Tools

GregTech CE contains several tools, used either recipes to create different blocks and items or to assist the players in tasks. They range from the simple mortar to the drill, used for mining.

Mortar
Mortars are used to grind certain items and ingots (E.g., paper to chad, copper to copper dust) into their dust forms. Although simple to make, they are vital in the creation of the player's first steam machines. Bronze can only be created otherwise at this stage using the next item on the list, the hammer.

Hammer
Unlike the mortar, hammers are absolutely necessary for producing early machinery. Without them, the player cannot, barring the use of other mods, create metal plates. This would bar the player from building steam machines, which require bronze plates, and hence bar the player from their first electric machines as well, which require steel plates. Steel can only be created in primitive blast furnaces which, in short, requires steam machines.

File
After the hammer, files are the next important tool in an aspiring industrialist's arsenal. Files are used alongside wrenches in the creation of the bronze pipes which for the backbone of many basic steam machines, and are also necessary for the creation of another important tool, the screwdriver.

Screwdriver
The screwdriver is an another important tool, being used alongside the file and hammer to create wire cutters, without which the player cannot create basic electric machinery. Screwdrivers are also used in recipes such as cutting shears and rotors.

Wrench
Wrenches are the stepping stone into modern machinery. They are used to assemble machine casings and afterwards, with the help of wire cutters, machine hulls, necessary for the player's first electric machines. They are also used in many recipes going forward, until the creation of the assembler.

Wire Cutter
Wire cutters are used to, as the name implies, cut wires from certain metal plates, such as tin or iron, and are also used in many other recipes, such as the creation of molds and buzzsaw blades.

Knife
Although one of the most basic tools ever used by humans, behind the club and sharp rocks, the knife is useful in that it helps to create the coke oven multiblock structure, allowing the player access to the more efficient fuel coke.

Soft Hammer
Soft hammers are a useful tool that allows the player to toggle some machines on/off or to change their functions. For example, changing a transformer from stepping down to stepping up.

Branch Cutter
Branch cutters are a convenient tool that breaks leaf blocks instantly. It is currently unknown whether or not it increases the drop rate of sapling from these blocks.

Buzzsaw
Buzzsaws vary in their usage depending on the player's settings. For example, if it is selected to change crafting wood directly into planks to yield only 2 planks, the buzzsaw can be used to return the yield back to the normal 4. It can also be used to shorten or otherwise decrease the size of select items, such as, respectively, rods and chests.