popularwoodworking.com ■ 57BestThe Winners:• Abranet• Apollo• Bosch• Festool• FullPro• Freud• Gramercy• Grizzly• Jet• Lamello• Lie-Nielsen• Milwaukee• Steel City• Veritas• Work Sharp2007NewtoolsAfter eight years of writing the Best New Tools column, you’dthink that we’d be jaded and bored with the tool industry. (“Oh look,yawn, another new cordless drill with a bubble level.”)But every year, all the editors for this magazine sit down with our listsof tools we like, and we are amazed at how many innovative and cool newtools are released every single year. For a craft that is as old as civilizationitself, it’s a testament to ingenuity that we can continue to find new andbetter ways to manipulate wood to our liking.So what do we look for in a tool that makes it a “Best New Tool?” Usu-ally the winners are the tools that make us sit up in our chairs when wefirst hear about them. They might be tools that have never existed before,such as the Festool Domino – a shoo-in on this year’s list. They might betools that are being revived and improved after near-extinction, such asthe Veritas Small Plow Plane or Gramercy Dovetail Saw. They might betools that are simply the “Best in the Category,” such as the Milwaukeetwo-base router kit or the Apollo HVLP system. They can be tools thatmake a bold and important statement, such as the riving knife on theBosch 4100 table saw or the Grizzly jointer/planer – it took guts to bringthose European features to the North American market.And sometimes, a Best New Tool is something that you never everwould have thought of, and is so interesting that you just cannot stoptalking about it. I am talking, of course, about the Steel City tools withgranite tops and fences. Maybe next year we’ll get bored with this annualaward – but I wouldn’t count on it. — Christopher Schwarz, editor