TomD
+1 Charles.

I have several cultures worth of tools. Mostly either japanese, or English pattern, though I have a half kit of German. For the most part though, my racks hold just the one set of tools. That is why I like somewhat flexible racks so that better tools can enter or leave as they arrive.

The other aspect, more admirable if one likes, is that most of us are not limited to one craft. A shop that only did molding would be one thing. A long term plan of mine is to do moldings but first to do the molding planes. I also make the irons, and I made the forge the irons where HTd on. And I made the burner for the forge, etc... Plus I make guitars, bikes, large boats, etc... This week I made a bridge crane to lit my leather sewing machine onto the second floor, and I will need to mill specialty feet for it. I need to make a new version of the folk song "I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly", except about the endless connections of things I make.

So Chris has his thirty tools, but that only works if you make a startlingly limited range of things. I can go away for a few months every year, and take less than thirty tools with me, and that is fun too.