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I grew up in Lancaster in the 1950s and they were everywhere -- I swear every kitchen junk drawer in the county had one. GAM might have given them out at Christmas, which small companies did back in the day. The hammer was quite useless, the screwdrivers serviceable, but the tiniest one was...

We had one of those brass carbon tet pump extinguishers hanging out in the garage when I was growing up in the 1950s. I think my Mom was the only one who used it -- for spot remover when she was doing laundry/ironing.

I got my Honda push mower 15 years ago when I bought my house. I went to the farmers' supply store expecting to pay full price for a new one, but they had a fresh trade-in -- a guy bought a push mower and discovered his lawn was much larger than he thought it was and he returned it for a...

Pick your favorite Flathead:

When a cartel based in Saudi Arabia decides how much you'll pay to stay warm in winter, it's time to change. And that's been the reality since 1973.

The grass is always greener over the septic tank.

Depending on the task, the old heave-ho on a block and tackle might work.

I worked for an oil company service department in the 1970s and we had a customer who was handy and decided to weld up his own tank and save some money. Turns out a 300-gallon box is not a good design. Subsequently, a delivery guy pumped about a thousand gallons of No. 2 into the DIYer's...

I opened a kitchen junk drawer once and a 9-volt slid into a 0000 steel wool pad -- quite an education. Soon after I reogranized and put all things electrical into a separate dedicated drawer.

Scunci hair ties, used in place of rubber bands, which never last in a shop environment.

Except for the pliers function, all of the other tools that came with my 20-year-old Gerber multi-tool. (I might have used the Phillips bit when I was up on a ladder, but I'm not certain.)

Call me a commie, but I've always blamed the rotten state of my dental health on the fact I drank unfluoridized well water in my formative years.

I've been through several varieties of stud finders and I've yet to find one that actually works.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-lumber-prices-crash-70-per-cent-from-record-highs-as-party-ends-for/

My childhood Amish neighbor in Pennsylvania used an Aeromotor to fill an upended tank he got from a railroad car, mounted vertically on a pad on a hill above his dairy farm.

I keep a card of Scunci elastic hair ties to replace rubber bands that seem to rot quickly in a workshop environment. For keeping power cords in order, or attaching shooting straws to aerosol cans, they can't be beat.

I used laminate flooring from ReStore to re-top my dinged and stained 80-year-old workbench. The stuff is tough, spill resistant and easy and cheap to replace once I ding it up again.

I remember a long-ago conversation with a friend who thought the Black & Decker Workmate (when it first came out) was just an over-priced saw horse/table with a gimmicky half-assed vise. When other friends actually bought and used one and sang their praises, he changed his mind.

I went to ReStore, got a box of leftover laminate flooring, floated it on the bench top with aluminum angle to hold it in place. It's turned out to be tough and moisture resistant. And cheap.

Hell, I pull the plug wire whenever I work on my Honda lawnmower. It's so easy to start, I could see it kicking off just by moving the blade.