Tools or techniques commonly frowned upon, but you do it anyway

[Tengu]

Peeling potatoes?

<Shivers in horror>

 

[Pattree]

They are NOT potatoe peelers! Whoever does THAT? Skins are delicious.
They are veg peelers! I don’t eat we’v swede or parsnip peel. Carrots, very rarely bother to peel them.

But
In line with the OP they can be misused for so many things. If food needs to be poked, prodded or perforated it’s the tool to use. The steel is surprisingly useful for such a cheap item and both the point and the edge (As opposed to the blade) can be sharpened to an extent.

Do not be fooled by the ultra cheap versions. They are moulded plastic made to look like wood and string. If the tang is any length at all (which I doubt) it might be worth hitting the plastic with a hammer and using your own wood and string.

Making my way back to the OP.
I’ve scored metal with scissors (a scissor???) and cut wire with them.

 

[Toddy]

I peel spuds. Husband and sons don't like skins in their mash

I hate wasting the skins though, and tried the whole 'fried potato skins' thing.....put on a kg in a fortnight, so to hang with that I'm just fattening up the worms with them now.

Baked spuds, I eat it all

 

[Chris]

Roast potatoes need to be peeled as well. They don’t go crispy enough with the skin on, I assume due to it trapping steam or something.

 

[Tengu]

If a veg needs peeling...chances are its no longer fit to eat.

 

[Tony]

I use a blowtorch whenever practicable to get fires going, I can rub sticks together, I'm very good at flint and steel and all those things, but I love my blowtorch.

There's also my battery leaf blower, took that to the WinterMoot, that really gets the fire hot

 

[grainweevil]

If a veg needs peeling...chances are its no longer fit to eat.

I dunno, I'd rather have to peel it than waste it.

Sometimes I opt to recklessly split things with my keyboard. Infinitives, mostly.

 

[MrEd]

I use a chainsaw as my arthritis prevents me from using a bow saw or an axe. I even had to buy an electric chainsaw because I couldn't pull the petrol one. I use a small pair of gardening snips for virtually every cutting task when it gets cold as knives are sometimes overrated!

Si

I am with you on that, I have arthritis - on my hands my middle joints, the bases of my thumbs and my wrists are my worst. I bought an electric chainsaw and it’s super, I can use it for longer for the same amount of discomfort.

 

[Nice65]

I use a blowtorch whenever practicable to get fires going, I can rub sticks together, I'm very good at flint and steel and all those things, but I love my blowtorch.

There's also my battery leaf blower, took that to the WinterMoot, that really gets the fire hot

lol! That’s really coming clean there Tony, well done for getting it off your chest

I have a little Jisulife battery fan that not only will blow up my camping mat in seconds, but also blast the fire or barbecue to flame in no time.

And I baton folders, my old Super Swede never grumbled. With the lock loose of course so as not to damage it. I wouldn’t do it with thin stock, like a UKPK.

 

[John Fenna]

I often use meths from my stove kit to help light my fire pit fire .... especially if I have been sold fire resistant charcoal (as I had just before the Moot! - dampish black dust in a thick plastic bag .."Ignite your Summer" indeed!)
Never petrol or Colman fuel though!

 

[Chris]

I often use meths from my stove kit to help light my fire pit fire .... especially if I have been sold fire resistant charcoal (as I had just before the Moot! - dampish black dust in a thick plastic bag .."Ignite your Summer" indeed!)
Never petrol or Colman fuel though!

That charcoal took nearly all week to get going!

I sometimes use a squirt of hand sanitiser if the fire’s struggling.

 

[demented dale]

I use wee knives....for pretty much everything. Lot of people have told me to, "Get a real knife", like thon Australian fellow who killed crocodiles.....we have a surprising dearth of crocodiles in Scotland though


I use a tattie peeler to strip bark...got roundly told off by a FOREST SCHOOL TUTOR (no offence intended to those who are geuinely enthusiastic and encouraging) for doing so because I ought to be teaching using a knife....yeah, right, y'see round here the local MP literally got voted in on his catchphrase of, "Carry a knife, go to jail !"....local town was the 'knife murder capital of Europe' for a while.
So, tool use is always a contentious issue, and one has to be aware of the local culture. Tattie peeler it is, and it works fine.

I use an old worn down to a stub chisel to sharpen my pencils

Potato peeler to strip bark is a cracking idea. What's up with people?