The Sweet Smell of Tool Belts

Considering the Uses

Hammer Holster

Leather or Cordura?

Tape Measure Pouch

Suspenders Help

The obvious function of body-mounted tool belts is to carry more tools than you can in your hands. But a large secondary benefit is that you can remove the whole shebang at lunchtime and hang it on a nail.

A typical tool belt can easily carry two hammers, a square, pencil, tape measure, knife, chisel, nippers, cat's-paw, and two pounds of nails. Having worn various tool belts and nail bags around my midsection since 1970, taking them off only to eat and sleep, I'll venture a few conclusions below.

Pulling a tool from its pouch soon becomes automatic, but you can improve that intuitive feel with a little forethought:

Will you want a chisel handle sticking out of the back of a nail bag, or does it merit its own leather holder?
Do you always hold the tape measure with your dominant hand, or does the other hand usually hold it while you mark with a pencil?
Examination of your work habits can suggest your ideal personal arrangement of tools and fasteners.

Hammer Holster
A good pair of pouches mounted on a belt will have two to four integral hammer loops. In the opinion of many purists (including yours humbly), almost any leather hammer loop is preferable to metal hammer scabbards. The satisfaction of twirling a well-balanced hammer by the claw and having it slide into its leather holster on the back swing is beyond description. However, leather loops can sometimes twist and get grabby after a few years. Leather can also rot and break, whereas metal loops will perform their duty in the same lifeless clattering way long after you are dead.

Frankly, many leather purists find it hard to get used to the metallic clank of dropping their hammers through nonleather loops, not to mention the way metal slows you on the quick draw. The Lone Ranger didn't wear a metal holster, and there's a reason for that.

Leather or Cordura?
Above all, a tool belt should be as comfortable as possible. This proves the logic of splurging on the best leather tool belt and pouches available, made in America with superthick cowhide, tough stitching, and rivets to spare. Cordura nail bags are wonderful for utility and durability, but purists agree that leather is more traditional--a natural material hallowed throughout tool history--and therefore better than technology's newfangled materials. (Naturally, a solid phalanx of Cordura adherents disagree at the top of their lungs.)

Tape Measure Pouch
Once again, the experts concur that there's only one reasonable place to locate a tape measure pouch for heavy carpentry, and that's exactly between both nail bags. Nonetheless, a few outlaws insist on hanging it just below their dominant hand or even clipping it inside an empty nail bag.

To soften the tape holster's leather, use a little bit of neat's-foot oil or baseball-mitt oil, particularly around the edges. You may find the clever little strap-and-snap that goes over the top of the tape to be a useful safety measure, especially if you do a lot of handsprings and cartwheels while wearing your tool belt. Otherwise, feel free to cut it off.

Suspenders Help
Lighten your load Any woman wearing a tool belt always looks better than the average man wearing a tool belt--unless we factor in the dashing element of suspenders. Industrial construction-grade suspenders create a stable, ergonomically correct suspensory harness that transfers a portion of the tool belt's weight to your shoulders. Take the load off your fanny to avoid the well-known stabbing sensation in your gluteus muscles caused by the weight of a tool belt yanking on your coccyx all day.

Jeff Taylor, author of Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of Carpentry, has contributed articles to This Old House, Esquire, and The New York Times. Now a freelance writer in Oregon's coastal mountains, Taylor works out of a former parsonage that was built from lumber salvaged from an old Army barracks.

Article courtesy of Amazon.com.