Hand woodworking tools are classy by themselves, but engraving artist Catharine Kennedy takes them a step further. The delicately carved surfaces of her planes are simply gorgeous. Obviously, they will cut better afterward.

Link -via Make

For the first time a wild fish, the Blackspot Tuskfish has been photographed by a diver using a tool. Scientists predict that before long we will be cowering before those damn dirty Cod.  Probably not, but check out the photo gallery of this tool using fish at the link.

Fortunately, Mr Gardner managed to photograph this happening as there has never before been any evidence to prove tool use in fish. Behavioural ecologist Culum Brown, of Macquarie University in Sydney, told Science Now: ‘The pictures provide fantastic proof of these intelligent fish at work using tools to access prey that they would otherwise miss out on.

Link

If you take a look at a catalog of tools for a specialized craft, you might be amazed at the vast number of specialized pieces of equipment available that you’ve never heard of. This tool, for example, is a perforation gauge. It’s used by stamp collectors to measure the gaps left by tear marks in postage stamps.

Link via Swiss Miss | Photo: Harris Co.

Mother’s Day is so yesterday.  Are you ready for Father’s Day?

This year show Dad how much you care by getting him the BBQ Tools from the NeatoShop.  This is the perfect gift for your favorite grill master / handyman / awesome Dad.

Be sure to check out all the fantastic Cooking Gadgets available at the NeatoShop!

A man who hurt himself after working for many years as a landscaper decided to address the problem of back injuries resulting from carrying long, heavy tools. He built a rig that uses an overhead pulley to transfer the weight of a tool held in the hands to a back-mounted frame. At the link, you can view more pictures and videos showing the Portable Support Tool in action.

Link via OhGizmo!

The blog Cool Tools recently held a contest that invited people to design their own tools. Steve Hoefer submitted these arm-mounted work lights:

Enter the Hand Lights, a pretty simple and cheap DIY project that puts adjustable lights on your forearms to light whatever is in your hands. They have the advantage over head mounted lights because they always put the light where you’re working. They also provide better light since it comes from multiple directions (if you wear two) to provide both more illumination and a better sense of depth.

I use these all the time, everything from sculpting and crafting projects (the light on my sewing machine is dismal, these help make up for it) to provide extra lights while soldering, cleaning out the attic, working on the car, and late night reading. Adding a binder clip and a magnet they can be stuck just about anywhere.

A few months ago, we featured Hoefer’s gadget that allows a person to play rock-paper-scissors alone.

Link via Make | Instructables Instructions

Primordial butchers using sharp stones to fillet a carcass in ancient East Africa made the marks, the researchers said.

“It pushes back tool use almost a million years,” said archaeologist Shannon McPherron at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who discovered the bones last year at Dikika, Ethiopia, about 300 miles from Addis Ababa.[...]

Until now, the oldest known stone tools dated to about 2.5 million years ago. Those implements, of which thousands were found in East Africa, are thought to be the work of an early human species. The older find announced Wednesday, however, would predate the evolution of the human family, known as the genus Homo, and raises new questions about the role of tools in spurring human evolution. They may have initiated a shift in pre-humans’ diet, which in turn may have aided the development of larger brains.

Link via Discover | Photo: Dikika Research Project/PA

Jim Gorman of Popular Mechanics took a look at some of the early schematics and prototypes for the popular Leatherman Multi-Tool developed by Tim Leatherman in the 1980s. Pictured above are cardboard cut-outs and wooden models that Leatherman carved during the design process.

Link via Make | Photo: Dwight Eschliman

James Bond is one of the best and coolest guys in the film world. He is capable of almost anything, and has a ton of tricks up his sleeves. From the author who brought you 55 Tricks of Jason Bourne, here are 69 Tricks and Tools of James Bond, from the first five Bond films, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice. From Goldfinger:

5. When in the enemy’s bathroom, Bond inspects the room for peepholes, and covers them with his clothing and shaving cream. In addition, he detects a two-way mirror, which lets him know a peephole is close.
6. In a guarded cell, Bond managed to jump to the ceiling and stay there temporarily to lure the guard in and escape.
7. Bond always keeps an eye on the person who has the keys to his handcuffs, so when he is dead, Bond can grab the keys.

Link – via squealingrat

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by squealingrat.

Think your health care plan is bad? Consider yourself lucky that you don’t live back in the middle ages when "advanced" surgeries were done using these 20 seriously scary surgical tools. Yikes.

This one to the left is the Arrow Remover:

Arrow Remover – Not much is known about this tool, but it is hypothesized that it was inserted into the wound in a contracted position, with the central shaft used to grasp the arrow. The blades, which appear to have their sharp edges facing outward, were then expanded using the scissor-like handles…

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by yugosakimi.

…after digging a water hole, elephants will strip bark from a tree, chew it into a ball, then use it to fill the hole. Once the top has been covered with sand, the elephant has an evaporation-resistant canteen.

Link