Tool porn

[challenger]

Sorry but so do I. Actually I haven't needed to buy any tools in a while however, in the past, I've purchased a few tools as investments. The SS wrench set I bought for $5.00. I purchased a Watervliet planishing hammer for $100.00 thinking I would use it but KNOWING it was worth a ton more than I paid for it. I purchased a large, old, pattern makers vice for a song knowing id sell it one day for a lot more $. That's just a few of the items.
I have many guns that I've selectively purchased in the past 40 years. I shoot MAYBE once a year. As per the prevalent mindset here, am I a second class citizen for not shooting these every day or week?
People need to to put on their hypocrite glasses before they call others out. I GUARANTEE some of you flamers have tools that you rarely, if ever, use and brag about how much $ they will one day be sold for while conversing at the holiday meal table.
Some humility and self truth goes a long way. Nobody likes judgeMENTAL people.

[J Tiers]

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People need to to put on their hypocrite glasses before they call others out. I GUARANTEE some of you flamers have tools that you rarely, if ever, use and brag about how much $ they will one day be sold for while conversing at the holiday meal table.
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Not particularly "sorry" but I buy tools that I need, or that I see as being credibly useful later. I buy a very few items that I just plain like, and do not expect to use. Mostly those are antique (in most cases actually antique in the strict sense) electrical or electronic devices. Sometimes the "credibly useful" item ends up not used (yet), but.....

I have bought a few things as "investments" in that they were sellable for much more than I paid, usually with a bit of work added. Most have been sold, a couple are hanging around.

For $5 there is a good chance I might have bought the wrenches, but maybe not. I am not much of a "tool collector", the tools are in the toolboxes, not on a display board.

I used to see lots of "tool collectors" at estate sales.... There would be a table of old tools, and a row of fat butts in front of it blocking it totally, each pawing through stuff. Sometimes one of the butts would hand another one of the group something; "Ed, you collect these, it's in good shape"..... Usually they made a clean sweep of anything useful.

I go to fewer sales now, prices have shot up to ebay levels (sometimes with a tag mentioning what one sold on ebay for recently), and the tool generation have died out. Now the "tools" are often a few of what I call "Target store lead screwdrivers"...... Stanley, or other pure junk, that twists and gets mangled the first or second time you use it on a tight screw.

I should maybe not insult Target that way, they used to be better. Years ago I bought a good "Indestro" socket wrench set at a Target (still have it), at one time they sold decent US stuff. Now, they only sell chinese junk, but, then, there IS only "chinese junk", no US company sells US made tools into the consumer market, and even old-line US makers import everything (assuming they did not just go out of business).

[Willy]

Tools much like anything else can be appreciated without being used. I realize this makes no sense to many here but consider some of the beautiful machines that Mcgyver posted here, lovely to look at and restore but almost sacrilegious to use in the shop due to the intrinsic artistic beauty they possess.

Another example comes to mind is the automobile. To many it is simply a tool used as a means of conveyance, however many purchase them as an investment or simply to be admired for what it can do rather than what it does do.

Fine China or a decorative vase are often displayed as art and never used as the item was meant to be, only simply admired by those that appreciate what went into their existence.

I can appreciate many things without feeling compelled to use them for their intended purpose. I have some very fine firearms that I have never shoot, I also have many others that are warmed up quiet regularly.
I also have some hand tool sets that have a lot of sentimental feelings attached to them as they were presentation sets my father received through the Master Technicians program from Chrysler Corp. during the 60's. They are fully functional but like my other examples I don't need to use them.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Mcgyver]

Hey Willy, thanks, but they do all get used. Making them look pretty is just an indulgence, paint. They're small so its easy to do. All will be in the same or better mechanical shape when I'm done as their custodian.