The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-03-08
Good Tools.

There is an old adage to the effect that
good workman never quarrels with his
tools. The common Interpretation is that
the poor workman finds fault with the
tools as an excuse for his want of skill,
aud the good workman finds no fault,
since he can work with anything. Now.
we think the old Interpretation is almost
entirely wrong, barely containing truth
enough to keep it in use. That the un-
skilled mechanic finds fault with his
tools is natural, and it is, we think, right
that he should do so. His-want of skill
probably is the cause of the tools being
wrong, and this same want of skill pre-
vents him from making them what they
should be. On the other hand, good
workman will not work with poor tools
he will by some means or other make
them suitable for the work he has to do.
If he is so placed that he cannot buy just
what he wants, he gradually transforms
those at hand until they may be classed as
good; certainly they will be convenient
and effective. Usually the time needed to
do this is much less than that which
would be wasted in single job per-
formed with improper implements. To
the experienced workman who knows his
business thoroughly nothing can be more
annoying and wearing upon the temper
than the attempt to turn out god job
with poor or Indifferent appliances. 1t
often happens that the apprentice or in
experienced workman labors long and
earnestly to do a given thing well, yet he
does not succeed in doing really first
class job, until some day when he goes to
a new shop, or gets new bench with new
tools, he is surprised to find that he can
do really first-class work. This has hap.
pened to us personally more than once in
our mechanical recreations.
Perhaps there can be no better illustra-
ton of bad tools and q bad workman than
is found in setting boy to drive nails
with one of the cheap, smooth headed
hatchets so common in the market. The
boy cannot strike very exactly, the Ratchet
is hung just little out of line, and the
head smooth and rounded just little
more than it should be. The result is that
one nail goes spinning off across the shop,
the next is bent or driven at an angle, and
at every third blow the head slips and the
blow is taken on the fingers, or upon the
wood beside the nail. We may quarrel
with the boy for not knowing how to
strike, but the tool is mainly 20 blame. It
was made for different use, and the best
man in the shop would probably hit his
fingers OF least once in driving a dozen
nails, unless he had chance to alter the
chang, of the head. The boy cannot
learn to drive nails properly with such a
tool. If he is to learn he ought to have a
suitable hammer to learn with. True, he
will destroy it, but that is no reason why.
the head should not be properly hung, the
handle right and the whole of tine proper
size and weight
A trade is not generally well learned un-
til we can take care Of the tools at least
not until one knows what Is the matter
with bad tools and how it should be RENE
died. The poor workman cannot ALWAYS
do this, but he SHOULD take care that his
tools are looked after by some one who
knows how. Good tools pay. We have
10 mind two brands of tools, SO much
alike that the eye could find no difference.
yet when at work the difference in temper
and material is such that the Ligh-priced
tool will pay for its extra cost every day
it is used. Good tools help to make good
and careful workmen. If any Of our
readers doubt this statement they have
only to 70 to the bench and undertake 4
job Of any kind, using first the poorest
tools they can find in the shop, and then
doing their work over again with good
tools. The nervousness and dissatisfac
ton caused by q poor tool is in itself a.
most fatal to good work Take the case
Of foot-lathe. With loose spindles, CEN
tiers out Of line, and an uneven bed, we
are so troubled and annoyed that we have
very little attention to bestow upon the
work in hand. We are, in fact, always