Page "Tool" Paragraph 22

Often, by design or coincidence, a tool may share key functional attributes with one or more other tools.

In this case, some tools can substitute for other tools, either as a makeshift solution or as a matter of practical efficiency.

" One tool does it all " is a motto of some importance for workers who cannot practically carry every specialized tool to the location of every work task ; such as a carpenter who does not necessarily work in a shop all day and needs to do jobs in a customer's house.

Tool substitution may be divided broadly into two classes: substitution " by-design ", or " multi-purpose " use, and substitution as makeshift.

Substitution " by-design " would be tools that are designed specifically to accomplish multiple tasks using only that one tool.

Substitution as makeshift is when human ingenuity comes into play and a tool is used for its unintended purpose such as a mechanic using a long screw driver to separate a cars control arm from a ball joint instead of using a tuning fork.

In many cases, the designed secondary functions of tools are not widely known.

As an example of the former, many wood-cutting hand saws integrate a carpenter's square by incorporating a specially shaped handle that allows 90 ° and 45 ° angles to be marked by aligning the appropriate part of the handle with an edge and scribing along the back edge of the saw.

The latter is illustrated by the saying " All tools can be used as hammers.

" Nearly all tools can be used to function as a hammer, even though very few tools are intentionally designed for it and even fewer work as well as the original.