This past Saturday I joined my father, as I do quite often, in construction work. Although my father is by day a hired hand for a local farmer and enjoys it thoroughly, he learned the trade of carpentry in his earlier years while employed for some time with Henning’s Construction Company. Since then he has used it a ton either for his own purposes (home, farm, etc.) or in “moonlighting” jobs on the side of his regular employment.

I think he’s quite talented at what he does. I’ve been with him through a myriad of projects, both for the home and for other people and all I ever hear are good comments about his work. And that’s nice — I like hearing that my father is good at what he does; makes a son proud.

And, as of an early age, I pattered along behind him as he went around doing various jobs. I remember being very small and following him around the farm and “assisting” in various ways, usually by just handing him a hammer or wrench or so forth. As I grew older, I would help him in other ways, first holding boards for him while he would saw or hammer or otherwise, then eventually starting to cut and measure and so forth myself.

I have a feeling that I slowed my father down on a regular basis. I just couldn’t have been that great of a partner for the majority of my life; it took me a long time to gain a lot of the skills he already had. How to measure, how to cut, how to use the various tools, how to nail boards, how to make them level and straight and flush, etc. But Dad kept hauling me along to various jobs and projects. I guess he figured I’d eventually “get it”. It’s not that he had tons of patience — he did, but it wasn’t perfect. That was reserved for people like Grandpa who had time to blow and didn’t mind if I had to do it three times. No, Dad expected it right and if I didn’t get it right, I got an earful. Usually a very educational earful, however. And, over time, I got better and better.

Now Dad and I have projects together — sometimes at his place or mine, sometimes actual jobs. I get paid by him from his company (Eagle Construction) because I can now do useful work on a regular basis. Mind you, many things are still not up to the same skill level as him, but they’re getting better. I practice by doing things with him and then on my own home, but I still get him to come over for bigger things so I don’t royally screw them up.

I have discovered that there are few things that make a guy feel like a man so much as wearing a tool belt. There’s just something about having every handy implement swinging from your hips in convenient little pockets and loops. Of course, I have my own tool belt — two of them, actually, one major one for most construction, a smaller leather one for in-house small duties.

Let me take you on a tour of my big tool belt (here’s a guy’s pride if you ever saw one):

• The Belt: Purchased on a garage sale for $4 brand-new, it is a Stanley toolbelt with nylon pouches and a double-tongued rolling buckle on a leather belt. The pouches sit on my left hip and the hammer holster sits on my right hip. An optional 2nd deep pouch can be added to the belt and would either rest on my ass or in front of me. Probably only really convenient for roofing jobs where you are using a lot of nails; otherwise, it just gets in the way.
• Hammer: A Plumb 16oz, fibreglass-handled, rip-claw hammer. I’ve had this for years, probably given to me for Christmas or something similar. Prior to this I had a Craftsman 12oz, metal-handled, curved-claw hammer. It was the bane of my existence as far as reliability and usefulness. There are few applications where a curved claw makes sense; I just can’t use them anymore. And the metal bends, fibreglass does not. My hammer hangs on the hammer holster on my right hip when not in use.
• Tape Measure: A Stanley PowerLock II 25′ tape measure, metal case, that I’ve had for some time. I’m about due to get a new one, this one has issues with returning the tape on a regular basis. This sits in the lower-front small pouch on my left hip.
• Utility Knife: I have several utility knives, but the one in my belt most often is a Stanley aluminum-case, retractable utility knife with a single-edged straight blade in it. I have a few others like these as well as one with curved blades in it for roofing jobs. The knife sits in the “cracks” of the pouch, which are folds above the bottom small pouches.
• Square: I carry a Swanson Speed Square in the upper slot of the big pouch on my left hip. It fits perfectly in there. These tools, for those that are unfamiliar, are extremely handy for marking perpendicular lines on lumber prior to cutting. Unlike traditional squares, these are triangular and flat so they are faster (no balancing required) when dealing with normal, dimensional lumber.
• Pencil: Nothing unusual here, just a normal pencil sharpened with my utility knife to a dull point for marking cuts and making notations. Slipped into one of several different pencil slots on the left hip.
• Nail Claw: I have a Stanley 10″ Nail Claw for ripping nails out of existing structures. This usually sits in the large nail pouch on my left hip; there’s no real place for it to go.
• Flat Ripping Bar: I have a Stanley 12″ Wonderbar Pry Bar for ripping existing construction. Since Dad and I do a lot of work on existing structures (vs. creating new ones), we are often doing things like ripping out old windows, doors, etc. These flat bars are invaluable when it comes to doing this sort of work. They act as pry bars, nail pullers, nail cutters, and even scrapers. My flat bar slides down on the outside of my hammer through the metal ring of the hammer holster. As long as I have my hammer in there and I put the flat bar claw-side-in, it’ll sit there fine. No hammer and it falls through, so eventually I’d like to get its own holster. I like how it sounds like I’m drawing a sword when I pull it out, though. It has that typical, “Sssssshhhhiiiiing!” sound, like I’m going to go kill an orc.
• Hammer Stapler: I have a Bostitch PowerCrown Hammer Tacker (Stapler) with its own leather holster. When I need it (roofing and so forth), I put it on the belt behind my hammer; otherwise I leave it off for the sake of weight.
• Drill: I currently own a Black & Decker 12V Cordless Drill as my drilling tool. It’s not the best I’ve ever owned, but my old one gave up the ghost and I don’t have the dough yet to buy a real drill. But it works for now. The drill goes on its own holder off of the righthand side of my belt, ahead of my hammer (when I have it on).

That pretty much wraps up my tool belt and accessories. Additions to this are things like nails, screws, and other bits and pieces as I need them on the job. Nothing like having all your tools at your easy reach!