Gear guides and straight talk for the trades, judged on one test: does it buy you more good years? No spec-sheet padding, no miracle cures, and nothing with the word “senior” on it.
Built by Still Grafting, a research-led gear guide site for UK tradespeople who plan to work for years yet. Verdicts are locked before any link goes in — no affiliate payola, no miracle cures. The full story.
Self-employed means no sick pay. Drag the slider to your day rate and see what an average year of aches actually invoices you for.
Count the honest total: full days off plus the half-speed days that overran the job. Nothing you set here is stored or sent anywhere.
FREE. ONE PAGE. SITE NOTES COMES WITH IT EVERY FRIDAY, UNSUBSCRIBE IN ONE CLICK.
Every verdict is locked before any affiliate link goes in. We don’t write guides around products we can earn from — we earn from products we’d recommend anyway.
Real tradespeople put real weeks on the kit. We note what fails, what frays, what loosens, and what actually holds up — then we write it down.
Stars are for hotels. We measure kit against your day rate: how many lost days does it have to save before it pays for itself? Everything else is secondary.
No kit fixes a bad technique. No knee pad makes up for a 14-hour day. We say what kit can and can’t do — and we say it before the buy button.
Every guide ends with the same spec plate: what it weighs, what it costs, and how many lost days it has to save before it pays for itself. If we wouldn’t put it in our own van, it doesn’t get a link.
Knees // Cornerstone
Eight pairs compared on certification small print, the verdicts of tradespeople who kneel for a living, and price. Including the one pair worth twice its money.
Drills // New guide
Four drills weighed bare and with battery, ranked lightest first. DeWalt DCD701, Makita DF332 and DeWalt DCD800 compared on weight, torque and Payback Score.
Hands // New guide
Half of what’s sold as “anti-vibration” is padding with a label. The truth about EN ISO 10819, why the HSE says gloves won’t stop HAVS, and the few worth buying.
Trousers // New guide
The pad and trouser are a certified pair. Snickers says its KneeGuard pads are certified only in Snickers trousers. Here is the guide to buying them as a system.
The van
The free fix is storing heavy kit at waist height, and the cheap aids that genuinely cut the load.
Back // Lifting
The bodies that study back injury do not recommend back belts. Here is the honest evidence.
The van
Buy what you use every week. Hire what is heavy, dear or occasional.
Every recommendation on this site on a single page, ranked by Payback Score, with current best prices. Site Notes comes with it: five minutes every Friday with one recommendation, one technique worth nicking, and the week’s price drops. Plus first call on the test bench: free kit in exchange for honest feedback.
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