Does anyone personalize their tools, other than a touch mark? 

What ever happened to spending the little extra time to make your tools unique, beautiful, and reflect the craftsmanship of the maker?

Yeah, I've seen a few personalized touch marks, but they always seem to get their name backwards...

Well you can spend time on making your tools prettier; or you can spend time on making things with those tools; breaks down to how much time you have to spend and how you want to spend it...Now I like to gussy up some "special" tools so I keep a look out for curly hickory handles and have a hammer or two with a shop made bodark handle (and I save my billet scraps and make wedges from them...) But I'm not jimping them or adding decorative fullers to them. I rather like the "historical forms" and my set of hammers from the Lynch collection get heavy use,  (I ran across a bunch of Lynch hammers at quad-state one year being sold cheap---I bought 11 which was most of what they had...and most of my money for that year.---if they had had more I'd of borrowed or sold plasma or something!)

3 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Well you can spend time on making your tools prettier; or you can spend time on making things with those tools; breaks down to how much time you have to spend and how you want to spend it.

Yeah, this is how I figure it. In fact, I keep forgetting to touchmark my tools!

I had a knifemaker friend who used to roast me about how messy my shop was till I pointed out that he spent more time cleaning his shop than I got to *spend* in mine.

Greetings All,

Making your tools unique and putting your touch mark on them is s great idea but it would take a year just to chase all mine down... Speeking of unique, I don't have a picture but Dan Boon made a slick adjustable twisting wrench with a dragon nose end .. Super cool. 

Forge on and make beautiful things 

Jim

It's a bit of a side trip from the original question but H.O. Studley, A piano maker, personalized his tool storage, along with many of his tools.  This chest is sometimes a bit of inspiration about what you could be doing in your spare time instead of watching Laverne & Shirley re-runs on TV.  The tools are multiple layers deep in the chest so there is much more than you can see--245 tools in there. Circa is sometime between about 1880 and 1920.

 

No room in there for a 150 pound anvil, but you have captured the concept very well.

Originally I was thinking about a damascus hammer and tongs that Billy Merrett made and used at one of his demos. Beautiful damascus and a beautiful set of tools.

Then the thought went to hammer and chisel engraving on the individual tools much like is done on high end guns. 

 

Yes I agree that in today's world, time is used to make money, any spare time is used to make tools to make life easier or to make more money faster. Any left over time is then spent with the wife and kids and, oh yes, the dog.

Such displays were also advertisements for their owners; we generally advertise ourselves differently now...

However if you look at some of the "Masterpieces" done by smiths of the guild eras there are a number of engraved tools in them...

Check out some of Tom Latinè forged tools for great examples. I say why shouldn't I want my tools to be a work of art, or at least fine craft?  They are the things I use when I'm trying to be at my best.  Make them myself or celebrate others skill in making them, both are valid, I think

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

Any left over time is then spent with the wife and kids and, oh yes, the dog.

Lola insists that she is a higher priority. 

To me, tools are means to an end. Most of the few tools I make, are just made to function. However, my professor in mechanical design used to say that a beautiful machine usually works well and an ugly not - but he did not mean a decorated machine. I think he is right.

Form follows function?

I always feel a little guilty about the time I spend on my OWN tools..so they tend to end up a little plain. But the tools I make for others or for sale I can't help but embellish a little bit. Just some chisel work, some detail in the handle...I think something hand made needs more than just hammer marks.

Everything we make IS advertising our ability/skill. And hopefully will show improvement in a myriad of small ways over time.

It would be easy to decorate a hammer such that it was unusable as a hammer and easy to make one so utilitarian it's ugly; luckily there is a wide expanse between the two ends!

My personation of my tools comes by blood getting on them eventually.  I had a mechanic work for me once that when someone asked to borrow a tool he would pass them a rag and say be sure to wipe it off good as I got blood on it today.  They got over wanting it right then. He would smile at me and say "works better than saying no.  they don't ask a second time."

I'm proud of my tools but they will not win a contest in looks. If I made them too good looking someone would want to steal them. 

 

 

I once picked up some Skull and Crossbones "No Tools Loaned" stickers for tool boxes.  A smithing friend of mine chose HOT PINK as his tool cover---said that nobody ever asked to borrow them....

On 2017-02-04 at 4:30 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Form follows function?

I think it does - or should. Estetics to some part has to do with function. It even goes to living things. A body that looks efficient, be it man or beast, is perceived as beautiful - at least by me.

Mine are always yellow and black striped

My colour is variations on light blue---as a can of "Bermuda Blue" paint was what I had around when I first started marking them.

As I usually mark the end of the handle so they are easy to discern when sticking handle up in a 5 gallon bucket or milk crate, the paint wears fairly fast.  So a trick I've learned is to take a good sized drill bit and make a divot on the end of the handle and put a pool of paint in it---makes a visible, hard to remove or damage mark.  Also works well when I get a new handle and the hammer head or tool end is soaking in linseed oil for a week allowing the pool of paint to dry on the other end.

I have a few pairs of tongs that I'm really proud of, I spent more time making them than I should have but I wanted them to look nice. I made a pair of v bit tongs yesterday to hold 1.25" round stock, and I hurried through it and they are ugly. They work just fine, but it's certainly not something I'd show off.

At the end of the day if I'm making a tool it can be ugly as long it functions correctly, but I'm going to take my time on anything I intend to show off or sell and be sure I get it done right 

I think of most of my tooling as more or less disposable. They are meant to be hit and worn, because that is the purpose of a tool.

If you want inspiration take a look inside this book.

The Art of Fine Tools.

FLXS,

A great suggestion. The book is wonderful with lovely, lavish pictures.

But the book was very expensive when it was published & the price is probably stratospheric as a collectable.

Inter-library loan is probably the way to go, in order to get inspiration. Your selection can then be scanned.

SLAG.

Funny there are  2 copies listed on abebooks.com for under US$4 with free shipping. 10 copies around $20 or below...including shipping in the USA.