As your faithful narrator has probably mentioned, the urge to tinker with stuff and maybe dismantle it is a lifetime one, especially when stuff doesn’t work (and dismantling stuff usually guarantees it will never work again).

As youths, my group of mates were always building, making, destroying, repurposing and generally getting in where we shouldn’t with a hammer or a screwdriver. This ‘backyard engineering’ approach was a boon during our later teens when it came to modifying and repairing the weedy motorcycles and ancient cars that ferried us between various social engagements, camping trips and other geeky pursuits.

In turn, this approach comes in useful later in life when you put on your practical pants and make running repairs around the home and garden. Many men like to feel they’re handy enough to deal with the day-to-day issues that crop up, and to this end will assemble a bunch of the tools required: a hammer, a pair of pliers, a couple of screwdrivers, a blunt saw and a tin of miscellaneous screws, nails and picture-hanging doohickies.

Of course, there’s a huge gulf between backyard engineering and the capabilities of the journeyman craftsperson – and skilling (and tooling) yourself up for the kinds of things some blokes achieve at work or in their sheds is a quantum leap.

Round here, we’re inching from handy-about-the-place to something a bit more advanced – hence the frequent mentions of popping into Bunnings to pick up the required tools and materials. Meanwhile, here below are some of the handy gadgets the backyard engineer finds indispensable.

A shifting spanner (or wrench in the US), scornfully referred to as an Irish micrometer by those in possession of superior nut-and-bolt-shifting gear – those ones with a ring at one end, in both metric and imperial sizes, or even those socket sets with an array of super specialist fittings: long-reach, right-angled, hex, Torx, and exotic fitments like that.

Of course, all this precision means you’ll miss out on the joys of skinned knuckles and rounded-off nuts (quiet there at the back) that come with careful application of this perennial toolbox inhabitant.

WD-40: those who stand with one elbow on the bar and opine will tell you that WD-40 isn’t a lubricant, it’s a penetrating solvent and moisture repellant. All well and good – but let me tell you, it’ll stop a squeaking door and free up a rusty bicycle chain like magic. And it’s always worth spraying it into the carby of a lawnmower that won’t start – good times! That blue-and-yellow can is just so damn versatile, no backyard engineer should be without it.

Leatherman: a great photographer whose name I don’t remember once said that the best camera is the one you have with you – and this principle applies to tools as well. Which is why the Leatherman finds its way into so many projects around here. Now when you hear the name ‘Leatherman’, I’d encourage you not to go here:

This rugged multi-tool puts MacGyver’s Swiss Army knife to shame in every respect. It’s quite a serious piece of toolage — be it restoring finials, tuning up the Spitfire, or trimming rebellious rose bushes, getting the old Leatherperson out of that little pocket in the jeans is a great start to the job.

Sandpaper: a word still spoken in hushed tones around Australian cricket supporters (check this out if you require clarification), sandpaper is one of those resources that’s just about always required on a job involving wood. For metal, bring out the emery or ‘wet and dry’ paper. Both are excellent for smoothing away the evidence of irregular work, preparing rough or blemished surfaces for paint or staining, and a thousand other purposes requiring abrasion. Wouldn’t be without it, me.

As time goes on and the DIY tasks become more demanding, the backyard engineering principle of ‘when all else fails, hit it with a hammer’ must be consigned to the scrapheap of failed projects on the basis that it seldom works — even if it feels good at the time. Now, with the need to produce work of a reasonably functional and aesthetically-pleasing standard, these tools above are a good starting point. And for the rest, Bunnings is a quick dash down the King’s Highway.