Just to balance this topic: I - in my late 60's with three major medical problems - have contemplated my navel enough to realise there is an optimum tool concentration. Just enough to get the job done, and not too much/many that it gives my three progeny headaches disposing of them...afterwards. No, I have not watched Swedish Death Cleaning.
I've arrived at what I'm calling: "The Distilled Workshop". (I did debate "Refined Workshop", but if you've met me, you'd know that would
never fit). I am keeping a Wadkin saw, a wee bandsaw and a baby planer thicknesser (E.B. 250) to dimension rough timber as my arthritic joints and spinal stenosis render me considerably less supple and capable of sustained periods of 'horsing oneself' than, say, 15 years previously. I also have a router and drill press to ensure precision when it's possible I'd wobble and kybosh an intended design.
So far, so good? The real question, that I suspect was being alluded to above is hand tools. How many of them do I have, versus need, and, are they of a quality that can be easily translated into money for my nursing home? Now there, dear fellow termite, is the nub of the question. I've cut down from.the pure hubris position of "who dies with the most tools wins" (Murrican boasting) to a more Alan Peters philosophy: "WHAT is the basic requirement to do this job?".
Given that the machines mentioned earlier grant me respite from hours of planing (AndyT and MikeG - amongst others - may recoil in horror at that) the answer is: "surprisingly few": 5 planes 8 chisels, three hammers, 4 saws, 7 screwdrivers, two retracting tapes and an (admittedly burgeoning) marking out shelf...and 48 clamps.
That's the basic list. I do have a couple of sweet little things I am just too attached to, to let go, like an old wooden rebate plane, but after that, they have to be gold-plated or an obvious cash-rich antique investment to earn a place. So, I have one Preston plane doing nowt, and I've just sold a Stanley Bedrock 603 or 607, can't remember which.
Less is more!
Cheers, the zealot known as Sam.
