My kid asked why I don't just buy a new hammer when mine broke, and it stopped me cold.

I was fixing the handle on my cross-peen, the one I've had since my apprenticeship in Toledo. The head was fine, but the hickory split. My eight-year-old was watching and said, 'Dad, can't you just get another one? They have them at the store.' I started to explain about fitting a handle to the eye, about the weight and balance being just right, but then I realized something. We're not just fixing tools. We're teaching that not everything is disposable, that some things are worth the time to mend properly. How do you talk to people outside the trade about why we do things this way?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_lane6019d ago

That line about "not everything is disposable" really got me. I tried explaining this to my partner once when I was re-gluing a chair for the third time. She just smiled and called me a stubborn old mule, which, fair enough. It's hard to put into words why the right fix feels better than a new thing from the box.

the_brooke18d ago

Wait, you had that hammer since your apprenticeship? That's wild. I get what victor_lane60 means about the right fix, but man, keeping a tool that long is next level.