The Curate's Egg - or Tool Box

Overheard while watching a cancer charity advert on TV:

Chairman: "If you had to have a double mastectomy, would it make you feel any less a woman?"

Hay: "Certainly not. If you have to have your brain removed, would you feel any less a bloke? Actually, it'd make no difference to blokes."

Have you noticed that artisans no longer look after or tend things? They 'curate' them now. This weekend I decided to 'curate' my tool bag.

We went to Aldi in Thornbury for some shopping and I spotted a ToolZone tool bag, which allegedly comes with a 49 piece toolkit. However, it had no tags on it and someone had opened the cardboard box containing the tools and spilled them all over the inside, it not being clear whether everything was present and correct.

I took it to the checkout and asked whether, given it had been opened, I could have a discount. The price was apparently £30, but I got it for £20. Bargain!

Got it home, unpacked it, and discovered everything was indeed present. Each screwdriver bit is counted as a separate tool, so 2 rubber holders of 10 bits each accounted for 20 of the 49 items. Even so, there was a good selection of tools, enabling me to cull some of the stuff in my old tool bag.

Added some stuff that isn't included in the kit - plumbing and electrical items - and managed to fill it to the top. Damned thing weighs a ton, but it's comprehensive enough to take anywhere, especially when we go touring in the van and I'm unexpectedly forced to fix something.

That's when the curation aspect kicked in. I used to have 2 tool bags - a large one for the most commonly used tools and a smaller one for the less frequently used ones. However, there was a lot of duplication. 

Once I'd collated everything essential into the new tool bag, I thought to myself; "Why have I just thrown an assortment of open-ended and ring spanners into the bag when I have an adjustable wrench in there? While I'm at it, why do I have an assortment of screwdrivers when I have a a box of screwdriver bits with a magnetic bit screwdriver?"

On the left are the tools I managed to cull in the process of curation. Not many, but enough to get my blowtorch in the bag.

When you think about it, there are very few occasions when an adjustable spanner won't do the job, and an assortment of screwdrivers is just wasted space when they don't cater for a vast array of hex, Torx and other esoteric standards. This is where true curation comes in....

I also took the opportunity to make yet another enhancement to the kono grill - the addition of rubber feet at the corners to prevent the pop rivets heads on the underside rubbing off when the unit is placed or dragged on concrete.

It being my birthday today, I caught Hay lugging a huge box around yesterday. It turned out it was my birthday present. Her and a good mate of mine had gone halves on a sliding, double bevel, laser-guided mitre saw. I was ecstatic, it being the 255mm model. I'd dropped enough hints over the last couple of weeks.

Spent ages assembling it - there was even an instruction manual and if you scanned the QR code on it, it launched an assembly video, not that I used it of course; blokes don't do instruction manuals.

Anyway, I got it assembled and was ready to cut a plank, only to discover a yellow caravan-type hook-up plug - it was a 110v version and not the 240v, meaning I either had to return it to ScrewFix for a swap, or buy a transformer. Given it was impossible to dismantle it and get it back into the box, I decided to get a transformer, which is safer for working outside anyway. Hay was mortified - especially when I also castigated her for not making it a cordless one....

Next I think I'll curate my nut, bolt and screw drawers. Hay is set for curating my jock and sock drawer. She tods me I need to curate my moustache...