Life is Full of Ups & Downs - Part 10

A Random Memory - Tools.

A bit of random reminiscing.......which may occur more often as they pop up from time-to-time.

Back in those days it was the practice for management to fund the purchase of a basic starter tool-kit for the new apprentice.

I'm unsure of what may have been in such a kit for a new Mechanical Fitter, but the Electrical Fitter's kit included (from memory) a pair of insulated pliers, a pair of insulated side-cutters, a wire-stripper, an insulated flat-blade screwdriver, a medium-size un-insulated flat-blade screwdriver, a hacksaw (for cutting steel conduit), a shifting-spanner and a metal toolbox.

There may have been some other odd & sods (multigrips, perhaps?) but that was essentially the kit.

Arnold's had an account with Blackwoods, who used to have a city store down near Sussex Street, I think, so that was where we went to get our tools, armed with a chit from management.

So sometime back in 1964, after I had finished my six-month grind at tech college and when I went "on the tools", I went off to Blackwoods to get my own personal toolkit.

The quality was top-shelf.....there was no cheap Chinese crap flooding the markets back then, no Bunnings or Home Hardware or Mitre 10. Hardware stores sold quality merchandise and what you bought, if looked after and treated with a bit of respect, would last a lifetime.

Tools bought 53 years ago, still in great condition despite much use.

Would you believe that after 53 years (as of this year, 2017) I still have, and use, three of those original purchases; a pair of Swedish "Berg" electrician's pliers, an American "Crescent" shifting-spanner and an Australian "Stanley" electrician's screwdriver.

The others have disappeared over the years....some borrowed and never returned, some just misplaced (wire strippers & side-cutters) and never rediscovered.

But the above three items are as good as the day I bought them, despite having been used many, many times, particularly when I was servicing/restoring my own cars.

The pliers have no nicks in the cutting edges, no slop in the hinge and all the insulation is intact. The shifter is in equally-good condition and the Stanley screwdriver still has a perfectly-flat edge on the blade.

It's true; they just do not make stuff like this anymore or, if they do, it now costs a fortune to buy.