Since the ages, hand tools have applications in craftsmanship, construction, and household maintenance. Over the years, a variety of powerful tools came into existence but the importance of hand tools has been inevitable due to their precision, simplicity, and control. Individuals from construction, woodworking, and electronics to the automotive industry have been using hand tools to perform a variety of tasks. Whether you are a professional mechanic or just a DIY enthusiast, understanding the classification of hand tools based on their function and uses in different industries is essential. This not only helps you to select the right tool for your job but completes the task effortlessly.
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In this blog, we will be providing a detailed classification of hand tools based on their function and explore specialized tools. This will help to guide you choose the right hand tool for your task.
Hand tools are hand-operated tools that are operated manually without the use of a motor or electricity. They solely rely on the physical effort of the individual to perform tasks such as cutting, tightening, chopping, sawing, forging, striking, or measuring, etc. Pliers, wrenches, hacksaws, vises, clamps, files, cutters, etc are examples of hand tools.
People often can’t differentiate between hand tools and power tools. Power tools are powered with batteries, electricity, or air compressors. Unlike power tools, hand tools do not require external energy to work and they offer great precision and control.
By understanding the classification of hand tools, the user can pick the right tool for the different jobs to ensure safety, efficiency, and precision. Here is the classification of hand tools based on their use and functions:
Cutting tools are hand tools that can cut through other materials like wood, plastic, metal, or fabric. One can use them to cut, carve, shape, or remove material. Examples of cutting tools include hack saws, knives, chisels, and scissors.
You can use striking tools to hit or strike the objects. Their design allows one to deliver the force to drive another object like nails and chisels, or to break something apart. Industries including construction, metalworking, and woodworking widely use such types of tools. The most commonly used striking tools are hammers, mallets, and punches.
Holding and gripping tools are important for securing the materials while working. Such tools allow users to hold items tightly or provide extra force to tighten or loosen the object. The uses of holding and gripping tools vary from gripping and holding to manipulating objects. Most common holding and gripping tools include vices, locking pliers, and clamps.
These tools have uses where one has to apply torque to tighten or loosen fasteners such as screwdrivers, bolts, and nuts. These have applications in automotive repair, construction, and home maintenance and improvement. Common examples of driving tools such as wrenches, screwdrivers, Allen keys, etc.
From construction and automotive to carpentry and metalworking, accuracy is critical. Professionals and DIY enthusiasts use measuring and marketing tools to measure and mark materials to ensure precision before cutting and assembling them. A few examples of measuring and marketing tools include tape measures, calipers, and rulers.
These tools are specially designed to sharpen the edges of objects or smooth surfaces. Sharpening tools are important for cutting tools, whereas abrasive tools are useful to smooth and polish the materials. A few examples of sharpening tools include files, sandpaper, and whetstones.
The key applications of impact and demolition tools are breaking, prying, and demolishing the materials. They have uses in heavy-duty applications such as construction and demolition work. Common impact and demolition tools include crowbar and sledgehammer.
Most of the hand tools can be used across different industries, but there are a few industry-specific hand tools. Specialized hand tools meet the needs of unique tasks in automotive repair, carpentry, electrical work, or plumbing.
Handtools including piston ring compressors and torque wrenches are the automotive handtools. Further, these can handle the tasks of automotive repair and maintenance such as tightening or loosening the nuts and bolts up a precise torque specifications. Also, technicians use them to install piston rings in the engine.
Planes and carving tools are the carpentry tools. Carpenters use these tools for furniture making and woodworking. The key use of hand planes is to smoothen the wooden surface. Meanwhile, carpenters create intricate designs in the wood using carving tools.
The electrical hand tools have applications in electrical installations and repairs. Wire strippers, multimeters, and crimpers are examples of electrical hand tools. Electricians use them to strip the wire insulation, and crimp connectors, and measure electrical properties such as voltage and resistance.
Plumbing tools such as pipe wrenches and plumbers’ snakes have applications in plumbing installations and repairs. You can use pipe wrenches to grip and turn pipes, whereas you can clear out blockages in drains using plumbers’ snakes.
As there are a variety of hand tools available in the market, selecting the right one for your needs is important. Using the right tool for completing the job can make a huge difference in the quality of your work and efficiency. Here are a few factors that one should consider while choosing hand tools-
Despite the advancement in modern power tools, hand tools have remained an essential part of human civilization. Whether you want to cut, grip, strike, or measure, knowing the right tool for the job is important for completing the tasks. By understanding the classification of different hand tools based on their functions and specialization, you can select the right tool for your needs.
Whether you need a plier, hammer, crowbar, or other industrial hand tools, you don’t have to search further. At JCBL Hand Tools, you can get a variety of hand tools ranging from carpentry, and automotive, to building and other garage tools. We manufacture and supply hand tools across countries that meet international quality standards. Visit our website to check our complete range of hand tools.
Is the plier a cutting tool or a gripping tool?
You can use a plier for both cutting and gripping purposes depending on its type. There are different variations of pliers available in the market such as needle nose, locking, diagonal, and slip joint pliers.
Can I use hand tools in any application area or industry?
Hand tools come in different varieties and they are versatile. It means that you can use them across different industries for fastening, measuring, cutting, and shaping. However, some hand tools are industry-specific and you can only use them in specific industries such as crimpers, planes, pipe wrenches, etc.
Synopsis: We’ve been conducting real-world tests on the best hand tools for decades now, long before the explosion in hand-tool appreciation of the past few years. From combination squares to handsaws to bench chisels and waterstones, we survey the hand tools that got the best reviews in head-to-head tests over the past 20 years. Use these to compile your tool kit, and you won’t go wrong.
Whether you’re trimming machine-cut tenons for a perfect fit, leveling one surface to another, planing decorative chamfers, or squaring up a router-cut corner, you can count on hand tools to do the job quickly and efficiently. They’ll also do it quietly.
Appreciation for the peacefulness and pleasure of handwork has grown markedly in recent years, fueling an explosion of products, from handmade collector’s items to excellent factory-made options. But with so many options available, it can be hard to know where to start. Luckily, Fine Woodworking has been conducting real-world tests on the best hand tools for decades now, with the help of a small group of trusted, independent experts.
The company is the world’s best Special Hand Tools supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
In this article, I’ve compiled a list of the tools that came out on top in our tests in each essential hand-tool category. Whether you’re at the beginning of your hand-tool journey, or are looking to make a long-awaited purchase, you can rely on these recommendations to find excellent tools that will soon become trusted friends.
GOOD VALUE: In addition to presenting the best tools in each category, we’ve also included, where appropriate, a less expensive option that, while it may not quite measure up to the winners, represents a good value for woodworkers on a tighter budget.For hand-tool work especially, success starts with accurate layout. There are lots of measuring and marking tools out there, but sliding squares, marking knives, and marking gauges are must-haves. Here are the best we found.
Phillip C. Lowe tested his two favorite types of squares: the indispensable 12-in. combination square, used for everything from measuring and marking to setting up machines accurately; and the handy 4-in. double square, which fits in your apron pocket and is easier to handle for smaller tasks. After trying out 61 products, he favored Starrett and PEC for both types.
Best Overall - Combination Square
Starrett 12-in. combination square
This accurate, robust, well-machined, easy-to-read combo square is as great as ever. Price: $106.34 at the time of writingAs Steve Latta said in his review, “Marking out with a knife instead of a pencil means that you care about the details. A good marking knife will do a number of things well. It will cut wood fibers cleanly, leaving a narrow, crisply defined line, easily visible and deep enough to anchor a chisel. The blade will fit into tight spaces and the tool will be easy to hold in a pencil-style grip.”
Marking gauges do one thing very well: mark a line parallel to an edge. To narrow a crowded field, Jeff Miller looked at cutting gauges only—those that use a knife or a sharpened wheel to cut clean lines in any direction—and eliminated pin-style gauges, which tend to tear the wood when used across the grain.
There’s an overwhelming array of handplanes on the market, for everything from smoothing boards and trimming joints to shaping moldings. The best come ready to make fluffy shavings, save for a quick sharpening. Sharpening is easy too. Thanks to blades with dead-flat backs, they need only a light polish before you hone the bevel.
These planes are effective on both end grain and long grain, more comfortable in the hand, and less prone to chatter than higher-angle, standard block planes, making them the obvious choice if you’re buying just one. As Mario Rodriguez pointed out in his review, a block plane’s small size makes it easy to control on an assembled piece, say for chamfering a table edge, and well-suited for jobs like removing machine marks from the edges and ends of a board, planing curved edges, and trimming joinery flush.
Editor recommended block plane
Lie-Nielsen No. 102 Low Angle Block Plane
With smooth, precise adjustments and wonderful balance, this compact block plane is a joy to use. It doesn’t have any bells and whistles, but there’s not a better block plane available for the money. Price: $160 at the time of writingIf you can afford only one bench plane to start with, Jeff Miller recommends the versatile jack plane, which handles smoothing, but can also be used for the flattening and straightening tasks often reserved for the longer planes. While the standard versions are easier for beginners to adjust and handle, the bevel-up blade orientation in low-angle jacks (bottom row) lets you alter the cutting angle by resharpening.
As Chris Gochnour said in his test, “Properly tuned and sharpened, a smoothing plane can leave a pristine finish on almost any board. Yet it is still compact enough to be ideal for general planing jobs like fitting and trimming parts.” Because so much rides on the finished surface, quality means everything with this purchase. All three of our recommendations will deliver flawless results, and all allow mouth adjustments without removing the blade, a big plus.
Gochnour looked at both shoulder planes and rabbet block planes, the two types of specialty planes he uses for fine-tuning tenons off the tablesaw. While some woodworkers use the shoulder plane on tenon cheeks as well as on shoulders, many turn to the wider rabbet block plane to shave thin, precise layers off the cheeks. Both tools excel at cutting into corners, but used in tandem they fit traditional tenons to perfection.
Every woodworker needs a good handsaw or two to make quick, precise cuts on parts that power tools can’t easily handle. Dovetail saws are essential for their namesake joint, but they do a lot more. All-purpose backsaws, useful for a range of joinery, are even more versatile than dovetail saws. Then there’s the coping saw, which excels at handling curves. And Japanese saws, which cut on the pull stroke, deliver speed, accuracy, and a thin kerf.
When Gochnour tested these Western-style dovetail specialists, he invited seven skilled friends to help him narrow a wide field of saws to those that work well for all sorts of people. They are available at prices for every budget. While precise dovetail cuts were a great test for these tools, all four of his favorites will do a lot more than dovetails, from trimming parts to length to cutting quick, accurate miters.
As Gochnour said, “Coping saws can be used to remove waste in joinery, make cope cuts on molding, and saw tight curves of all kinds. Motorized bandsaws and scrollsaws perform similar tasks, but require the workpiece to be brought to the tool, a task that can be difficult, awkward, or even impossible…This makes the coping saw an indispensable tool in the woodshop.”
This general-purpose tool is suitable for a broad range of tasks, including dovetailing and mortise-and-tenoning, paring pegs flush, installing hinges, chamfering edges, and even cleaning up glue squeeze-out. They can be driven with a mallet, or used two-handed for controlled paring cuts, and work equally well with hard or soft wood. Popular sizes start at 1⁄4 in., so that’s where our prices start too.
For a hand tool to perform well, it has to be sharp. A set of waterstones and a honing guide make it fast and simple to get razor sharp and back to work.
As Gochnour said in his test, “there’s no doubt in my mind that waterstones are the best choice for honing chisels and handplane blades. They produce a fine polish quickly, and are more durable and less expensive (in the long run) than sandpaper.” Prices are based on the 800- or 1,000-grit stone, and go up for finer grits.
We finish with yet another tool test from Gochnour. “While some may prefer to sharpen freehand, I’m a big proponent of honing guides, and I recommend one for anyone looking to get sharp edges,” Gochnour said. There are excellent honing guides for all budgets.
Asa Christiana is a woodworker, editor, and writer in Portland, Ore.
From Fine Woodworking #286
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WoodRiver Bevel Edge Socket Chisel Set
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These chisels are well balanced, with a light-weight handle that makes gripping them down by the edge during chopping less fatiguing than many other chisels. Each chisel only requires a few minutes of work before its back is polished and ready to go. Similarly, the bevels all have a consistent grind that is quick to hone to razor sharpness. The smartly shaped beveled edges give the tool good mass, but with a very fine, consistent land (the flat between the side bevel and back) that won’t interfere with working in confined spaces. Price: $189.99 at the time of writing View FREE Project when you enter your address below. View PDF