Make the most out of your Harbor Freight rip hammer

Fact: all tools are depreciatory. Wear is a reality. Tools are, by their nature, finite. Tools are also (by definition) for use. Use is friction. Each and every use diminishes a tool's potential lifespan. So, quality becomes a desired quality to build into a tool, because a well-made tool will delay the process of its own inevitable demise. And here we have the nature of our love for well-crafted objects: we regard a tool that will last as rent paid, as an asset, as a certain future. This sort of trust is the most relaxed we can afford to be in such a change-filled world.

Craft is a fine line, however. We have many tools to keep in repair. Maintenance paid to one will come at the expense of another (as also goes the pattern of money spent). Regarding one of ours as 'the one tool to rule them all' is an undue compliment paid, an irrational fetishism. Friction is staved off for as long as we will work to keep the tool well-oiled, yet diminished return creeps in slowly even as we polish. Our tendency is to make abundant preparations for the next season, but the distant line of utility is vague to our predictive vision; we are unable to see clearly too far into that hazy uncertainty.

There is a danger inherent to the forced nearsightedness of uncertainty. Our fate might become the same as the greedy squirrel, who will happily store in his cache far more than he can ever use. It is not uncommon for the tireless rodent to fill a hollowed tree to a degree whereupon its store will compress and ruin nutmeat through decomposition, or what's even worse, on occasion, the weight of the volume will cause the silo to topple, spilling its massive contents onto the leaf-litter. Not an ideal preparation for winter.

So stop romanticizing. We can only use so much. There's no such thing as 'forever' quality. Use it or lose it, eventually it all ends up as scrap metal. Every single thing we fashion, from every useful jig, device, gimmick, gizmo, and nick-nack—anything that you or I might ever come up with—is to be tentative, at best. So, while they're still in service, keep your tools well-kept at moderate investment. But also keep them well-used, because in measure of productive utility, unused, a single cheap tool and an entire shelf filled with top-tier become two equivalent things.


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It gets even deeper if you watch the unlisted video (deadpan sarcasm). Plato's 'Forms' as essence of tool design paradigm, and so forth. Funny to talk of utility as I fade off into the abstruse, no? Yeah, I've claimed neither to be rigorous nor consistent. Besides, Plato is not exactly esoterica. You should already be familiar. Also, give me a break. It's a $4 investment; how much do you expect to get here? Go make up your own damned mind. I'm not here to provide you with leverage; I'm here to show you how to make your own lever. The theme is supposed to be about autonomy and the rejection of default assumptions. Seriously. Now go.

Here's the link:
►   • (unlisted) Hammers. A few of my preferences.