Gentle Decline 1/36: Tools and Toolmaking
Hello. It's been a while since I've sent an issue, for which my apologies. Job-hunting in this plague year takes a lot of effort, so that's been, well, taking the available effort. This issue is all about tools for dealing with the climate crisis world - and I do mean literal, actual (mostly hand) tools.
[ Gentle Decline is an occasional newsletter about climate crisis, and - more to the point - how to cope with it. Drew, who needs to eat as well as rant, has a brand-new Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/drewshiel - specially requested by readers of this newsletter and Commonplace. You can see details that didn't make it into the newsletters, for a start, and there are and will be (possibly mysterious) other benefits. Sign up today. ]
I've been thinking a lot lately about re-use. Re-use of leftovers, that is, and re-use of old things, repair and recycling and saving on both waste and new purchases. Readers of Commonplace will already have seen some images of my replacement of the handle on a 20-some-year-old cast-iron pan; I removed a charred old wooden handle, which was beginning to allow a disaster-inviting free rotation, and replaced it with one whittled from a piece of firewood. It's not as though the pan would be completely useless without a handle, but it'd be a lot more difficult to use. And it's not as though I don't have other cast-iron pans; I have a total of four of them now. But this one is my favourite, it cooks well, I know its weight and handling better than any other implement in the kitchen, and it was most definitely worth my while to make it work again. It would have cost about €60 to replace, whereas the firewood cost me, I think, about 30c, and I already had the tools and skills to do the work.
However, there's the thing I want to talk about: tools. And skills, too, but I'll come back to that later. I do not, from my own point of view, own many tools. I particularly don't own many power tools, and even more so, I don't own any of the big machines which were in my father's workshop. But I apparently do have all the things I needed to make that handle, and was able to put my hands on them quickly.
For clarity, the conversion from piece of firewood to pan-handle used: an axe, a saw, a knife, two chisels, a hammer, a hacksaw, a pen, and an electric drill with a bit of the appropriate size. Also a surface on which to work, which was the garden table mentioned below. I could have gotten away with one chisel, and I could have used the hacksaw to do what the saw did, albeit slowly and with much swearing. I do not have, and could definitely have used a vice, and I lined the drill holes from either end of the piece up by eye rather than measuring anything because I inherited excellent spatial reasoning from both sides of my family, an advantage many people don't have.
Earlier in the year, I turned a pile of scrap timber retrieved from a skip into a garden table, and also built a chicken shelter for use in wet weather using similar timber and an old shower screen. It has a perch and everything, and the chickens are mostly ignoring it in favour of sitting on the back doorstep menacing the cats and demanding oats as blackmail. Again, these projects were enabled by the saw, hammer, drill (with screwdriver bits), pen or pencil, and a measuring tape.
One of the things I think is going to happen in the near-ish future is that things will become more difficult to replace. Repairing tools, furniture, and "temporary" buildings will become important. So I want to look at a very basic set of tools for the post-and-during-climate-crisis world, so that you too can engage in this kind of re-use and repair. In the most technical sense possible, you can do almost anything in woodwork with just a chisel and a mallet, including making other tools (here's a guy making a box that way). But that takes a level of skill that most people - including myself - don't have.
Let's deal with the single power tool first: an electric drill. You can get hand drills, either the kind with a crank on the side that uses gears to turn that into rotary motion of the bit, or the older kind with a displaced handle in the middle that you turn round and round by muscle power. Nobody in their right mind wants to use those things, but if you feel that electrical power might not be available, go ahead and acquire one. They can mostly use the same bits as their electrical siblings. The electrical drill should be the kind you plug in, not cordless; it should have a hammer action; it should have a setting for use as a screwdriver and as a drill; and it should rotate both ways (this is almost but not quite a given). As with most tools, it's worth spending a bit more to get a good one; the Lidl central aisle specials may suffice, but they're pretty much guaranteed to wear out after a few years. The Bosch one I have has been on the go for more than 15 years. Make sure you can hold it comfortably at arm's length for a little while; you'll almost never need to do so, but it's a good way to simulate holding it in more comfortable positions for a longer time. Drills are heavy compared to most things we're used to using in our hands these days, and you want to be able to use it for at least 15-20 minutes at a stretch. "I'll get used to it" is a surefire way to end up with a tool you can't use.
Next, you'll want drill bits. Ideally, you want a variety of sizes, and ones suited for wood, brick/stone and metal. You'll also want screwdriver bits, and the necessary widget to mount them neatly in the drill chuck. Your drill may come with these, in which case, happy days. There are a million other things you can put in a drill, from rotary saw blades to paint guns, but the only one I've found repeated use for is a wire brush. Drill bits break and wear out; you can never have too many.
The drill will make a lot of assembly and disassembly projects easier, and for flat pack furniture or the like, it's very often the only tool you'll need. The number of pieces of discarded furniture (as in, in skips, on roadsides, or on freecycle lists) that are originally flatpack approaches 100% these days, so being able to take them apart cleanly so you can move them or reuse the parts is and will continue to be valuable.
Next up, a saw. This is a more fraught choice than it really has to be, mostly because of the variety of saws on the market. My broad recommendation is for a Japanese Kataba saw, because it's versatile, capable, and can easily have the blade replaced. But if you can't get hold of one of those, get one with a comfortable handle, a flexible but not whippy blade, and no spine. The comfortable handle almost goes without saying - size it for your hand, and bear in mind that if you have small hands, you still need to be able to grip it comfortably. The flexible blade is important because you want it not to get stuck, but you don't want it to be too flexible, because then you need unreasonable precision in your movement when you're cutting something. And don't get one with a spine, because you can't make deep cuts with those. If you're getting a second saw, then get one with a spine; they're more precise for when you need that.
Hammers are easy. There are two basic kinds; pall-peen and claw. Ball-peen hammers are useful if you reckon you'll have to dish metal, and since some of the people reading this make armour, that's valid. That's re-enactment armour, not Mad Max post-apocalyptic armour, although if you live in the UK, either might be useful. Otherwise, though, the claw hammer is the one to go for. You can remove nails and other bits of metal from timber, wedge crates and boxes open, and generally make use of what is in effect a short crowbar. It also hammers nails, but see the commentary on skills, below.
Axes are for chopping up big chunks of wood, and for chopping down trees. I have done both, and I can tell you that lumberjacks earn their money. They aren't really woodworking tools in the same way; you'll almost never use an axe after the very first step of a project ("make a big piece of wood smaller, without caring too much how much smaller"). On the other hand, for processing firewood, they are the only real tool. So maybe get one anyway. Make sure you can lift it, swing it, and that the handle doesn't carry vibrations. Do not attempt to hold wood with one hand and chop with the other; that's an advanced skill.
Chisels are next. Don't buy cheap ones, they'll go blunt or the handles will fall off or something. You want, in order, one with a straight edge of about 7-10mm width, one with a straight edge of about 15-20mm width, a few with curved surfaces in various sizes, and maybe one with a v-shaped blade. The 7-10mm one will do almost everything you need, though. Also get a mallet. Wooden, not rubber, with a head about one-and-a-half times the size of your fist.
Finally, a knife. A penknife will do, but I'd really recommend getting a Leatherman multitool; it'll give you the knife, a couple of manual screwdrivers, and a pliers all in one solid tool. Keep the blade sharp as best you can. Beware of the legalities of buying and carrying knives where you live; there's some genuine nonsense gone into legislation in various places in the last couple of decades, which I suspect renders me illegal every time I bring cooking knives to an event.
You'll also want to get supplies of nails and screws. A variety of each, with more of the kinds that are in the medium sizes. It is entirely possible that if you buy screws that are 15cm long, you won't use any for years, but when you need one, you'll really need one. And also sandpaper, in a variety of grades. Not the ridiculously fine ones, mind; those are for polishing metal. Buy a couple of manual screwdrivers, too, the cross-shaped Philips one and a flat one. Sometimes the power does go out. Also, buy two measuring tapes, because those things vanish like socks in the laundry. Maybe three.
And now the skills. The skills are really simple: get some scrap timber and use the tool on it. Cut off bits, chisel off bits, hammer in nails, bore holes, drive screws. None of these things is as simple as it looks when someone who knows what they're at does it, and nothing will teach you how to use them except using them. Develop the muscle memory before you need it. Otherwise you're going to end up with uneven cuts, deeper than intended chisel marks, bent nails, screws that ping off into whatever dimension lost screws flee to, and drill holes that really do not go where you intended. I cannot emphasis this enough: you need to learn to use the tools, and while the learning curve is not steep, it is there.
Once you can do the basic stuff reliably, take on a few simple projects. Do not make a box. Boxes are not simple projects. Replacing screws in hinges is a simple project. Taking down old shelves is a simple project. Putting up shelves is at least a medium project for a beginner, and there are times when it still takes me half a day to put one up, if it's in an awkward place. Boxes MIGHT be medium projects, but frankly there's a lot of precision in a box. Outdoor furniture - tables, benches, planters, flowerpot stands - are a good way to learn; nobody minds if outdoor stuff is a bit wonky as long as it works.
And overall, remember: if the thing you made fulfils its function, that's a win. Making it look nice is an advanced skill; as long as nobody gets splinters from it, you're good.
This issue brought to you by decent frosty mornings, a sense of space, Coke Zero, and a spaniel who at the age of eight is really mastering the mournful expression. I'm giving up on trying to say what the next issue will be in advance, but I'm taking requests - hit reply to make yours.
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