What is your favourite tool? Ideally something a bit unusual that some other people here might not know about.

I love these Knipex adjustable spanner pliers. As they have smooth jaws that move parallel to each other I find they get used for many things from spannering, straightening rims and rotors, also useful as smooth jaw pliers. I have a smaller version
as well that goes on cycling tours.

A good hammer, not sure which is my favourite but it’s always satisfying when you get to bring out the ice hammer.

Either my Norbar torque wrench that just feels reassuringly expensive or my rubber mallet. Both essential.

When I saw the thread title I was going to knipex pliers. Wish I had heard of them 30yrs ago.

The knipex are great. Their only short coming is they’re not heavy enough to hit things with.

They and a hultafors chisel knife have become the two always-in-pocket tools when I’m working.

Dunno about how unusual it is, but an SDS drill has been one of the best tools I’ve bought for getting jobs done.

I’ve got a hammer action drill, but it really only gets used for drilling into wood, these days.
The SDS does the job so much quicker.
I actually bought it to help demolish a brick-built pond, as the lump hammer & chisel approach was taking ages. It also made light work of demolishing a brick built bbq & I’ve used it for chasing into walls, holes for sockets etc.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8yzcPvG6Ek[/video]

My Snap-On long ratchet screwdriver is a thing of wonder! I’ve abused it for years, and it still works as good as new

As James May said, the adjustable spanner is the tool of the charlatan.
I have a set of rothenberger pipe grips which have got me out of trouble a few times! Strap wrenches will only do so much.

Yankee screwdriver.

Never needs charging. Can fire screws in almost as quickly as a battery gun and can coax out even the most obstinate of old screws with a gentle finesse unmatched by any modern tool.

A thing of beauty which makes you feel positively manly every time you pick it up.

I hope to god you’re not using that without a 27b/6 mr Panther

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZD8iVpZPKk[/video]

The Teng Palm ratchet. I’ve had mine for ten years and it gets used to soooo many jobs.
Great for the bike and tight spaces in the engine bay.

I hope to god you’re not using that without a 27b/6 mr Panther

I feel more manly than DeNiro when I unholster my Big Yankee 😉

My mattock is the one tool I couldn’t manage without… Great for digging, cutting roots, smashing up crush/gravel so it can be shoveled… I broke on recently and felt bereft!

Nail gun. How did I live for so long without one?

My mattock is the one tool I couldn’t manage without… Great for digging, cutting roots, smashing up crush/gravel so it can be shoveled… I broke on recently and felt bereft!

Yeah, seconded……and I too broke one recently. 🙁

My Hitachi impact driver.
I don’t know how I managed before messing about with regular drivers.
This thing will drive a 5″ screw through anything!

Yeah, seconded……and I too broke one recently.

B&Q do a surprisingly good one for about 20 quid…

I broke on recently and felt bereft!

The most attached I’ve seen people get to a single tool rather than a type of took is a Cats Paw. Thinks like the knipex – really useful and expensive to replace if I lost it but I’m not attached to it. A friend I was working with broke his Cats Paw and from the look on his face when it happened you’d have though he’d broken his cat.

It seems the fewer working parts a tool has the more personal it becomes to someone – my hammer is more ‘mine’ than my plasma cutter.

Snap-On wobbley sockets. socket and UJ in one unit …..fantastic

Great thread. I need one of those Teng palm ratchets in my life.

Maybe my parallel action pliers, they’re so handy for many of the reason the Knipex is so handy. Though I need to get a pair of the Knipex pliers

The pliers look a bit like this. Bought them from a church fair about 20 years ago, have been with me ever since

Although very seldom used without doubt my adze.

Not only is there something deeply satisfying about easily chopping away chunks of wood with a sharp adze, but there is also something primitively manly about it.

It’s what Jesus would have used.

If it can’t be fixed with a hammer or duct tape you’re doing it wrong. Hammers are the best tool ever. I have a small but balanced selection of quality, well used, hammers which I keep close to hand. The most satisfying is my sledgehammer. It’s a top quality on piece item (I’ve seen heads come off cheap wood handled things) and I bought it for taking a wall down.
That was immensely satisfying. Bricks were hitting the other side of the room. Ahhhhhh memories…. 🙂

Pamir Hypercracker (sadly out of production)

I don’t know why but I get a real satisfaction from running a reburring tool around the inside of a freshly cut steerer

Palm ratchets are ace, that one looks way nicer than mine.

Good circlip pliars! Reason being, when you’re elbows deep in your engine and you discover there’s a wee bastardy tight circlip holding the shift detente arm on, and you’ve only got shite circlip pliars and one thing leads to another and after about 20 minutes of failure the tip breaks off and falls into the sump, you’ll wish you had good circlip pliars.

(see also- magnet on a stick)

Yes, some on diy’s most complex problems can be solved with a magnet on a stick.
I’m thinking about you, long lost mk2 golf GTI.

The most used and one I’d replace tomorrow if it were ever lost is also probably the simplest.

Muppet ,the triple Allen key best tool out there

..apart from the special edition version they did for their 50th anniversary.

Knipex Cobra!

Not to be confused with generic versions of a similar type. These are awesome.

Never seen the appeal tbh, proper p-handles ftw.

For bike tinkering it has to be my autoloading rachet screwdriver, I’ve replaced the screwdriver attachments for Torx & Allens. I can nearly build a complete bike with it, excluding cassette & BB tool and possibly something else I’ve forgotten.

..apart from the special edition version they did for their 50th anniversary.

Pah! only 50 years?

I’ve got a limited edition Japanese import 100th Anniversary Makita Impact Driver….. in GOLD.

oh – and the wrong way up for some reason

For when a Holesaw is just to much like hard work … And cordless too 🙂

It has to be the lowly bradawl for me.

8″ is probably my favourite, although I have a selection.
Work use only, I use the correct tool for the job at home.