Do you use any tools or tricks when stuck on crossword puzzles?

Every NYT crossword puzzle ever published is at this link - https://www.xwordinfo.com/

You should find solving tips and most of what your looking for there. By the way, if you get to know a few of the more prolific creators' styles, that helps, too (some really like to use puns).

Here is a clue in a Sunday NYT puzzle penned by a real rascal that took me forever to figure out because I made the mistake of not thinking beyond the way the creator wanted me to think: in a Sunday NYTP called Puzzle Of The Future, Merl Reagle wanted a 4 letter answer for "Dove home". I made the mistake of assuming he meant dove to mean type of bird with the logical answer being "cote".

Or here - https://crosswordtracker.com/

Or here - (if you want to solve the NYT crossword for free every day) - https://www.seattletimes.com/games-nytimes-crossword/

Once I have done my best to complete the crossword puzzle, I will use the on-line crossword solver to find out the words I did not know.
This is called learning.

https://www.wordplays.com/crossword-solver/

I usually skip and come back. The exception is if the clue is a quote. Sometimes they are so obscure that I have to look up the first line to at least get me started.

All of the above.

Sometimes I just brute force a word, if there's two or three blanks I scribble down all the possible words on a piece of paper