RUSTY dull-edged old tools are being given a new lease of life in Ringwood in order to help African villages to prosper.

The Ringwood branch of Tools for Self Reliance has been refurbishing hand tools since being set up by Laurie Dormer back in May, 2008.

The charity was operating from premises shared with social services in Castleman Way until last summer when they lost access to their workshop. But thanks to the generosity of Ringwood contracting company Raymond Brown, a new workshop has been provided off Christchurch Road.

Now work has started again in earnest on the elderly saws, planes, hand drills, braces and bits, spanners, micrometers, files, scrapers, screwdrivers, chisels and spokeshaves, vices and other tools are beginning to gleam.

They will soon be on their way to Tools for Self Reliance’s headquarters at Netley Marsh near Totton, where they will be crated up and shipped out to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia or Malawi where they are given away so people can build businesses and improve their communities.

Mr Dormer said the biggest cost to the charity was incurred when paying qualified tradespeople to pass on their skills to the recipients.

Mike Bevan, one of the current 20 volunteers, said occasionally they even got some new tools among the donations.

“We do get some stuff that people have bought, or have been bought, and they have never used,’’ he said.

“Quite a lot of tools that are donated are given by widows whose husbands had workshops or sheds, and they are of no use to them and they give the whole lot to us.

“We try to make the refurbished tools look, as near as possible, brand new.”

And that means stripping them down to the nuts and bolts, buffing, polishing, sharpening and cannibalising parts when necessary.

“They come in in a pretty grotty condition sometimes and we clean them up if we can to a pretty high standard,” said workshop manager John Meredith.

Dave Williams, a first day volunteer, was busy sharpening a smoothing plane blade on a professional sharpening machine.

“We did have a whetstone and it would take all morning to do what this does in five or 10 minutes,” said Mr Meredith.

A large bench grinder is used for taking back large amounts of metal and its spinning wire wheel the other end is invaluable for cleaning rusty screw threads and the like.

But for dull edged saw blades, the old ways are the best, with Ken Brown using a saw set to bend the teeth to the correct angle and files to sharpen and pitch them correctly.

More volunteers – and of course, more donations – are always needed. If you can help, contact Mr Dormer on 01425 475440.