This totally misses the point of the phrase. A master won't blame their tools, because they'll still make a wonderful piece even with shoddy tools. They'll complain about them though, which is distinct from blame.

An amateur doesn't have the skills needed to make a masterpiece, even if they have the best tools. They won't understand how to best make use of good tools, so they're only going to help so much in their hands.

In the making of for RHCP's Dani California, Flea complains about the crappy prop bass they gave him for one of the scenes. I saw that in high-school and will never forget it. I teach guitar and bass now and always remind beginners that their guitars need to be properly set up before they can even consider blaming themselves.

I have a set of Milwakee spanners I bought after having my work ute stolen.

They are a nightmare, a 24mm spanner is just under 24mm at the edge of the jaws and makes it hard to put on or off nuts and bolts.

I was going to buy another set of kingchrome spanners but they have changed the form to look more like snapons and I find them to sharp on the hand for pulling on all day.

It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools. It's a master who knows what tools are worth using.

Beginner level tasks can be done with mediocre tools, because they don't require a ton of precision. That's why they're beginner tasks.

Master level tasks may require highly specialized and high quality tools. A master can tell when a tool isn't up for the job of that very high level task, and often true expertise involves knowing how to maintain one's tools to be able to do work with the required level of control or precision.

Understanding the scope of the critique is important. It's still valid to criticize beginners who blame their tools when failing at very forgiving tasks that don't require good tools.

I feel like that idiom implies "blame for poor results". Because yeah, bad tools will slow you down, but if you're a master, you'll still make it work to get a high-quality result.

I agree with this to a degree, but I think the idea is to imbue the idea that an expert with shoddy tools will be more effective than an amateur with the best tools.

Good craftsmen don't blame bad tools because they don't use bad tools. They have learned the craft well enough to know what makes a good tool and will get that one and properly maintain it.

I blame the shareholders instead, everything has to constantly get cheaper to sustain growth, it's unsustainable and frankly, idiotic. Capitalism.

Took me like 5 rereads to understand this for some reason lol. Anyone else found this one confusing?

While true, it's also true that a master craftsman can do more with a rock than a poor craftsman can do with a hardware store.

I get what you're saying... but middle managers are the poor tools!

Its my contention that even in a communist society, one that has reinvigorated the passion for craftsmanship, mechanics of all crafts will tinker with different tools.

The method of producing the end product could and should adapt to the need of the crafts person producing it. It's what, in my opinion, makes the product human/ flawed/ authentic as a result.

I for one enjoy seeing imperfections in hand made products. It gives me insight into how the person crafting it may have held the object. Quite possibly indicating how their physical state was when producing it. Very human, I like that shit.