Learning about the West Seattle Tool Library, as the team shows visiting councilmember around

(WSB photos by Torin Record-Sand)

That’s District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka, trying out a saw at the West Seattle Tool Library during a tour on Friday afternoon. The Tool Library team invited us to visit too. We feature the WSTL in our West Seattle Event Calendar multiple times every week, but admittedly hadn’t stopped by in a while.

The Tool Library is on the northeast corner of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), and holds a wealth of tools available for borrowing – currently more than 3,700!

Seasonally, its cider presses are popular:

So are yard/garden tools. In all, as of mid-October, the Tool Library has surpassed 80,000 loans in its 15-plus years. The staff told Councilmember Saka about some of the wide variety of tools that have been donated – car and bicycle maintenance and repair equipment, even sewing machines. The councilmember asked if they offer classes:

The answer, of course, was yes:

They pointed out that both the classes and the regular borrowing are both physical things to value in a world that’s otherwise so virtual:

Saka asked if the tool library gets regular government funding; the answer was no, and it runs on an operating budget of just $100,000 a year. Their programming could expand if they had money for more personnel. And more space, including a place to teach classes that’s not “covered in sawdust.” Here’s the WSTL team with the Saka delegation:

Here’s when you can visit the WSTL:

It has more than 1,600 active members currently – here’s how to join, and here’s how to donate (tools and/or money).

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