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The significance of hand tools.

The building is probably the most important thing that was surrounding us during the developing of the house. Constant and different building: from sluggish to emergency one. From small (equipping of the footsteps to the spring), to the global one (building of the house). It emerged that the building depends on the good instruments greatly. I would say: with the availability of good instruments the process of building becomes more effective and pleasant. I didn’t discover that queen Anne is dead, everything is pretty evident, but, frankly speaking, we hadn`t attach the significance to it, and what’s more, it turned out to be that it’s not so simple today to find good instruments.

For example, the mallet. One would think what can be simpler - the piece of iron on the stick, but I don’t know why many mallets which we had bought got out of order very fast: the handle flies off or the head splits up (!). Maybe the reason is in the so called “planned obsolescence”, the theme of which is discussed in the film «The Story of Stuff». I strongly recommend it to you.

Now we do ours utmost to gather good and old instruments from friends and relatives. People still have stocks of good and old stuff. It is subjected not only to building implements. For example recently my mother gave me her old mincing machine and hand-mixer with words having said that she lives in 21 century, and don`t like we in the Stone Age. But an old Soviet mincing machine is really eternal and new electric one is unfortunately not. In addition it consumes a lot of energy.

There are good modern hand-instruments but they are quite expensive though their price is justified. That’s why we endeavour to buy them, they are reliable investments.

The instruments by “Fiskars” have proved themselves: we use their axes, earth auger, spade and saw.

Hand tools also mean the independence. Yes, we have petrol generator which gives electricity to various circular saws and drills, but sometimes because of some reasons it doesn’t want to crank up and the work without hand tools stops. Or the petrol can run out. Or something else. That is why hand tool is one of the most important resources. I had written these words and went to the forest to fell a pair of deadwoods. Long time I swam waist-deep in snow, found some deadwood, pulled out the motor saw handle…it champed and died. The petrol which I didn’t check before going run out. There we have it. I had to rowed back through snow banks with nothing. One more time sign to everything mentioned above.

(You can find more information in the book "The Hand Sculpted House, A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage" in the chapter "Hand Tool Reflections")

Walkarounds

Hand tool that we use in the garden:

shovel

hoe

Fokin`s subsurface cultivator

rake

watering can

bucket

wheelbarrow

braid

pitchfork

Hand tools that we use in construction and at home:

Axes: carpenter and collins

hammer

nail remover

two-handed saw

saw

brace ( hand drill, that I also use like hand screwdriver) + drill bits

scrap

builder's level

screwdrivers

flat file

construction stapler

adze: flat and half-round

plant garden auger

If I would have to move somewhere with light baggage to the the nature, with the minimum of things, from the tools I would take with me:

ex

saw

shovel

hoe

bucket

Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/45942/183494

Переводчики: Falconov81, Yanne