What's the oldest tool you're still using, and why do you like it?

[Joel_BC]

I have several old "punch bars" or "digging bars" (used for punching holes in the ground, prying stones from the ground, etc) - they're so basic and plain, they could be 90 years old, not sure. They're long, heavy pieces of steel with chisel-type edges on the bottom end.

A couple years ago, I was visiting an extremely capable and experienced designer/blacksmith. He runs a traditional ironworker's shop that serves the commercial fishing and forestry industries. It was interesting to me that his choice of tool for twisting long hot square steel rods (up to 1" cross-section) was the classic "monkey wrench". Solic feel and grip. When I was able to find one in a second-hand store, I bought it. In shape, it looks much like this:

Except mine doesn't look all charcoal colored, and has a smoother, enamelled handle. I figure mine was made around 1935-1940.

 

[~gd]

Well I used to have the hive tools used by my mother's GREAT grandfather. Any beekeeper can tell you about a hive tool. basically a small pry bar used to seperate supers from the hive to harvest the honeycomb [the worker bees tend to stick them toghter]There is a sharp 90 degree bend on one end that you can hammer into the crack between sections and use the other ten inches for leverage. There is a notch to help to get a hold of the small nails sometimes used for hive construction. You can buy the same tool today made of steel, his was hand forged and marked Ohio territory which suggests that it was made before Ohio was a state. There was a tiny claw hammer made and marked the same but I havent found a catalog that shows one offered to bee keepers. It was a very helpful tool, one step up from my trusty vice grip wrench.