Holiday Gift Ideas for the Do It Yourself Person in Your Life

By brwood (view all posts by brwood)
at 10:56AM Tuesday November 30, 2010
under Holidays

Christmas is coming and it's time to start shopping for the perfect gifts for loved ones. I don't pretend to know your friends or family, but I can answer questions you'd like to ask your husband, father in-law or other handy do it yourself person. And don't get the impression that this list is just for men: I know there are plenty of women DiYers, too and you can use this list for them as well.

As I said last week, old books and magazine make great gifts. Look for titles from the golden age of DiY before Home Depot appeared and we all got spoiled. It seems there are dozens of multi-volume DiY books published in the 50s and 60s, and they're on eBay cheap. If you can find a complete set of Mechanix Illustrated How-to-do-it Encyclopedias, you're set for life.

As for the perfect gift solution for your do it yourself friend or relative the answer is simple: Tools. Handy people can always use tools.

Either tools they don't already have, better tools, or tools they didn't even know existed. Often times I go from being oblivious to being infatuated in the time it takes to read the description of a tool.

Like the FuBar from Stanley. This sure would have come in handy when I pulled 50,000 nails out of my old roof and put a new roof on. Why don't I have one? Because it's only been around for a few years and is a new innovation in hand tools.

The Squangle from Great Neck has dozens of uses. I used to have this tool, and it was very handy. Maybe Santa will bring me a new one this year...

Have you seen the Hammerhead from Craftsman? Now you may remember Homer Simpson invented it, but Sears perfected it and it's new enough that most likely your intended gift recipient doesn't have it yet.

Do they have a vibrating multi-tool? These have only been around for a few years and new uses keep being discovered for them.

And before I had a Dremel type rotary tool, I didn't know how many uses it had. You can get a generic version really cheap, but the Dremel version is much better. I've destroyed two of the $19 no-name ones already, and they always die at the worst moment. These are the same tool they use to do your toenails at the salon--that's how versatile they are.

Every so often Craftsman releases special collectible versions of their tools in special hardwood cases. These are too nice to actually use, but that's what makes them great as gifts.

If you know a new homeowner with no tools, go for something like this Kobalt tool bag or basic tool set by Craftsman. Just stick with name brands and you can't go wrong. These sets have most of the toolbox basics I posted about previously.

Vintage tools make nice gifts too. Even if they have no use for an original brace bit drill, a brass plumb bob or a hand plane these things look great sitting on a shelf and still work surprisingly well.

Popular Mechanic magazine knows more than I do--they've been helping the handy for over one hundred years now--and they put together a list of tool gift ideas (and their magazine makes a great gift, too).

Feel free to add your tool gift ideas to the comments below.