Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) any implements used in the commission of crime, e.g. housebreaking implements, guns, pistols or other weapons.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1844		C. Selby London by Night I i: You had your tools with you?
1851		‘Greenhorn’ [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 42/1: A complete set of ‘tools’ was preocured.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 7/2: Joe Kay being more on the ‘bust’ game than anything else, had arranged his ‘tools’ along with him.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 87: Tools, burglar’s instruments.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 47: You wait a bit while I goes and fetches the tools.
1912		D. Lowrie My Life in Prison 127: Lefty had ‘soup’ an’ tools with him an’ was a professional prowler.
1925		E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 21: I had some ‘tools’ on me.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 24: What about the tools?
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 41: The van carried the ‘tools’, burglarious implements of all sizes and descriptions.

2. the human hands.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1250/1: mid-C.19–early 20.

3. (US) eating utensils.

1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 21 Feb. 2/3: ‘" Why don't you go to work?’ said a charitable lady, the other day, to a tramp before whom she had placed a nicely-cooked meal. ‘I would,’ replied the vagrant, ‘if I had the tools.’ ‘What sort of tools do you want?’ [...] ‘A knife and fork!’.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 58: I’d go to work if I had me tools! [...] Me knife and fork.
1927		(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 286: They gathered up their mess tools.
1936		H.W. Bentley ‘Linguistic Concoctions of the Soda Jerker’ in AS XI:1 45: TOOLS. Table utensils.
1981		P. Barton Bastards I Have Known 151: When the Spag Bog finally arrived I was really up a gum tree [...] at a complete loss knowing what tools to use.

4. (drugs) equipment used for injecting drugs.

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 242: tools Equipment for injecting drugs, mainly heroin.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 16: You all get up and wash these tools, man. Other people have to use this stuff.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 35: Love kept her blind until the day she found his tools. With the spike out in the open, she swallowed her fear and tried confrontation.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 21: Tools — Equipment used for injecting drugs.