steven antonucci
Being a math professor, you should be able to understand a proof. You take the hypothesis and test it. If your hypothesis is correct you should be able to prove it.

So to date, here is what I've seen:

Big tools are too heavy to turn with or transport. That's crap.
Mini tools can do things that you can't do with big tools. Also crap.
Somehow, if I had access to a Glaser spindle gouge, I would want one. Crap again.

I have every tool I need. I probably have twice as many as I need, and I like make 50x as many things as you do. Not just finials, which I turn with a skew because I can.

So you have yet to prove in any way that a mini tool makes any sense to add to an arsenal. If you WANT to spend your money buying things that you don't need, I am not going to stand in your way. Perhaps you should buy them in pairs so you have a back-up?

But for me, I think PT Barnum said it best...

S