The Woodworking Reference Library
Hand Tools
Home  Materials  Hardware  Techniques  Projects  Literature

Good News!  I am finally back to currently, actively, right-this-minute adding and updating content for this department!

This is a collection of tips and techniques to maximize your results when using hand tools, and to introduce you to some lesser-known tools, some of which might turn out to be more handy (and less expensive) than their power tool counterparts.  As soon as this area is completed, it will include a visual guide to hand tools, which I've started out with the picture below.

Click on the tools layed out on the workbench below to go to the index for that group of tools.

Introduction

The first time I can remember doing any woodwork was when I was about ten years old. I got bored one summer day, so I went out into the garage and started hacking away at two-by-fours making toy boats. The only power tools in the garage at the time were a crusty old Black & Decker drill (they all had cords and chuck keys in those days) and an even older Craftsman reciprocating sander. All of the other tools I had to work with were a few saws, hand planes, brace and bits, and so on that had come down from my grandfather. Starting out with only hand tools was probably the only safe option for a ten year old, since it took four years for me to learn how to avoid cutting myself every time I used a sharp tool. It took me another couple of years to learn how to make a "sharp" tool really sharp, but that's also about the time that I really started to learn to get the most from my hand tools.

I got pretty good at drilling a hole at right angles to the surface of the wood while cranking furiously on the bit brace; I learned through trial and error how to plane a board flat, and I taught myself the rudiments of making hand-cut dovetails. I never liked sanding (who does, really?) so I taught myself the techniques that were used in the 19th century to smooth wood, including shaping with sharp tools and smoothing with scrapers. I also learned that a well-made item with a crummy finish always looks crummy, and that a good finish is only achieved with a certain degree of patience - or else with lacquer.

Nowadays, I have a woodshop in the garage that features just about all of the major power tools that any decent wood shop should have. I've learned to get the most out of these also, but I still find myself daily picking up a hand plane to smooth a surface before gluing up, or grabbing a chisel or scraper to shape or smooth a contoured surface. There are an awful lot of jobs in the making of furniture, cabinetry, and other wood crafts that are most efficiently done with hand tools. In fact, my collection of hand tools has actually grown faster than my collection of power tools, which is no small matter.

And so it is that I have decided to set down in writing some of the tricks and tidbits that I have learned over the years. Some of these techniques were hard to come by, as they are not widely known or taught outside of the more traditional woodworking schools. I also had to wade through a lot of traditional "woodworking doctrine": techniques that had been passed down religiously since the days of the craft guilds in the Middle Ages, but that had long since outlived their practical use with modern materials and metallurgy. These I'll try to dispel as they are encountered.

Any single work meant to be a complete study of every type and method of use of woodworking hand tools would be extremely unwieldy, due to the vast array of tools and the numerous ways in which each tool may be used to perform various tasks. In light of this fact, I'll attempt to limit this section to a quick reference of types, uses and a few techniques. In-depth studies of particular types of tools and their methods of use will be housed in the Techniques department, and may be accessed through links included with the quick references.

Sharpening Tools

Planes

Scrapers and Smoothing Tools

Chisels and Gouges

Saws

Drills and Boring Tools

Measuring and Marking Tools

Hammers and Striking Tools

Axes and Hewing Tools

Machine & Mechanic's Tools (For Woodworkers)

Clamps

Miscellaneous Hand Tools

References:

Ancient Carpenters' Tools, Henry C. Mercer, Dover Publications, Inc., 2000

Fine Woodworking on Hand Tools, Taunton Press, 1986

Garrett Wade Tool Catalog

Hand Tools, Time-Life Books - The Art of Woodworking Series, St Remy Press, 1993

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Working In Wood, Ernest Scott, Crescent Books, 1993

A Museum of Early American Tools, Eric Sloane, Wilfred Funk, Inc.,  1964

Planecraft, C.W. Hampton & E. Clifford, Woodcraft Supply Corp., 1997