Tools

The garage drawer full of loose sockets is a kind of confession.

The pipe wrench is the most misunderstood tool in a plumber's bag. Most people treat it as a giant clamp: put it on the pipe, crank it down, and turn.

Hacksaw blades look interchangeable at a glance, but the number stamped on the blade's end tells a different story.

The humble putty knife gets blamed for a lot of bad drywall work, and almost none of it is the tool's fault.

Stripped threads are one of the most common frustrations in any workshop or garage, and they usually arrive at the worst possible moment: when a part is already disassembled, or a fastener is holding

Woodworking has a dirty secret that most beginners discover the hard way: the clamp is the real tool.

Step bits are the workhorses of the sheet metal shop, and they have a well-earned reputation for tearing up thin material.

The standard workbench vise, the kind bolted to the front edge of a bench or through the top, gets sold as a complete tool. It is not. The casting, the screw, the jaws, those are finished products.

There is a specific sound a fastener makes when it drops into the wrong part of an engine bay. It is not the sharp clink of steel on concrete, which at least offers a clear location.

The pry bar has a branding problem. Walk down the tool aisle and the options divide into two camps: the crowbar, that hulking curved thing with a claw that looks like it belongs in a medieval siege, a