Heritage Tools

Our goal with Skills 101 is to present the practical now of boats that are built for the crucial business of discovery, recalling that every boat length we travel from the dock is exploration. Yes, we look carefully at old classic boats; the evolved construction of vessels that prevailed against time and storms, competition, and hard use delivers lessons of what works and, just as important, what almost works. An important dictum in boats, tools, and all design is form follows function. The goal, purpose, time, and circumstance of a boat shapes its design.

In other words, we have a reverence for old tools, and particularly how they inform and ease modern work. You might have noticed, in previous installments of Skills 101, that we explore the beginnings of things: Egyptian deckhands using sounding poles on the Nile riverbed, Roman carpenters using bronze planes, Chinese craftsmen striking an ink line, medieval builders establishing anthropomorphic measures. We similarly adore cable-ties, plywood, and epoxy. We’re eager to tell you how best to use new “tech,” and we like combining the functional old with the helpful new.

Often, we stumble onto old tools that may be outdated but never lose their juju, never stop doing champion jobs. We find these heritage tools worth a second look. In this Skills 101, we’ll present a gallery of tools that work too well to stay in a museum case. You probably have a list of such tools too. Tell us about them, and we’ll fill another Skills 101 with more tool heritage.

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