Why You Need a Tool Belt
September 18, 2011, By Andy Hinds 0 comments
There are very few accessories that are particularly manly. An attaché case? Perhaps. A sidearm? Definitely. A murse? Not so much. But one piece of wearable gear that’s unquestionably masculine is a classic, well-appointed tool belt.
Terminology
Before I go any further, I’d like to clear up a language issue. I’ve spent many years on construction sites, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone besides civilians call these organizational apparatuses “tool belts.” Most guys in the trades simply call them “bags.”
My background is in carpentry, where we wear our bags from the butt crack of dawn to beer-thirty, and my colleagues and I always use the term “nail bags,” or, when I lived in the South, “nail pouches.” I’m gonna stick with “nail bags” for the purposes of this article.
Who Needs Them?
I’m surprised that more people don’t own one, especially guys who have pretty extensive tool collections. They may not realize how valuable nail bags are in terms of efficiency. There may also be a bit of concern that wearing nail bags could make the home handyman look like a poser, which I can understand, if you're just hanging a picture or installing a towel bar. But if you regularly do projects that involve measuring, cutting, and nailing, you need nail bags.
Think about your last project. How many times did you search for your tape measure for three minutes so you could get a measurement that took three seconds, only to find that your pencil was MIA and by the time you recovered it (from behind your ear), you had forgotten the measurement? This approach can easily double the time your project takes.
When you have your nail bags on your hips, however, you know exactly where everything is at all times, and it’s all within reach. What’s more, if you need to do a spur-of-the-moment repair, you don’t have to collect your hand tools from your toolbox or pegboard; you just grab your bags and go.
NEXT: How to Chose a Set of Nail Bags
