Yeah, I'm just starting out in woodworking as a hobby and a brace and bit is something I'm considering putting on the wishlist.

The useless tools might have been a treasure trove to the right person.

Exactly what I was thinking.

I'd love to go through all those "useless" tools.

Oh no, Dad's old all-steel table saw that was designed and built to be repaired, and which has the same tolerances as a "precision tool" today, doesn't have bluetooth to pair with your iPhone? Guess you'll just have to toss it, then.

Unfortunately it probably also doesn't have all the safety features like a riving blade, either. That doesn't mean it's useless, but it does mean it needs more care to use it and novice woodworkers shouldn't rush in blindly.

Fair point!

Although a riving knife — which I wish that I had known about when I was younger - shouldn’t be that hard to add.

They are. A proper one goes up and down with the blade. A saw without an in-built provision for that is a surprisingly tough retrofit [0].

A riving knife that doesn't go up and down with the blade is just a pain in the ass that gets removed the first time you aren't making a through cut and rarely gets reinstalled.

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CuchotcM_4 If you've never seen the inside of a Unisaw, there's a lot of parts in that video that weren't there when the saw left the Delta factory. Even if you mass-produced a kit, it would require reworking some of the original parts, possibly at machinist level tolerances.

Someone in my town started a tool library. It's a collection of tools that people can borrow and then return. At the moment it's just in a storage locker. Some tools can be obscure and rarely used like a toilet wrench for the "spud nut" for the gasket that's under a toilet tank.

You'd be surprised, there is a growing 'youtube' community of manual carpentry.

Like most hand woodworking tools, the brace and bit is incredibly satisfying to use, especially with a decent set of augers.