How to properly look after your tools

Both manual and electric tools require essential maintenance at home. Keeping them in good condition is essential so you can get your full money’s worth from your investment and enjoy using them for as long as possible. That is why today we’d like to give you all the advice you need to ensure all your tools are kept in the best condition possible.

Basic advice for maintaining tools

As we already mentioned, keeping your tools clean and well organised is essential to make sure that they continue to work properly for many years to come. And isn’t that exactly what you want? Of course it is. We all want our favourite tools to last as long as possible, so we don’t need to replace them too soon. To achieve this:

• After every use, gently clean all the wooden handles of your tools using a wood protective treatment.
• Don’t ever use a metal tool as a hammer. Only ever use an actual hammer for this purpose.
• You should replace or sharpen the blades on all of your cutting tools around once a year.

This is some of the most basic general advice for properly maintaining your tools. Now we’ll move on to some more specific advice to make sure your tools are kept in perfect condition.

Take care when storing your tools

It might not seem obvious, but it is not only important to use your tools correctly when you need them, it is also essential that you treat them properly when you stop using them. In other words, how you store your tools is an important factor that will determine whether or not they remain in good condition for years to come.

If you have enough space to hang your tools, this is the best way to store them. Why? Because this will prevent their components from getting damaged by unnecessarily grazing against things and/or having to support the weight of other tools on top of them. But if you don’t have a space to hang them, or the space is not large enough for all your tools, don’t worry, as putting them in their own box is more than enough to keep them in good condition.

If you didn’t keep their original box, or you prefer to keep them all together in one box or some kind of case, we would suggest that you wrap all your more delicate tools in bubble wrap before storing them. Of course you should also make sure there is no moisture in the box or case, as this could damage certain parts of your tools, particularly those that contain steel or other metal alloys. You could put several small bags of rice with your tools to absorb the humidity, then you won’t need to worry about this issue.

Advice for maintaining tools according to their use

You should also take into account the properties of your various tools and what you use them for when determining how they should be maintained. Shall we get started?

• Tools like mallets, hammers and anything else that is used for applying force to another tool or material need to be constantly checked to ensure that their parts are properly fixed in place before being used.
• As for measuring tools, particularly those that contain elements like a spirit level, it is important that you avoid storing them in areas with a lot of humidity and you should never put them on top of each other, as they could get damaged or broken.
• Cutting tools, as we mentioned previously, should be sharpened from time to time to ensure that they continue to work properly. But it is also important to cover their blades with rubber protectors when storing them, to prevent any injuries.

Advice for maintaining tools according to their material

Another important factor to take into account when maintaining your tools is to pay particular attention to the material they are made from.

As such, tools that are made from steel or metal, or that contain any parts made from these materials, are at risk of becoming rusty, as we mentioned previously. If this happens, the best thing to do is sand them with medium grit sandpaper, but the best solution of all is to prevent this from happening at all: under no circumstances should you leave your tools in places with a lot of moisture, as per our advice in the previous sections.

As for tools made from wood, you can keep them clean and in good condition using specific products for treating wood, or with vegetable oils like flax oil.

Tools for making sculptures at home

At Rock & Tools we offer the best tools on the market for sculpting stone. We hope that this post will help you look after your tools better and keep them in good working order for longer. Our mission is to help you enjoy your favourite tools so you can use them for all the projects you come up with in the future.

If you’re unsure about anything, don’t worry, we would be delighted to help you with whatever you need, so you can choose the perfect tool for you. And we also have a special section on our website, the Art Space, where you can share your experience and your sculptures with the rest of the community.