Hand Tools
Scope
Hand Tools covers the identification, correct use and care of the tools used in the school workshop; questions typically ask for the name, the use, or the correct choice for a stated job.
Classes and uses
- Marking out: steel rule, folding rule, try square (90°), bevel (any angle), marking gauge (line parallel to an edge), mortise gauge (two points, for a mortise), dividers, scribe.
- Sawing: rip saw (4–5 tpi, cuts along the grain), cross-cut saw (8–10 tpi, cuts across), tenon saw (rigid back, fine joinery), dovetail saw (very fine), coping saw (curves).
- Planing: jack plane (roughing), smoothing plane (finishing), rebate plane, plough plane (grooves), router plane (cleaning a housing), block plane (end grain).
- Chisels: firmer (general), bevel-edge (dovetails, paring), mortise (thick, square-edged). Boring: brace and bit, auger, gimlet, hand drill. Striking: claw hammer, mallet. Holding: bench vice, G-cramp, F-clamp, sash cramp. Checking: try square, winding sticks, calipers.
Worked example
You must cut a 400 mm lengthwise cut in a 25 mm sal plank. Choose a rip saw: its 4–5 tpi teeth are shaped like small chisels and lift wood along the fibres, while a cross-cut saw's knife-point teeth sever fibres across the grain and would cut slowly and wander in a rip.
Traps
Using a tenon saw on plywood or MDF, which quickly destroys the set; measuring in two steps from a board end instead of once from a single datum; running a marking gauge on a rough or curved edge; hammering a chisel handle instead of using a mallet; storing edged tools loose in a box where the edges knock together.