It seems to be western human nature to not treat carefully things that are not yours.
Rental cars are an example. Same with tools.
I think a basic tool box with tools should be owned by any prospective employee and brought to work.
Until western society learns Asian levels of respect and accountability, employers are going to be footing the bill for the damage and negligence that is bound to occur.
I think there are some amazing opportunities within human potential that never get to develop because of lack of access and barriers made by tooling costs. I have seen young men in 3rd to 5th world countries who love working with their hands and are excited to be in the trades, but are held back because of lack of access to the needed equipment. This is sad.
Toshio Odate, a Japanese Woodworker and sculptor, had a traditional Japanese apprenticeship before moving to the USA.
In his book on Japanese Woodworking Tools, “Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use”, he recounts experiences as an apprentice and woodworking in Japan.
One experience was accidentally freezing his master’s water sharpening stones, destroying the stones. (His “master” was also his stepfather). This is the kind of screwup you would have to think of, and realize might be a problem to avoid doing it.
He also recounts plenty of cheap tools for sale from tool dealers that were presumably made in Japan, but complete **** designed to fool the cheap or unwary.
He also recounted saving up to buy a high quality woodworking plane, which in Japan was the sign of a high quality carpenter, and his master and his carpenter acquaintances decided the plane was too good for him, and took the plane, and he never saw the plane again.
This is also just Japan, during one period of time.
While wrapping wood beams to prevent marring is one standard of working in Japan, smacking the beams with giant hardwood mallets is also standard, and is usually not done with a sacrificial board in place to further prevent marring.
That video showing a Japanese Carpenter building a “Western Style” house, that had a thread within the past few months, showed the carpenter taking lots of extra cautionary steps, but then not preventing tearout while drilling if I recall correct correctly.
Other Asian countries have significantly varying cultures.
As far as “respecting tools”, tools are used to get a job done.
Plenty of workers use whatever tools are at hand as a hammer, if the time saved would be more expensive than buying a new wrench, or pair of Vise-Grips, or flashlight.
The issue is most people don’t estimate that need for replacement into the later budget or costs.
Not only do workers do this, employers can be the cheapest f@cks around.
I once had a job were you had to fill out a form to get a replacement Bic Crustal pen.
Literally, the cost of the time wasted filling out the form, let alone going to the next door office, or several floors away if the office manager wasn’t in, was significantly more than the cost of a single pen, or even a dozen pens.
