The Tool You Do Not NeedNew!!
I was sitting at my workbench last Tuesday, staring at a brand-new, cordless router that some lad from the college had brought in. He was convinced it would change his life, but all I saw was another piece of plastic destined for a landfill once the battery dies. We live in a world that tries […]
A Review That Says Who It Is for
I spent thirty years on site and another ten in a college workshop, and if there is one thing that gets my blood boiling, it is the sheer amount of rubbish being peddled online these days. You scroll through a website and see these polished, shiny presentations that look more like a sales brochure than […]
Reviewing a Tool You Are Attached to
I spent thirty years on site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets my blood boiling, it’s the way people talk about gear these days. You go online and see these "experts" unboxing a brand-new chisel or a cordless drill, talking about the weight and the finish like they’ve […]
Writing About a Tool That Was Bad
I remember sitting at my workbench last Tuesday, staring at a new set of chisels that cost more than my first car but couldn't slice through a piece of soft pine without tearing the grain. It’s enough to make you want to throw the whole lot in the scrap bin. Most people online will just […]
Price Compared Including Delivery
I spent forty years on site, and if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that people love to hide the truth behind a mountain of paperwork. Most folks think they need a complex spreadsheet or a fancy consultant to figure out how to compare prices across suppliers, but that’s just more fluff designed to keep […]
Watts, Torque and Meaningless Numbers
I remember sitting in the staff room at the college, watching a young apprentice stare at a catalogue for a new cordless router. He was mesmerized by a list of "revolutionary" brushless motor stats and "ultra-high torque" claims, looking like he’d just found the Holy Grail. I wanted to tell him right then that most […]
Measuring Tool Accuracy at Home
I remember sitting in my workshop back in the nineties, surrounded by the smell of fresh pine and the constant, high-pitched whine of a circular saw that wasn't quite true. A young apprentice had just spent forty minutes trying to calibrate a cheap electric table saw using some fancy digital readout he’d bought online, swearing […]
Going Back to a Tool After Twelve Months
Most of the "experts" you see online will tell you how to judge a tool the moment you unbox it, raving about the weight or the finish like it’s a bloody piece of jewelry. That’s nonsense. A tool isn't truly tested when it's shiny and new; it's tested when the seasons change, the grit gets […]
Reviewing for Someone Starting Out
I spent forty years on-site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets my blood up, it’s the way modern "experts" try to teach you how to review tools for a beginner by reading off a spec sheet. They’ll talk to you about torque, RPMs, and battery voltages like those […]
Whether a Premium Plane Is Worth It
I’ve spent forty years on-site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets my goat, it’s the glossy, over-polished nonsense you see online these days. Most people don't know how to review a premium tool; they just read a marketing brochure and repeat the same tired adjectives like "revolutionary" or […]