Tools have a certain magical quality. You may never have a use for a specific tool but, if you happen to get your hands on one, you will likely find a million uses right away.
I never had any use for a chain saw. One day, however, I heard a large thump outside my bedroom window and discovered, upon looking, that one of the trees in my yard had fallen down. My normal way of dealing with such an event would be to use my bucksaw and cut it up by hand. But the tree was too large for hand-cutting, at least in my opinion, so I went out and bought a chainsaw.
I didn’t buy a powerful gasoline saw, but a 14 inch electric. I figured I had only one use for it, and that was to get rid of a single fallen tree. So I brought it home and set to work cutting up the tree.

Of course, that was so much fun I had to look for other things to cut while I was out there.
I cut down a few other things out there that day. While I don’t think I did anything regrettable, I certainly did more than I originally intended.
I’m sure everyone has had the experience. It must come from the fact that a new tool really is like a new toy, and just like a new toy, you have to play with it until you’re tired of it.
I witnessed a similar incident last summer, but with a different result. A neighbour who had just recently purchased a house on my street thought his hedges needed trimming (admittedly, they did), so he bought himself some new hedge-clippers.
He started out promisingly enough. He later told me that he thought he did a pretty good job just cutting off the more wild pieces and making the hedge neat-looking. But then, he said, it was like he was possessed and couldn’t stop cutting. So inch by inch, he trimmed the hedge away. Before he knew it, he had cut practically all the green off.

The hedge is recovering.

Every new tool I get, I experience the same sort of phenomena. Whatever it is, it becomes my new favourite thing to use. I will, in fact, go out of my way to use it. I remember when I got the tablesaw I now own. I immediately set to work trying to find things to do with it. I abandoned all other tools in favour of it. I tried to set everything up to facilitate its use. I even made a tablesaw sled (which I’ve since abandoned) and several other jigs (most of which are now discarded). And for a while thereafter, every project was done almost entirely by the tablesaw. If I could’ve figured out a way to get it to drive screws, I would’ve.
A friend of mine had a similar experience with a router. He finally decided to buy a new one, after many years of using an inherited quarter-inch router. He researched to determine the best one. After purchasing it, he thought it would be good to be able to use it for as many tasks as possible.
Now, it’s not really the case that he suddenly found a million things to use a router for. What he did find, however, were a million things to buy. He bought bits and jigs and a new table. He then spent a few weekends making a storage cabinet for all of it.
But in the end, he didn’t use that router for more than he had used the old quarter inch one. And, in many instances, he actually continued to use the old one, because, as he said, he knew how it worked and what it did.

I must admit, I’m not that way. I will use a new tool until I run out of things to do with it. And I think that may be part of the process of familiarizing myself with what it can do. But I think it’s mostly just dealing with the novelty of the tool. There is something inspiring about a new tool, or there is for me. I find it a good reason to make something new. Or I do most of the time. My most recent purchase has been a new circular saw to replace a 13-year old one that has suddenly decided to become unreliable. Truthfully, such a tool is not that inspiring.

It is, after all, not a chainsaw.