When I say favorite tool I don’t mean to say what is your favorite type of tool. (I likez teh miter sawz!!1!) Your favorite specific tool. A tool you love so much it doesn’t even go into your tool box. (No Pocket knifes! Thats to easy)
Mine is my black and yellow stanley phillips head screwdriver. This tool i have probably used more then anything. I swear the shape the screw head on this thing is magical. It seems to fit almost any screw! It seems to always be in reach when I need something
My Y-tool hex wrenches. All I need to fix my bike, in a snazzy design.
I suspected that I love them more than a person should love their tools (and I’m still not over the time one was confiscated from me at Vancouver Airport ::[shakes fist]::), so I find this thread quite vindicating.
For me I’d have to say my Fluke 179 Multimeter, if it can be counted as a tool. I use it every day and I literally trust my life with it; I can’t give a greater endorsement than that.
Does a Leatherman count as a pocket knife?
If so, then my favorite tool is a pair of Chanellock needle-nose pliers. I never thought about it before, but it <i>doesn’t</i> go in my toolbox to mingle with the common tools.
Not only is it great for gripping things like a pair of needle-nose pliers was meant to do, I’ve successfully hammered small nails with the mid-section of the pliers when the hammer was unavailable.
I have a little set of eight screwdrivers (OK, six screwdrivers – three regular, three Phillips, some kind of threaded thing, and an awl) with a larger handle that fits all of them, in a little plastic case yellowed with age and reinforced with clear packing tape. I bought it back when I was in college and I still use it all the time, 20 years later. I keep it right here at my desk where I can always find it. Mr. S laughs at them because they’re so small, but he’s forever hunting for just the right kind of screwdriver, and I never have to. So there! 
Well, screw you then! :mad:
Go pocket knives!
My eights, a pair of Klein 8" lineman’s pliers. I don’t know how old those pliers are; they were used when I got them 31 years ago. Pounding, prying, cutting, whatever…I can’t remember all the abuse I’ve heaped on those pliers through the decades, but they’ll outlast me.
The yellow handled ratchet screwdriver with interchangeable heads that fit inside the handle when not in use. It was my grandfather’s, then my dad’s. I found it in his toolbox all rusted to buggery and wire-brushed it back into working order so he gave it to me.
A set of small tungsten carbide needle files. I do miniatures as a hobby and use these tools more than all my others put together. I’ve used them on wood from balsa to teak, all kinds of plastic, tagua, copper, brass, steel, and semi-precious stone. They cut everything. They are much superior to diamond files, cutting better and not loading up nearly as quickly.
Here they are:
www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=80742
I have both the fine and coarse sets, and can’t recommend them highly enough. Wouldn’t trade them for a roomful of Dremel bits. I luuuurve my needle files.
/gush
(Also, this is an awesome catalog if you’re into small tools.)
The Black & Decker Pivot Plus electric screwdriver. It was my first electric screwdriver, and it was a revelation. (It can also drill small holes in wood or drywall.) Tons of things that would have been a hassle suddenly only took a minute or two.
I really like a dull old 5-in-1 tool that came from my father-in-law’s house. The new ones are too sharp and I gouge things with them, but the old one is just right.
I’m also partial to those screwdrivers with the invertable heads. Now that I think about it, they’re called 4-in-1 screwdrivers. I guess I just like tools with a lot of stuff in one.
Generically speaking, my all-time favorite tool is the pipe wrench. It’s not just for pipes… you can use it to apply torque to just about anything. It has to do with the clever design of its hardened teeth. They’re angled to “bite” into the pipe (or whatever it is you’re applying torque to).
I’m quite fond of my OneWay 1640.
I have an old “egg-beater” type hand drill that is a thing of beauty and utility.
When I get in a putter around the house mood, well I might just as well strap on a holster for my glue gun. Little rubber doohickey falls off the back of a framed picture? Hot glue! Cork comes loose from the drink coaster? Yank the peel-n-stick towel hook off the door? Bust out the gun!
But really, the tool I use the most–and it can do everything–is the one I call “Honey”. 
If I can’t count my Leatherman?
Is a cutting torch too extreme? The torch has a thousand and one uses. Just amazing. Of course it must be used in conjunction with others…but it makes life SO much easier!
Vice grips rule all. If my vice grips go missing from my work drawer, heads will roll!
I have this thing called a Yankee drill, that belonged to my father. It drills by push action. It has several different bits, so it can be used just like a power drill to get out stubborn and painted-in screws, etc. Except it requires no power!
Or you can twist it and use it as a plain screwdriver.
Use it all the time. The thing is probably 80 years old.
If I can’t say my Leatherman, it’s the crummy folding handsaw with the brown plastic handle that was one of those little relationship perks.
[quote=“ChrisBooth12, post:1, topic:466483”]
When I say favorite tool I don’t mean to say what is your favorite type of tool.
My sense of humor/irony. It gets me through an awful lot of life. I’m told that one of these days I’m going to need blood pressure medicine. I figure that as long as I can laugh, maybe I delay that day.
Love, Phil
