The biggest difference between the Crescent CTB1750 17″ Tradesman Closed Top Tool Bag and a traditional tool box is that it trades a jumbled pile of tools for individual slots and pockets, storing tools vertically so they’re easy to see, effortless to grab, and protected from damage.
The Crescent CTB1750 is large enough to hold a complete collection of basic tools, with some room to grow as you take on more tasks and expand your gear. The overall design is a clear emulation of the Veto Pro Pac XL, our upgrade pick and the gold standard of hand-tool storage. The Crescent may lack the Veto’s many finer points and its nearly indestructible durability, but for a fraction of the cost, the Crescent retains many of the Veto’s more obvious benefits without requiring a major investment.
Runner-up
If you don’t have much storage space or don’t see yourself compiling a larger selection of tools, we recommend the Crescent CTB1450 14″ Tradesman Closed Top Tool Bag. This is the same bag as our top pick, just three inches shorter in width. It can still hold a basic selection of hand tools, but it doesn’t have room for expansion.
We haven’t seen a dramatic price difference between the two Crescent bags, so we feel the choice is simply a matter of size preference.
Budget pick
If you’d trade organization and durability for a classic hard-sided box that adds storage for screws, nails, glue, tape, and other hardware, we recommend the Stanley Click ’N’ Connect 2-in-1 Tool Box.
This model consists of two boxes that snap together; the larger one holds tools while the smaller, divided one holds accessories and smaller items. You’ll end up with a jumbled pile of tools, and the latch isn’t as solid as we’d like—but the Stanley’s low profile may fit well on a crowded shelf, and its compartmentalized storage for non-tool hardware was a rarity among the boxes we tested.
Upgrade pick
The best hand-tool storage we could find—and one loved by every tradesman we spoke with—is the Veto Pro Pac XL Extra Large Compact Tool Bag. Similar to the Crescent, it features vertical storage and a two-sided design, but with a pocket size and configuration that can hold roughly twice the tools as the larger Crescent bag we recommend.
The Veto is one of those rare products where every small detail has been well engineered. It can get heavy when loaded, and it’s certainly not the cheapest, but it offers a unique long-term value that I and countless other pros can personally attest to—I used an XL tool bag for much of my 10-year construction career, and it never failed.
Also great
For a hands-free way to haul tools around, we like the Klein Tools 55482 Tradesman Pro Tool Station Backpack. Tool backpacks are geared toward contractors and their on-the-go tool lifestyle, but we were surprised at how natural this felt to use around the house.
It takes effort to heft the Klein’s weight up to your back, but once it was on, we appreciated having both hands free to either carry something else or just navigate the narrow basement stairs more easily. The backpack can hold a basic set of around 20 or so tools with the kind of vertically oriented storage that makes some of our other picks easy to work out of. It’s taller than our other options, so it handles a longer hammer or a saw much easier.
