The name of this is “Improved Video Inspection System.” Improved from what? The cordless driver they used the case to make this?

This feels overpriced to me. Like the gun-style form factor will make up for all the things that the Milwaukee already does that this can’t.

The Milwaukee has more modes and better attachments along with the bad-ass battery system. Save your cash if you need one and find one with the white lighting bolt on the side. Just say’n.

Improved Video Inspection System [Garrett Wade]

The normal order of most low- to mid-grade “multi” products is a great number of tools Frankensteined onto a familiar platform. The 13-Piece DIY Utility Knife Kit from Garrett Wade is no exception. The problem here is it looks pretty handy.

Here’s the thing — it’s a standard folding utility blade that comes with variously shaped blades that can be swapped in and out and are suitable for cutting all sorts of material you might run into like wood, leather, paper, cardboard, linoleum, or carpet.

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For those woodworkers who like the hand-shaped look, the smaller curves on trim can be a nightmarish proposition — or at the least a time-intensive one. Enter the mini-sized spokeshaves from Garrett Wade.

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You’d think there wasn’t much more you could do to improve the trusty old round-point shovel, but Gemcor, maker of the One-Shot Shovel, thinks they’ve found a way. They start with a basic round-point shovel and give it wings — the “wings” provide extra carrying capacity and extra support for your foot when you step on the shovel, and the extra edges cut the ground quicker.

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You carry a pen around religiously, but wouldn’t it be nice to have calipers always handy? If you owned a Messograf caliper pen from Cleo Skribent, you’d always have calipers.

Built into the retractable ballpoint pen is a 4″ Vernier caliper that measures in increments of both 0.1mm and 1/16″. The pen also functions as a metric screw thread scale and a tire tread depth scale.

Made in Germany from chrome-plated brass, the Messograf caliper pen retails for about $27 or so depending on the exchange rate, but you can find it as low as $20 before shipping.

Messograf [Cleo Skribent]
Messograf [Garrett Wade]
Messograf [Passion4Pens]

One of my sons picked up an ‘88 Bronco, leading me to wonder why a kid who lives in the city and never even touches the transfer case lever needs a four-by-four. Anyway, he managed to run out of antifreeze, and over the summer he just kept topping off the radiator with water, and as you can guess, the water pump started leaking — so it ends up in ole Paul’s shop for a “quick” water-pump swap.

I should’ve had him take it to the shop because over half the water-pump bolts snapped, probably due to a combination of the water and the engine getting too hot. As I was pulling the grill and radiator so I could work in there, an easy-out broke off, and that was after a day of spraying PB on it. So I dropped $20 on a couple of carbide burrs at the Fastenal shop and got the job done.  Now I see Garrett Wade sells a fifteen-piece set of burrs for quite a bit less than I spent.

Just like all carbide-based tools, these burrs’ll cut through about anything. The bits come with an 1/8” shank.  The common shapes and sizes are included in the set, and they average out to about $4 per bit. The entire set sells for $60 at Garrett Wade.

Grinding Burrs [Garrett Wade]

Hacking through roots can be frustrating at best.  They’re tough, covered in dirt and usually below ground.  This means you’re on your hands and knees hunched over a hole ruining your good tools.  This inexpensive Japanese sickle root cutter is purported to cut roots up to 1″ in diameter with “minimal fuss.”

The 8-3/4″ handle is made from Ho wood, a heavy and hard wood.  The 2-3/4″ blade is made from heavy-duty stainless tool steel and has razor sharp serrated teeth set at approximately 30 degrees.  Like most Japanese saws this 5/64″ thick blade cuts on the pull stroke.

The Japan Woodworker and Garrett Wade import this root cutter from Japan and sell it for between $11 and $17. Also, we hear they’re all the rage with the zombie elite types this year, like Jason and that fisherman guy with the hook.

Root Cutter [Japan Woodworker]
Root Cutter [Garrett Wade]

Garrett Wade’s pricing can lean a little on the crack-smoking side, but right now they’re having an inventory reduction sale on a “while supplies last” basis. The big banner across the top says the prices are slashed down 55 percent — however a quick look will find the slashing to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 percent.

That’s still not bad if you’d like to pick up a box hatchet for $9 or a folding wood and brass ruler for $17. Of course, use your head and shop around to see what’s really a bargain and what’s not.

Inventory Reduction [Garrett Wade]

With the Folding Pocket Wrench you can carry around an entire set of open-end wrenches in your pocket.  The double-ended wrench folds down to 5″ x 2″ x 3/4″ to fit comfortably in its included nylon belt pouch.  Its integrated spacer blades act as shims to adjust the wrench to the fastener size, rather than using a thumb wheel that needs constant adjustment.

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Here in the Toolmonger shop we have little patience for working bolts out, and if at first we don’t succeed we just pile on more grunt.  On occasion this leads to rounding off a few corners — you know, like all of them. This nine-piece extractor set from Garret Wade offers some help in that department.

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Way before electricity and power tools, woodworkers were drilling holes with hand-powered tools like the breast drill. Skipping over the obvious 7th-grade jokes, old-timers once reached for this drill to get a good start and a clean hole.

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I normally don’t go for the dime-store keychain stuff, but these Garrett Wade pewter keychains aren’t half bad. They come in three styles: wood plane, garden implements, and mechanic’s tools.

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Last year about this time we made a joke about the Rambo styling of a certain garden spade from Garrett Wade. This year a new contender may take the Rambo-gardening title: this Japanese digging knife. We don’t doubt that it’s handy — it looks like it could cut up some dirt, or fend off a tribe of deadly ninjas, without much trouble.

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Maybe you’ve lost the original pin wrench that came with your grinder, or maybe you’re sick of keeping up with a different wrench for each grinder you own. If so, you’re in luck — you can choose from several replacement options.

Harbor Freight sells a cheap adjustable pin wrench that may fit the bill. It adjusts to fit grinder hubs from 3/8″ to 1-1/16″. For only $4 this cheap-ass tool of the bunch could be yours.

If Harbor Freight tools make you cringe, try an almost identical model from Garrett Wade for four times the price. Don’t fear, you’re getting something for the extra dough — this wrench can accommodate a wider variety of grinders, with hubs from 3/8″ to 1-9/16″.

Amazon also sells an adjustable pin wrench that looks like a pair of dividers. For $15 this 7″ long wrench fits a much larger range of grinder hub sizes. Made of chrome vanadium steel, this wrench features 5/32″ diameter pins. Customers have complained that these pins are too large for their grinder — but that’s nothing a few minutes on the grinding wheel can’t solve.

Adjustable Pin Wrench [Harbor Freight]
Adjustable Pin Wrench [Garrett Wade]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Garrett Wade sells a crescent wrench that’s been stripped down to its skeleton — all excess metal has been whittled away to leave a wrench they claim is 20% lighter than similar sized wrenches but still maintains 100% of its strength.

Made by one of Japan’s best-known professional toolmakers — if anybody knows who that is, let us know in the comments — these lightweight adjustable wrenches come in 8″ and 10″ versions.

Right now Garrett Wade is discounting each wrench by $10 — that puts the 8″ wrench at $20 and the 10″ wrench at $30. In situations where every ounce counts, these might come in handy.

Lightweight Adjustable Wrench [Garrett Wade]

This may look like another boring joint clamp — in fact, that’s what it is. Crafters can choose from about 50 types of joint clamps to help out when making a box. But this one will clamp boards of any length, which is noteworthy. In fact, it might be worthy of picking up a few.

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Old-school hand tools always make us smile, and not just because they have a lot of history behind them — they do — or because they’re fun to use — they are — but because often they can help you out when modern technology leaves you a bit stumped. Take for example this hand drill or “brace”, as they’re sometimes known. Though old, it’ll still come in handy when you need to drill a prefect hole slowly.

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