The tool book: a tool-lover's guide to over 200 hand tools

258 Pages·2018·93.678 MB·English

by  Behari, Jo;Davy, Phil;Edwardes-Evans, Luke;Jackson, Matthew;Rosa, Alexander

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K
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MORE THAN 200 HAND TOOLS
A TOOL LOVER’S GUIDE TO
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Contents
Writers
Phil Davy, Luke Edwardes-Evans,
Jo Behari, Matthew Jackson
Senior Editor Ruth O'Rourke-Jones
Editor Jamie Ambrose
PLAN YOUR WORK AREA 8 44
US Editors Lori Hand, Jenny Wilson
CHOOSING A TOOL BELT 10 THE TOOLS FOR
Project Art Editor Vicky Read
CHOOSING A TOOLBOX 12 CUTTING &
Managing Editor Dawn Henderson
CHOPPING
CHOOSING A TOOLSHED 14
Managing Art Editor Marianne Markham
Asset Management Emily Reid HISTORY OF CUTTING & CHOPPING 46
16
Jacket Designer Steven Marsden CHOOSING A SAW 48
THE TOOLS FOR
Producer Rebecca Fallowfield
STRUCTURE OF A HACKSAW 52
MEASURING &
Creative Technical Support
USING A HACKSAW 54
Sonia Charbonnier, Tom Morse MARKING
STRUCTURE OF A HANDSAW 56
Photography John Spence
at MMS Marketing Services HISTORY OF MEASURING & MARKING 18 USING A HANDSAW 57
Illustrator Andrew Torrens CHOOSING A MARKING TOOL 20 CHOOSING AN AX 60
Art Director Maxine Pedliham STRUCTURE OF A MORTISE GAUGE 22 STRUCTURE OF A SPLITTING AX 64
Publishing Director Mary-Clare Jerram USING A MORTISE GAUGE 24 USING A SPLITTING AX 66
CHOOSING A MEASURE 26 CHOOSING A KNIFE 70
First American Edition, 2018
Published in the United States by DK Publishing CHOOSING A CALIPER OR DIVIDER 30 STRUCTURE OF A UTILITY KNIFE 72
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
STRUCTURE OF A DIGITAL CALIPER 32 USING A UTILITY KNIFE 74
Copyright © 2018 Dorling Kindersley Limited
DK, a division of Penguin Random House LLC USING A DIGITAL CALIPER 33 CHOOSING A SCYTHE OR SICKLE 76
18 19 20 21 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CHOOSING A SQUARE 34 STRUCTURE OF AN ENGLISH SCYTHE 80
001–305962–May/2018
STRUCTURE OF A USING AN ENGLISH SCYTHE 81
All rights reserved.
COMBINATION SQUARE 36
Without limiting the rights under the copyright CHOOSING SHEARS 84
reserved above, no part of this publication may be USING A COMBINATION SQUARE 38
STRUCTURE OF TOPIARY SHEARS 86
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means CHOOSING A LEVEL 40 USING TOPIARY SHEARS 87
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
STRUCTURE OF A LEVEL 42
or otherwise), without the prior written permission CHOOSING A PRUNER OR LOPPER 88
of the copyright owner. USING A LEVEL 43
STRUCTURE OF BYPASS PRUNING SHEARS 92
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited
USING BYPASS PRUNING SHEARS 94
A catalog record for this book
is available from the Library of Congress. MAINTAIN TOOLS FOR
ISBN: 978-1-4654-6854-3 CUTTING AND CHOPPING 96
DK books are available at special discounts when
purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums,
fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact:
DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014
[email protected]
Printed and bound in China
A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
US_004-005_Contents.indd 4 07/12/2017 15:00
98 166 218
THE TOOLS FOR THE TOOLS FOR THE TOOLS FOR
FIXING & DIGGING & FINISHING &
FASTENING GROUNDWORK DECORATING
HISTORY OF FIXING & FASTENING 100 HISTORY OF DIGGING HISTORY OF FINISHING
& GROUNDWORK 168 & DECORATING 220
CHOOSING A SCREWDRIVER 102
CHOOSING A SHOVEL OR SPADE 170 CHOOSING ABRASIVES AND
STRUCTURE OF A RATCHET
SANDING BLOCKS 222
SCREWDRIVER 104 STRUCTURE OF A SPADE 172
USING A SANDING BLOCK 224
USING A RATCHET SCREWDRIVER 106 USING A SPADE 173
CHOOSING A PAINTBRUSH 226
CHOOSING A WRENCH 110 CHOOSING A POST-HOLE DIGGER 174
STRUCTURE OF A PAINTBRUSH 228
STRUCTURE OF A TORQUE WRENCH 114 CHOOSING A HOE OR CULTIVATOR 176
USING A PAINTBRUSH 229
USING A TORQUE WRENCH 116 STRUCTURE OF A HOE 180
CHOOSING A ROLLER 230
CHOOSING A DRILL AND DRILL BIT 118 USING A HOE 181
STRUCTURE OF A ROLLER 232
STRUCTURE OF A POWER DRILL 122 CHOOSING A TROWEL, FORK,
OR DIBBLE 182 USING A ROLLER 233
USING A POWER DRILL 124
STRUCTURE OF A TROWEL 184 CHOOSING WALLPAPERING TOOLS 236
CHOOSING A VISE 126
USING A TROWEL 185 CHOOSING TILING TOOLS 238
STRUCTURE OF A MECHANICS VISE 128
MAINTAIN TOOLS FOR CHOOSING A CABINET SCRAPER 240
USING A MECHANICS VISE 129
DIGGING AND GROUNDWORK 188
MAINTAIN TOOLS FOR
CHOOSING A CLAMP 130
FINISHING AND DECORATING 244
CHOOSING PLIERS OR PULLERS 134
190
STRUCTURE OF INDEX 246
THE TOOLS FOR
COMBINATION PLIERS 136
SHAPING & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 252
USING COMBINATION PLIERS 138
SHARPENING
MAINTAIN TOOLS FOR
FIXING AND FASTENING 140
HISTORY OF SHAPING
& SHARPENING 192
142 CHOOSING A CHISEL 194
THE TOOLS FOR
STRUCTURE OF A MORTISE CHISEL 196
STRIKING &
USING A MORTISE CHISEL 198
BREAKING
CHOOSING A PLANE 200
STRUCTURE OF A JACK PLANE 202
HISTORY OF STRIKING & BREAKING 144
USING A JACK PLANE 204
CHOOSING A HAMMER 146
CHOOSING A FILE OR RASP 208
STRUCTURE OF A CLAW HAMMER 150
CHOOSING A GOUGE
USING A CLAW HAMMER 152
OR SPOKESHAVE 210
CHOOSING PICKS AND MATTOCKS 156
CHOOSING A SHARPENING STONE 212
STRUCTURE OF A PICKAX 158
MAINTAIN TOOLS FOR
USING A PICKAX 159 SHAPING AND SHARPENING 216
CHOOSING A WRECKING BAR 160
MAINTAIN TOOLS FOR
STRIKING AND BREAKING 164
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T H E T O OL BOOK
Foreword
BY NICK OFFERMAN
a mystical object, like a wand, a staff, or a ring.
And now that I think about it, perhaps my
infatuation with “tools” and “wizardry” are
not so unrelated after all.
As a youth in rural Illinois (the American state
that contains Chicago and corn, among other things),
much of my spare time was spent learning to gainfully
employ many of the implements represented in this
magnificent catalogue you are about to read. My
many teachers included my mother and my father,
along with their own siblings and parents, most of
whom maintained a family farm operation, raising
pigs, soybeans, and corn. Every household in the
family cultivated a robust garden and attractive yard
(some more so than others, as in any family) whilst
perennially investing in the beauty and tidiness
Photo Emily Shur of their houses and outbuildings.
Tools. Yes! These extremely practical humans were always
The mere mention of the word thrills my blood, in the process of getting good work done, and that
much as I have been given to understand the words usually with tools. Their sphere of influence was
“chocolate”, or “gin”, or “fireman” can sometimes not limited to their yards, either, because neighbors
titillate others. Another similarly rousing but unrelated in our community would readily share tools, as well
term for me is “wizardry”. Like many, I have always as their kind attentions and the labor of their hands.
been strongly attracted to the magicks described in In my 30 or so years living as an “adult” I have
stories of enchantment; the eldritch knowledge and inhabited and visited a pretty full spectrum of
“old ways” passed down over generations. I am living arrangements, from abject poverty (working
a complete sucker for the sorts of charms and in theater) to the lap of luxury (working in television),
glamours to be found in your Chronicles of Narnia, and I can attest from my experience that the homes
your Lord of the Rings, your Dungeons & Dragons, in which health and love and economy most readily
and your Harry Potters, particularly those flourished were the ones that knew the use of
containing the stripe of conjuring that requires some of the noble equipment in this here book.
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I daresay that the older I grow, the more the Think about that. I know that he learned the ways of
wrenches and the hammers begin to resemble the shovel from his dad, as well as other workers in
the tackle of wizards. the neighborhood from his own youth, but where did
his dad get it? And what of the myriad other tools
I think that had anyone suggested to me in my in which he schooled me, not to mention the other
teenage years that my love of tools might be remotely methods I gleaned from my aunts and uncles? It
comparable to my reverence for sorcery, I would stands to reason that my very own erudition in the art
have muttered something terribly pithy from the of the hole can be traced ancestrally all the way back
film Highlander under my breath, perhaps the to the first inventor of the shovel. Since we humorously
epic “It’s better to burn out than to fade away…”, cognizant monkeys first began to swing a stone at the
to which someone might have said “isn’t that a Neil end of a stick, we have been quietly and confidently
Young lyric?”, to which I would have defiantly stated passing along our collective knowledge to the next
“You don’t know dick”, and lurched off in a very generation, again and again over the millennia, each
Emilio Estevez fashion to admire my cassette tapes. apprentice acquiring an eventual mastery, occasionally
In my crotchety middle age, however, I am finding adding slight improvements, until we humans can
it easier to comprehend the reason that I find an now print a book like this one , full of colors and
adze every bit as compelling as Gandalf’s magic handsomely worded pictures, containing among its
sword Glamdring. It’s because both carry the deep juicy offerings categories of tools like “Digging and
wisdom of true handcraft. Through the painstaking Groundwork” and “Striking and Breaking”. It’s
centuries of trial and error on the part of man and downright Homeric.
womankind (or elves, in the case of the sword), these
clever sticks have been imbued with the cumulative, The tools in this book are not those of the specialist.
arcane intelligence of the generations of hands that It is unlikely that you will build a serviceable rocket
perfected their forms, and thereby, their uses. ship or a nickelodeon with the stuff in here. On the
contrary, the authors have chosen to honor the
One of my most poignant brand of tool memories is venerable tools of the generalist. What you can create
when my dad would take me out in the yard to help with these charismatic utensils is a limitless sense
him plant trees, or do anything with a shovel or a of adventure and accomplishment—a life rife with
spade. The honest mastery with which he brandished practical industry. The list does not necessarily
said item to sculpt an accurate and practical hole contain the items that spring to mind when one
out of the gravelly soil might just as easily have been considers creating “art”, as it were, but (in my book)
found inhabiting a virtuoso soloist’s bow, as she sawed they are precisely the devices necessary for the art
away on some Tchaikovsky (Valse Sentimentale of living well, and I think that is about as magical
please and thank you). To mine, a child’s perception, as it can get.
his skills could easily be accused of witchcraft,
especially when the spell did not end at the digging.
My dear dad was not only accomplishing his task
of landscaping, he was also teaching me to use the
spade. To this day, when I grip a shovel’s staff in
my hands and place my foot upon the shoulder of
the blade in preparation for its initial plunge into the
ground, my dad is there with me, his hands upon
mine, his gentle tutelage in my ears.
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P L A N YOUR
Work Area
n Whether you’re fixing a bike, decorating the house,
o
or making furniture, you need somewhere to work.
i
t
Depending on space and budget, this could be
c
u a folding workbench that stores in a cabinet,
d
or a fully equipped studio. For occasional jobs
o
r a temporary solution may do, but for long-term
t projects a more permanent work area is necessary.
n
I
Work surface
For many tasks a solid work surface makes a big difference.
A workbench doesn’t need to be huge, but it should be as solid
as possible. You can fit a vise to the front or one end for working
with wood, metals, or other materials. A portable Workmate or
similar bench is a cheaper, lightweight alternative and can be
used outdoors or moved from one room to another.
Tool storage
Tools should be stored so that you can find them easily. Displaying
them on a wall or in a dedicated cabinet means you can spot if
a tool is missing and is safer than rifling through a toolbox. Keeping
a work area tidy and well organized helps you work efficiently.
008
Heat, light, and power
009
For lighting and electricity, you will need a power supply, which
should be installed by a qualified electrician. You may also need
heating as an unheated work area in cold weather can be
miserable. Think about the type of heating: a mobile gas heater
is efficient, but an open flame in a dusty workshop is not wise.
An electric heater may be safer, but costly to warm a large space.
Environment
Some hand tools, such as hammers, can be noisy in use. For
frequent work, consider insulating a workshop or restricting work
times: think about the neighbors! Fire safety is a must, especially if
storing flammable materials. Fire extinguishers are inexpensive,
but make sure you get the correct type to fit the situation.
FOCUS ON…
Security
Keeping your tools safe should be a priority. Don’t rely on a flimsy
padlock on the shed door. Thieves will aim for the easiest method
of breaking and entering, so think about how you would gain entry
to your workshop if you lost the keys. Adding internal shutters to
windows, security bars across doors, and battery-operated alarms
Woodworkers often store tools in purpose-made
can help. Track tools by using a security-marking kit to label them cabinets with hinged doors. This a good use of wall
invisibly with your name—it will show up under ultraviolet light. space and protects the contents from workshop dust.
Installing locks makes tools more secure, and keeps
them out of the reach of children.
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