The Last X You Will Ever Buy

Sobering, isn't it? At age 65, I confront a strangely comforting dilemma: Many of the thing I buy or do will outlive me. That Deodar Cedar in between us and the road? It will be big when I'm in my 80s, but if climate-change and future residents allow, it will still be growing bigger in the 22nd Century.

Every time we acquire a vehicle, and I'm addicted to clean used vehicles, I say "this one will be here when I ain't." And now when a tool wears out, I start shopping for something that will be in my estate sale.

Last week, the first circular saw I'd every owned, a basic Skil purchased in the early 1990s, gave up the ghost. I could have ordered a new trigger (the motor works still) but it's not like my Porter-Cable belt sander, a Gibraltar-like device that commands reverence and weighs about 40 pounds. I got a new trigger for that one. It should last another 40 years. The Skil is a cheap tool that lasted a long time because I am careful with my tools.

Now it's replacement is a DeWalt saw. Instead of an $80 Skil, I spent another $100 and got a saw that rips paneling like a hot knife though butter. The trigger design is sure and solid and that means a lot when you work with a saw for a few hours.

I really like the DeWalt's corded tools, but I've sworn off the cordless ones because the company changes battery designs regularly and I have to find third-party batteries from China (when I can in these crazy times) to keep the tools running. Planned obsolescence violates every fiber of my being.

There was a time when a good tool meant a lifetime investment; that's the case for the sander I noted, as well as some of the shop tools we own. My Bosch Miter-box and Delta table saws should survive me (I bought the latter from an estate, in fact). I was at a farm show where a craftsman was using a spoke-shave from the middle of the 18th Century; George III was boss here when that tool was made.

I just wonder: if we thought of purchasing things that would outlast us, how much healing would that do for the environment? Moreover, how much would it say "up yours" to the purveyors of cheaply made, disposable goods? Wendell Berry made that one of his tests for a sustainable economy.

When the current stupid era ends with an economic crash, I wonder if we might return to the Distributist principles of localism, frugality, and durability.

I'll be cutting boards and waiting to see.