Purple tools | The Tools of the Trade | Forum

I thought someone here might get a chuckle out of this.

One of the issues I run into a lot running the smithy at scout camp is that a lot of tools seem to wind up in the scrap pile, or cut up for someone's project. Now, I'm not talking about hammers or tongs or anything that is very obviously a tool, even to the layman- but things like guillotine dies, certain hardy tools, and even spring fullers are not always easily distinguished from someone's abandoned project.

We have a lot of scouts coming through the program each season- I once estimated that we likely have over a hundred folks come through the smithy and work on things over the course of any given summer. Sometimes they are successful on their first try, sometimes they end up tossing out their projects and starting again. I keep the scraps around as long as there are useful pieces that can still be cut off someone's toss outs, but as you might imagine, my scrap pile tends to grow.

After a while, it's no wonder that certain tools tend to disappear, only to reappear months later at the bottom of the scrap pile, as some would-be helper decides to pick up stuff laying around and tossing it away.

This weekend I decided that enough was enough- after once again rescuing my guillotine dies from the scrap pile.

Here's my fix:

Anvil tools:

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Punches, chisels and hot cuts:

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Hopefully now it'll be quite clear which items are tools to be saved and which might be scrap. 🙂