four years, carry it everywhere when at work as it hangs off my belt. Only a foot long but used in conjunction with a hammer its an amazing little tool. I got it when I was working for a timber framing company and all the lads there have one.
Gets the tips hammered beneath the head of a nail and surprisingly large amount of leverage available. Plus it doesn't weigh a ton.

Mine was bought from B&Q and at the time Stanley didn't have their name on them, I guess they are made in India and now Stanley just puts their name on them with a price hike, have recently asked the company who makes them how much for 50 of them cos I reckon I could flog ten of them straight off the bat to all the people who keep borrowing mine. Reminds me I must check my e-mails.

 

[British Red]

I have the very same tool - although I think the nail pulling tips are more flared on mine (mines probably older than f years though). Excellent little tool - my favourite nail bar!

 

[demographic]

I have the very same tool - although I think the nail pulling tips are more flared on mine (mines probably older than f years though). Excellent little tool - my favourite nail bar!

Mine has been absolutely hammered, every once in a while I have a go at the tips with a metal file to sharpen them but other that getting blunt tips its a cracking tool.

 

[resnikov]

I have an axe very similar Red, I have used it many times for getting roots out when next to brick or concrete and a miss swing is going to but a big dint in the blade.

I have a gransfors bruks SFA but the first axe I choose for most jobs in the garden is my cheap axe as its never let me down.

 

[Harvestman]

I've been an embarrassing tool a time or two... dunno about useful though.


I've just bought a Hultafors craft knife in dayglo orange for exactly these sorts of 'use it and abuse it' jobs though, but thus far it remains unused.

 

[Buckshot]

I have an axe I was given. It's a mess. I use it to show scouts what to look for in a safe axe and what can happen if...

It's amazing though, when word gets round you have an axe people sometimes ask, ' I've got a stump I need to get rid of. Can I borrow your axe?'
I have another axe for lending. It's sharp but has loads of dinks and chips and I don't mind if it gets more

 

[Demonwolf444]

Aye, the first two knives i ever made.

Here they are when i made them..


And here they are now. They get used for horrible cutting jobs like shed roofing felt, chiselling ice so i can get into my workshop, cutting roots and any other job which i know will not do a knife any favours. They have weathered the storm well though, both have a couple of small chips near the tips, and in the 5 years since i made them, i have not had to resharpen them, one of them still shaves hair for most of the blade too.

Shame because they are nice looking knives, if you ever wanted to clean them up some paint brush thinner would be your friend.

 

[scoteng]

Ahh, just remembered one that I find embarrassing to use.

Epoxy wood filler, using it generally means I'm filling the hole made when I've drilled a hole in the wrong place. Site agents have this super sense smell thing going on though and can smell a carpenter using it at three hundred paces. Gits.

I have a tin of this sitting in my shed. Acts like an umbrella on a dry day. Ever since I got it, I have never had to use it. (Hmm, perhaps I should not have said that)