CMU School of Drama


Monday, June 22, 2026

17 Of The Weirdest Tools That Serve A Practical Purpose

www.slashgear.com: Humanity's love affair with tools goes back tens of thousands of years. Our ancient ancestors made their first tools from stone, wood, and bone. Later, they developed ways to manipulate metals like bronze and iron. New tools meant that we could acquire new materials and, with new materials, that we could develop new tools, and so on.

1 comment:

Jackson Watts said...

I think that it's interesting to see the specialty tools used in other professions. I find that often in theatre I encounter one off tasks where it feels like there must be a better way but you can't justify the cost of buying a tool for such a specific and rare circumstance. I think that the tool in this article that caught my eye the most was the pivot bit holder. While prior planning and a well thought out design can almost always prevent you from needing to fight to get a screw into an area too cramped for a drill I found myself wishing for this tool often while building sets in high school. It's the kind of tool that you can often find a workaround for not having and ultimately shouldn't be necessary but still quite helpful. Another tool that I've found myself wishing for in this article was the inflatable air shims. While the method of finding a piece of scrap wood with the right dimensions to use as a shim works I think that these would save a lot of time.