What's your most sentimental tool? and why?

[contactme_11]

Mine has got to be a pair of linemans pliers that I borrowed from my grandfather about 15 years ago. He died a few weeks later and my uncles fought over all his tools so this was all I got to keep from his collection.

 

[jessemac]

my dad's he taught me how important it is to check specs

 

[Rolling_Thunder]

Its a workbench. In 1987 my father bought a new house with an oversized 2 car garage. His old house had a single bay garage and he had built a so so workbench for it. When he moved he left it there. For Christmas I decided to build him a nice big sturdy workbench. But I wanted his input on the build so I told him I wanted to build a workbench for my brother and asked if I could build it in his garage with his help. I came up with the base design bought all the wood and headed to my dads. During the build I kept asking him questions. How high do you think it should be? how deep... So we got it all done and I even suggested putting it where I knew it would end up. Christmas day arrives. We're opening gifts I bought my brother a circular saw and my dads gift under the tree was a 15 dollar set of screwdrivers. Well my brother opened his gift and dad opened his gift and you could see the look in my dads eyes. Gee he bought his brother a nice saw and built him a workbench and I get some stupid srcewdrivers!!! When everything was opened I told my brother there was 1 more gift for him in the garage. We all went into the garage and dad said "Well Michael what do you think of your gift?" Mike said "Dad thats not mine read the poster on it! "Merry Christmas Dad! Thank you for helping me build your gift!" Brought a tear to his eye! Dad died in 2000 and the workbench now resides in my workshop. So he's always in the shop with me!

 

[toymn6366]

my grandpas eastwing claw hammer

 

[wafrederick]

A couple hand drills which were my grandfather's and I have memories messing with them.

 

[muddyjoe15]

My dad's usa 1/2 husky set that he gave me, that he got when he was 16.

 

[metal1313]

i dont use them, but i have some hand planes that have been passed down from my great grand father, to grandfather, to dad to me. i need to clean them up a little, but i plan to display them

 

[ZRX61]

I have some tools that belonged to friends who are no longer with the living, one of which is a Wilton Bullet & also some aircraft tools

 

[econoaddict]

My dad passed at work, just done in an instant.
He was the head saw-filer.
All the idiots that work there skanked on his tools, we went in to pickup what should have been a large number of tools and the only thing I recovered was his backgauge, he got it from his dad. The guy that had it was fired, he swears it was his even though it has a nice riveted on name plate with my grandfathers name on it.
I will never use it but it has a safe place in my garage to retire.

 

[mkirkpatrick]

My Dad's old park tool box, I remember that was always in the pick up, and when he got older and had a garage in the garage. I still have all the tools that where in the box, but looking at the box always reminds me of him. He has been gone for 6 years and I wish that he knew how much it met to me now working out of that box helping him fix stuff.

 

[contactme_11]

Seems like most of the prized tools are from family. I was wondering if that would be the case.

 

[Damian]

I bought a 300+ pc Husky socket set (complete 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 drives short and deep) about 15-18 yrs ago in a pawn shop. The socket set at THAT time was already another 15-18yrs old.

That set is still my go-to set of sockets to this day. I really like the deep wells because they're actually a mid-length rather than a full deep well, and the chrome is SUPER thick. These things make my newer Snap On/Matco sockets look puny as far as thickness, and I've NEVER broken one. Love my old school Husky stuff.

I guess they're also sentimental to me because I bought them with my very first paycheck I ever earned as a mechanic. Before those, I was living off borrowing tools.

 

[saturdaymechanic]

My father's Craftsman circular saw. He used this to build our deck, porch, a room addition and various other projects when I was growing up.

He gave it to me for Christmas about 10 years ago. I used it steadily until my wife gave me a DeWalt for Christmas this year.

I will always keep my father's saw.

 

[Zrexxer]

My Great-Grandfather's Union machinist's chest, full of Starrett, Brown and Sharpe, and old Lufkin tools. Despite my Grandfather's wishes that I get all his tools, my cousins stole most of them them after his death and this was all I got.

 

[jvitez]

Its a workbench. In 1987 my father bought a new house with an oversized 2 car garage. His old house had a single bay garage and he had built a so so workbench for it. When he moved he left it there. For Christmas I decided to build him a nice big sturdy workbench. But I wanted his input on the build so I told him I wanted to build a workbench for my brother and asked if I could build it in his garage with his help. I came up with the base design bought all the wood and headed to my dads. During the build I kept asking him questions. How high do you think it should be? how deep... So we got it all done and I even suggested putting it where I knew it would end up. Christmas day arrives. We're opening gifts I bought my brother a circular saw and my dads gift under the tree was a 15 dollar set of screwdrivers. Well my brother opened his gift and dad opened his gift and you could see the look in my dads eyes. Gee he bought his brother a nice saw and built him a workbench and I get some stupid srcewdrivers!!! When everything was opened I told my brother there was 1 more gift for him in the garage. We all went into the garage and dad said "Well Michael what do you think of your gift?" Mike said "Dad thats not mine read the poster on it! "Merry Christmas Dad! Thank you for helping me build your gift!" Brought a tear to his eye! Dad died in 2000 and the workbench now resides in my workshop. So he's always in the shop with me!

Wonderful story. Thanks! My dad died in 1987, only 63 years old. Never made it to retirement. I still miss him. I wish he could have seen his grandkids, as I know he would have been a fabulous grand-dad. I still use the Klein lineman's pilers, plus several other pliers, a ball pein hammer and a combination square he used. I'm just a weekend warrior, so they'll last my lifetime. I've made sure my 12 yo son knows which tools were his grandpa's. He finds it "cool." I'm glad.

 

[Vicegrip]

Grandfathers wood box he used to carry prepped charges into Pennsylvania coal mines. It is a nothing more than a well worn wood dynamite box with the lid pulled off. There is a small triangle of the lid still on one corner and he used this as a handle. The wood is worn smooth from his hand and the many years and miles underground.

 

[PaulsGarage]

My story is the same as most above, it's the father-son connection. I have a small wooden workbench my dad and I built when I was 7 years old or so, (of course he built it and I "helped"). I still have it in the garage along with a tiny clamp-on vice that we installed when it was new. It's old now but I remember almost every nick, mark, and burn in the plywood top and have a story for each one.

 

[brett09]

Even though I got all of my dads tools when he died, the most special is a old SK 3/8th ratchet and socket set. He got it when he was my age, and is missing one 7/16 socket. Now that its on my mind I need to try to find one. It was one of things I wasnt allowed to use fixing up bikes or whatever when I was growing up.

 

[zsuperbee]

Given to me as a Christmas present in 1965, from my dad, in appreciation for a summers worth of work in the family business (taxi cab company while he was recovering for a broken collar bone which happened when one of the cabs fell from a Milwaukee jack while he was working under it), a set for Herbrand chrome wrenches and shallow & deep impact sockets. I still use these daily.

 

[Bryan Burns]

Seems like most of the prized tools are from family. I was wondering if that would be the case.

Not necessarily. My dad was a construction worker (sheet metal worker) and amateur woodworker but his tools weren't always top of the line. He couldn't afford it with six kids in "Catlic" school. He used mostly Craftsman for work and some Klein's. I think because construction workers move around from job to job, there's a lot more loss and theft of tools than for say, a auto mechanic.

He always got by with a standard portable toolbox Craftsman toolbox (and the Klein tool bag I bought him for his birthday late in his career). He never had a toolbox with a drawer!


My favorite tool from is 1990's era Delta Contractor's belt driven table saw. Doesn't have any patina like an old hammer or vintage Snap on pliers, but because it's a well made expensive saw and I feel safe using it. Low end table saws scare the **** out of me.

 

[seagravedriver]

My dad's 1/2 inch "Power-Kraft" ratchet. I think it is a Montgomery Wards item. Made in USA, it works, and is not all that fancy. What I remember to this day is being 7 or 8 years old and HEARING the ratchet mechanism function. I knew I arrived when my dad let me use it. It is still in great condtion considering how much it has been used through the years. The sound brings me back almost instantly to a simpler time.