At our big-city high-volume bike Co-op we go through a lot of tools. Constant use, and often by inexperienced volunteers and clients who strip the tools and their bike parts. We try and monitor the stands, but the experienced mechanics cannot monitor everything.

So the tools that suffer the most are screwdrivers, hex keys and freewheel removers. Actually most folks try and remove freewheels with cassette lockring tools, hence the one-per-week attrition rate there. Plus splined bottom bracket tools on seized BB cups. These tools go right to recycling, as the risk of wrecking a bike part does not justify using worn-out tools - false economics.

We get a lot of stuff donated to us, including good and sometimes broken/worn out tools. Please do not donate your knowingly broken tools to a Co-op; it just causes us to waste time assessing it and eventually binning it.

Same goes for worn-out chains and department store anything. And Imperial-spec hex keys, wrenches and sockets. We have to puzzle away as to why they don't fit bike nuts and bolts, while we risk stripping metric bike parts, and then they get binned. Now we are binning Imperial tools proactively: direct to steel recycling.