Favourite Tool

I have hafted a fair few blades in my time and fiddled about with different materials to varying degrees of success. It makes me think about what is my favourite tool. I have so many tools that I use regularly ranging from small hand tools like a superb brass and ebony mitre marking gauge which I use regularly to mark tenons; an old English axe head I found in a farmer’s market in Powys which cleaned up to reveal a 6 pound Elwell bearded axe which I was able to re-haft with a piece of cleft ash to make a superb felling tool, and a japanese saw which cuts on the pull, which is unfailingly accurate when making dovetail joints. Some tools I have made myself.

The knife in the picture was made in 2010 for a friend. I took an ice tempered Polar blade with a long tang and embedded it in a piece of Laburnum, capping it off with a button of buffalo horn. The result is an extremely functional, very sturdy, bush knife.

But even this is not my favourite tool.

I inherited my favourite tool from my Dad (a master carpenter) and it sits between my ears.