So this last week one of my 20+ year old phillips head screwdrivers met its match when it hit the floor at the just the right angle to shatter the handle cleanly in two.

This thing has been with me since my uni days. It's seen me through multiple jobs, cities, homes, and especially relationships. It was my daily driver¹. It wasn't a particularly special tool in and of itself; it's part of a small unlabelled toolset that I'm fairly sure was from a dollar store or similar. But it just felt right. The weight, the size, the balance... it was all so comfortably familiar.

I shouldn't feel so emotionally attached to such a simple thing but when the new one arrived I couldn't help but feel a sense of loss, even though my new one is undoubtedly a much better tool (wera kraftform plus, fyi).

¹ Pun intended.

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[–] 7 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

The loss of a trusty tool is heartbreaking and can also piss a person right off.

There was a time when a craftsman was expected to make a portion of his own tools. And screwdrivers or as the British so eloquently named them - Turn-screws, were some of them. Each tool was hand crafted from iron and wood and made to fit the hand of it's maker perfectly. And every craftsman skill was judged by those tools he made for himself.

I spent a dozen years as a modern day toolmaker. Designing and building the tools needed to manufacture a lot of mundane items around you. And I have a fair number of high precision tools that I have made for myself over the years that no one can just buy. And they made my job easier and my work better.

So grab some steel and wood and make you a screwdriver.

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