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Thread: Loaner handtool conditions

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Atlanta, GA
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    Loaner handtool conditions

    Do you all feel obliged to keep up your loaner tools to a certain condition?

    How would it be if someone who was interested in WW borrowed a dull or ill-kept tool, and was turned off by it?

    I have not been as fastidious with my loaner chisels. they are not as sharp as my primary set.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Bakerton WV
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    259
    In the recent past, I have contracted timber frame projects with labor that I have equipped with framing chisels, draw knives and other edge tools, my policy was to see that all tools were kept sharp to an equal standard. Tools that work must be sharp or they will be bashed up. Sharpening is a daily concern. tools in the rack were kept keen with a Makita powered wet flatstone grinder and honed on a hard felt wheel. So sharpening was fast, edges keen, somewhat round but not ideal perfect edges, in another word workmanlike. On work sites, other framers have asked me to sharpen their personal tools while working through the site tools, and I have, all to keep a job humming along. I have not loaned tools that go off site, except in the case of need of trusted skilled comrades in trade. On site I maintain supervision.

  3. #3
    I dont loan tools. They come back crappy, if at all. There are threads on that in the archives.

    But here are my thoughts on your actual question, FWIW -
    * If its not sharp the guy I lend it to might use a grinder on it and foul it up.
    * If I was lending it to people who work for me, Id sharpen it beforehand because I want them to be able to accomplish the task I lent them the tool to do. Ditto for someone learning woodworking.
    * If Im paying them and give them a dull tool, they might get hurt (if the tool bounces, or whatever). But thats Catch 22 though, right? They are highly likely to get cut with a sharp blade - happens to me every weekend - part of the game.

    I look forward to hearing what other people think about your questions though.

    Best,
    Fred
    Last edited by Frederick Skelly; 12-18-2014 at 5:38 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    West Chicago, Illinois
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    163
    I don't loan tools either. If they damage it, all you get is a "sorry man". If a friend needs something, he can come over and I'll help them. But the tools stay here.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    I have a lot of friends-probably a lot more than most people do. I have one friend that I will loan a tool to. He needed to find a property line stake, and wanted to borrow a metal detector last week. I hadn't used it in years, and the bag it was in was really dirty, but he said he didn't mind. It came back looking like the bag had been washed in a washing machine, better than new. He was sure to tell me that he had taken the batteries back out, and handed me the new ones he had used. I told him when he picked it up that I used it so seldom, that I didn't keep batteries in it.
    Last edited by Tom M King; 12-18-2014 at 6:46 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    No problem here. I don't loan tools under any circumstances. I'm pleasant about it but, the answer is no. If someone has an interest, I will show them a few things in my shop with my tools. If they are doing something somewhere else, they can go get their own ;-)
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  7. #7
    I don't have enough that anybody would ask to borrow a tool. But I do know that I needed to borrow a large Milwaukee hammer drill and 1" bit. The rental place wanted $50 for an evening. I needed one hole. Fortunately I was able to legitimately borrow the tool and bit from work. It took longer to put the bit in than to drill the hole. I really appreciated being able to borrow the tool. If and when somebody asks to borrow a tool I'll remember what happened to me.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    USA
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    5,582
    I don't have loaner tools. I have tools. I may let someone use them. I may flinch about that a bit and if given a warning before they are needed I would definitely make sure they were operable.

  9. #9
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    There are a few tools in my shop I call 'the beaters.' These are the only ones I would loan. In our current location people are fairly self sufficient and tend to have all the tools they need for their normal tasks.

    Most of the beater tools are ones occasionally used by me, so they are kept sharp.

    A friend once borrowed a screwdriver from me and messed it up in less than two minutes.

    As Paul said, all I got was a, "sorry man."

    Of course he was using it for something a screwdriver wasn't made to do.

    He didn't think to ask if I might have the proper tool.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  10. #10
    Nobody ever wants to borrow my handtools! Powertools yes, every time, but I don't really care about these anyway.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
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    I love that term "bangers".

    the thing that comes to mind is when my BF dropped on of my nice chisels right on the edge. Actually, the thing come-a-loose @ the socket. After I spent about 2 hours getting the gash out of the edge, I called L/N and asked about this ongoing problem with the hornbeam letting go, and the iron dropping. They said use cheap hairspray. I have not run across another loose chisel to try this out yet.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
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    NE Ohio
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    Loaning tools (or money) to a friend is a good way to lose both. I'd rather give someone the money or buy them a tool.

    If I borrow something, I return it promptly and in at least as good condition. Clean, sharp, full. If I damage it, I feel responsible to repair or replace the item. In my experience, this has not often been reciprocated.
    -- Dan Rode

    "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

  13. I do not loan my tools.....

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Yeah, it would be kind of like someone asking if they could borrow my wife.
    ~ Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Medford, Oregon, USA
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    13
    Quote Originally Posted by Sean Hughto View Post
    Yeah, it would be kind of like someone asking if they could borrow my wife.
    a long time ago I asked a coworker if I could borrow his chainsaw. His replay was "My wife, yes. My dog, maybe. My chainsaw, never"

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