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I'm not German, but I did study the language in high school and for two years at college. I also have a sister who married a German newspaper editor and has lived in Germany for more than 30 years; we talk about many things, including from time to time German and its similarities and differences...

OK, now do Knipex....

I bought a new 520 from Kennedy a couple of years ago. I don't recall the price but it was a couple hundred, not the nearly $900 they list for now. Since then I have picked up three more in good usable shape at tool collector meets for an average of $35 each. Four may sound obsessive, but they...

I have also had good luck using lighter fluid as a rust-loosener, Zippo or Ronsonol whichever's at hand, for wrenches and pliers jammed in the joint by rust. It's also good at loosening the spoodge in a rusty joint in pliers.

Might be useful if you're into Dremeling small things covered with enamel. Just keep asking the thing, "Is it safe?"

Retired now, but I used to make a couple of conference trips a year for work. I always carry a Swiss Army Classic in my pocket — so a couple of days before the trip I mailed one of these knives (I have several) to myself at the conference hotel, marked "Please hold for arrival". In my briefcase...

Bummer indeed. I have about a 1/3 can left after a couple of projects which included refinishing a Chinese-made Wilton for which the color is about as good as one's likely to get. I'm keeping it for touch-ups on that vise. It's too bad Rusto appears to be phasing out the hammered finishes, but...

4C -- I have several Channellocks hung on a pegboard, and where I have more than one of a given size, the nut-and-bolt version goes up in front of the riveted. For just the reason you mention. One of my riveted ones worked loose, so I put it on the railroad rail that's my anvil, and gave the...

Alloy Artifacts shows a model 440 with a rivet instead of a nut in its Channellock entry at The Blue Handle Era: "Although not marked with a patent number, these pliers are held together by a rivet as described in patent #4,603,607." The patent was applied for in 1982 and granted in 1986...

The hammered pewter/silver finish looks great.

The hammered metallic green color is called Verde Green. And yes, it seems to be out of availability from Rustoleum for reasons no one can get to the bottom of. My private hunch is that Wilton is giving Rusto grief over the color's similarity to Wilton vise green. But that's pure supposition...

Fair enough, and I get your point. But I have three Depression-era booklets put out by the U.S. National Committee on Wood Utilization, Subcommittee on Uses for Secondhand Boxes and Odd Pieces of Lumber. (I'm not making up that title.) These booklets make it clear that early in the last...

OK, then. What movie was it?

Oh, yeah! I have one of those. It must have been a freight-line promo giveaway because the wood handle has a decal of a 1930s? 1940? semi-trailer truck with the company name (Knox) on the trailer. Knox Motor Service was based in Rockford, Ill. (I think). Also got me a Nox Tox (same catalogue...

Agree — which is what led me to the tiny vise-grips. (Besides they're cute.) And I use their bigger siblings to hold things anytime I don't want to use clamps made of flesh and bone.

I'm with the pointy-thing school if we're looking at tools-as-weapons, although hammers have a long pedigree (Thor) in these matters. And carpenter's or roofing/shingling hatchets. But consider a sharp chisel, especially one of the long ones used in wood turning. The thing is, a lunging blow...

I sometimes wire-wheel small items and don't want to wire-wheel my fingers, even in gloves. For this I use the smallest curved jaw and smallest needle nose, depending on the shape of the item and where I'm locking onto it. I also have a slew of larger ones (all kinds) as general purpose clamps...

These "Perfect" pattern screwdrivers are relatively common, though often found pretty beat up. Irwin made them in the US, probably other makers too. But most of the ones I've picked up (at ReStores, tool meets, etc.) are stamped Germany with no additional info. Based on the usual condition it's...

A similar story here. I bought a cutter-mattock several years ago at the local ReStore for maybe $5. It was rusty and dirty with a really weathered handle that was starting to disintegrate at the eye-end. Cleaning it up at home, I spotted "Warwood" on the underside of the mattock blade. The...

Now I have heard from the relatives in Canda (Charlie Farquharson voice) that Rona is now owned by Lowe's. Any truth in that?