The past two weeks I have been on vacation scouting for interesting examples of tool use in China. I wanted to share a few examples of unique tools I saw while I was over there that I thought were pretty neat.
This is a giant tool for roasting and salting walnuts. The nuts go in the the big metal bucket which has a flame underneath. The middle shaft swirls them through a substantial layer of salt. The best ones get cracked a little so that the saltiness permeates the shell.
Another giant tool for juicing pomegranate. Notice the trash tie-in with the white bucket stacked perfectly with the discarded rinds.
I really liked this guy who had a stand on the top of a mountain where he would use a dremel with a thin bit to intricately carve family names on lucky gold locks. People attached the locks and red ribbons to chain links near the peaks of the range.
I was intrigued by this welder balanced high up on a construction site.
And probably my favorite “tool” that I saw on my trip was this amazing bamboo scaffolding that covered buildings all over Hong Kong.
It was amazing to watch as these guys hoisted up ten foot long bamboo poles to the top of the structure, set them in place, and lashed the beams together to create a new level. As you can see in the pictures the scaffolding can go pretty high and must be really strong and balanced to support people working at such heights. All in all, it was an ingenious way to use available materials in a surprising and useful way. If that’s not tinkering, I don’t know what is.
