Many of our MetMo are inspired by old hand tools, often forgotten through time. Hand tools laid the groundwork for the tool industry we have today and have inspired us to reimagine many of the forgotten classics.
As you may know, the Grip and the Driver were inspired by the original designs you can see below.
It’s amazing to see how the original ratchet screwdriver, made in …, has taken us all the way to the Pocket Driver, which is now being delivered to you all as we speak!
Share any pictures of any old hand tools you have, we’d love to see em!
It’s a replica, but I love my tiny jeweler’s eggbeater hand drill from Lee Valley:
(I do have a vintage Millers Falls No. 2, but it’s buried in a toolchest of woodworking tools at the moment)
Here’s a classic link about such toolchests:
http://www.supertool.com/etcetera/pchest/pattern.htm
The one I have isn’t as nice as that, and given the condition and so forth, I suspect the story would be even more heartbreaking.
If you manage to get the vintage tools out be sure to let us know! 
Your wish is my command:
The big things in that are the Miller Falls #2A hand drill and the small saw, and the (reproduction) Stanley Odd Jobs.
Anyway, my Pocket Driver should arrive tomorrow, and I hope that it will be the impetus I need to finally get out all of my tools and sort out which will be in what bag/box, and what I will do about a chest to display at least some of them in the living room.
Current plans:
- a very small set of tools which will be pocket carried — I’ll need to make a small box to facilitate that (current plans are Daysaver Essential8 bike tool (with PB Swiss bits), a Leatherman Mini, a couple of Bitkys, and a CRKT Get-away Driver and Gear Infusion Ever-ratchet — sorry, the Pocket Driver didn’t make that cut, maybe if you could do a run in titanium?)
- a larger set of tools in a pouch in my sling bag — including the Pocket Driver (probably displacing my Silca T-ratchet kit), my SpydeRench, a few Mininch tools (it is a Mininch pouch after all), a titanium craft knife from Countycomm and a few other odds-and-ends)
- a precision tool bag which has my Niwa Camera Tool Kit in a Levenger Safety Pouch, Leatherman Crunch, Metmo Driver and Grip, Countycomm titanium aviation screwdriver, Asahi thin wrench set, Fix it Sticks, &c.
and various other task-oriented tool boxes ranging from a coffin-shaped toolbox I keep my electrical and electronic tools in, through two different 4-drawer Craftsman toolchests for mechanics tools (one which can be carried, another which rolls), a Craftsman re-badged Kennedy 526 for my machinist tools (and I even have a 1st edition reproduction of Machinery’s Handbook by Industrial Press in the drawer made for it), a traditional green tool chest for woodworking tools, a carpenters toolbox I made in high school for rough work, a Husky Rolling Connect which has my sharpening stuff and assorted woodworking tools including a Lie-Nielsen #60 and a half, and my Bridge City Tool Works tools, as well as my (sadly discontinued) Blue Spruce Toolworks Ultimate Coping Saw and a series of plastic cases for pretty much everything else, including tools for my CNC machines.
Hopefully that will be of interest to someone — at the least it should be a list of brands and tools made by (potential?) competitors to research — of all those tools, the ones I’d most be interested in your investigating would be the Odd Jobs — as much as I love my 4" Starrett Combination Square and Centering Head, I’d love something a bit more multi-purpose, or maybe some sort of saw, or possibly marking knife.
Some books I’d like to mention:
- Choosing & Using Hand Tools by Andy Rae — I think this is one of the best books on tools ever written (and it’s sad that it’s out-of-print)
- Quality is Contagious: John Economaki and Bridge City Tool Works — I would argue that Bridge City Tool Works was instrumental in reviving and popularizing boutique hand tools
- Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley — I’m still waiting for a corrected 2nd edition which fixes all the typos I pointed out (it would be nice if it would also improve the mediocre typesetting), and above all, has the photo of the 2 pairs of jeweler’s pliers which is missing from the 1st and which they didn’t do a cancel for
Anyway, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
