I’m shopping for a tool belt MyFixitUpLife. What do you think of the McRose Leathers rigs? They look like the style I’m after. I’m a pro remodeler looking for the right gear. Thanks — AC
Hey AC—Funny you should mention McRose Leathers. I had their US301S Pro Triple and it was built for life—a remnant from my days doing tool tests for Tools of the Trade magazine. The leather was thick and you’d need a dump truck to pull apart the pouch rivets. The belt that came with the bags was great too.
Still, our ‘bags’, ‘rig’, ‘apron’, or any other of a hundred ways to put it, is a very personal thing to us carpenters. After all, we probably spend more time with it than with our families. True story. And, we use the tools we use because (at least I hope) we’re smart enough to know what we need at hand—and accessed with a no-look-grab—and what can be left in a box, bag or truck.
And while I’ve seen guys carry nothing—or work from a pile on the floor—I’ve also seen guys carrying 20-pounds of crap they just don’t need. I try to land somewhere in the middle. A rig that enables me to walk fast (back and forth to the saw, climbing through deck framing and so on) is vital. I liked the McRose Leathers side bag set-up for this: Sensibly sized pouches and pockets.
At the end of the so-called day, however, the pocket, pouch and vertical slot layout felt more framer-friendly than remodeler-ready. And since I remodel, this is kind of important.
I loved the tape pouch on the left hip (as long as you use a square tape like the Stanley Power Lock) but there was barely enough room for storing vertical items like my scratch awl, countersink, a Sharpie, and different driver bits (Square, Phillips, T-30 for Spax and so-on). And what vertical slots are there are pretty tight, which leads me to this: The leather—which I did nothing to other than wear and sweat in—never really relaxed. The pockets never sagged a bit so I could plow my hand in there to get fasteners. Perhaps if I had oiled it like a baseball glove…
The flexible plastic on the hammer loop is genius. I transferred that to other set ups I’ve since owned. The Speed Square slot is outstanding. All tool belts should have something like this. Still, there isn’t much in the way of compartments for a utility knife (there’s a sleeve in the right pouch, but I think it’s more for a framer’s keel than a utility knife). My Sharpie, Fat Max style tape, my mighty Hyde multi-tool or diagonal cutting pliers (dykes) kinda sloshed around in the big pockets. And I hate stuff that sloshes around because that’s stage one in the two stage process of items getting lost, falling out and slowing me down. Maybe I’m OCD. And there’s certainly no place for a smart phone.
So, short story long on the tool belt question AC, the McRose Leathers bags I used were eminently well-built, but the layout wasn’t for me.
I hope this helps. Please let me know what you end up getting. I’m like the Coco-Puffs guy when it comes to tool belts.
