Tools

Tools, tools, tools (kinda rhymes with Girls, girls, girls). I'm the first to admit it, I LOVE tools, and have been fortunate to accumulate a few of various types over the years.
I do rather wishfully miss a classic gasoline blowtorch i owned many years ago (never did fire it up), a beauty of brass and steel that I know would just polish up like a gem... Then there was my German-made Stihl 031 chainsaw I used and abused and, like a loyal dog it would sleep under the house all winter and still come when I called it, tail wagging and ready to do what I needed. Heck, I even offered it as collateral for a bank loan once to get grubstaked to go to UAF. And believe me, in the Yup'ik Eskimo village of Hooper Bay, Alaska, which I called home for over 20 years (my wife's hometown, of course) that saw saw a lot of duty cutting firewood. It got replaced by a Stihl 037, which was quite a saw in its own right, a Fathers Day or birthday present from my wife, as I recall. I even used it to cut the head off a beached, rather dead, walrus one time.
But lets talk about tools of the trade, shall we? If you enjoy having a piece of cordage in your hands, you either have, or know you need, a tool or two to, if nothing else, save your fingernails.
I'll talk about a number of items that every practitioner of the marlinspike arts should have, and show you mine.
KNIVES- No pun intended, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for a well made, functional knife. When I went to join my first duty station in the US Coast Guard, the USCGC Chase (WHEC-718), a 378' High Endurance Cutter in September of 1974, I stopped at a knife shop on my way to Base Boston and picked up a rigging knife. Later on, we were issued Camillus pocket knives, folders with a regular clip blade, can opener, screwdriver and an awl, kind of like a Boy Scout knife. It was marked U.S,. and had a bail on it.
Over the years I have had, used, and lost many a knife, but still have a pretty choice collection which I'll share with you as time goes along.
PLIERS- Really, what you need, is a decent pair of needle nose. That's all. Well, maybe a FEW others. Like wire cutters. And linemans. And water pumps. And whatever other kind you think you need. But really, to get started, all you need is a pair of needlenose. I have a small pair of Kobalt pliers I use for pulling things tight. My pair have smooth jaws, which doesn't seem to cause much of a problem.
SCISSORS: Get your own, don't steal the wifes' good ones! A pair of Klien scissors works well; these days I'm using a pair Mini Utiltiy Scissors from CountyComm that work just fine.
HEMOSTATS- Can take the place of pliers.
MARLINSPIKES- Kind of a contradiction in terms, since marline is "small stuff" and spike brings visions of railroad track nails, but you can't do much without some kind of a spike, even in small stuff. I have a couple of Myerchin spikes and a number of other "spike-like" tools that I'll be showing off as time goes by. No big spikes for wire here...yet.