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Originally Posted by Anaraxes
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I've always assumed the 10-foot pole in D&D 1e appeared as a reference to the idiom "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole". The pole here is probably one used to push barges (as "... with a barge pole" is an earlier form of the expression). But poling barges is an occupation, not really a craft.
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It doesn't need to be a craft. The game-mechanics text says "It acts as a good-quality (+1 to skill) tool kit for any nonesoteric skill requiring tools" - it does not say "any nonesoteric craft skill requiring tools". And poling a barge is definitely a skilled task requiring a tool - the barge pole.
On the other hand, the intent is that the character gets the tools she needs for the task she's carrying out at the moment, so turning around and hitting somebody over the head with that barge pole is likely to make the pole disappear since the task being carried out has changed. (Also, weapons are usually not defined as tools, and the text specifically says "tools".)