Tool value has been on my mind. Last year, I spent $400 on a used chipper-shredder (10 hp, I think). It got used a couple of times, but turned out to be a great deal of trouble compared to simply hauling the debris to the local dump.

A few weeks ago, I bought a new brush-cutter for $300. This handy device got 3 hours of use the first weekend, and probably 10 hours use over the Memorial day weekend. The results were phenomenal. The tool has already paid for itself.

I was wondering how others value their tools? To value a tool, I have to buy it and work with it for a while. In some cases, I probably never figure out how to 'get value' from the tool. In the case of the chipper, the tool turned out to be woefully slow compared to my expectations. Maybe I still don't 'get it', and I'm missing the trick that makes the machine valuable. Instead, I suspect a chipper with grinding speed to make me happy would cost $2000 and require a new building to house it.

As a home gardener, I don't have the feedback 'customers' provide to value my tools. Has anyone got a method for valuing tools they can share?