Hand Tool Essentials: Refine Your Power Tool Projects with Hand Tool Techniques (Popular Woodworking)

The real core skills
When I started woodworking one of my first purchases was a book on hand tools from the Fine Woodworking people. It was interesting, but not terribly useful. While I learned a lot about how chisels were forged and how to sharpen 17th Century spoonbill bits, there wasn’t much on the basic skills I was looking to learn. This book was exactly what I needed back then.Popular Woodworking devotes more space to hand tool woodworking than any other woodworking magazine, mostly, I suspect, from the efforts of its former editor, the peripatetic Christopher Schwarz, a man devoted to hand tool use. The book starts out with the essential tools you need, how to buy them used, how to set up your bench, and then a full 65 pages devoted to how to sharpen planes, chisels, and drawknives, using a variety of methods. There are several articles on hand plane use, sawing, simple shop appliances like bench hooks and shooting boards, mortising, dovetails, and all the other basic skills and tools of the hand tool woodworker.There are also a host of plans for projects ranging form the very simple, like the aforementioned bench hook, to complicated- Schwarz’s Craftsman-style tool cabinet. All are presented in detail, with clear photographs, measured drawings, and step-by-step instructions. None are beyond the beginner who takes time to practice each of the techniques taught along the way.I have a fair sized collection of woodworking books on my shelf, but I would say that this is one of the most useful and perhaps even necessary books for anyone getting started in hand woodworking.

Impressive collection of information
Knowing that this was basically just a collection of Popular Woodworking articles, I was prepared to be underwelmed. Talk about disappointment! I HATE being wrong like this! In short, this is a truly impressive collection of information that looks more like a group of knowledgable hand tool experts put together, rather than just articles grabbed and put together in a book form.The book is laid out in a logical way, starting with a “Why Handtools” section, going into sharpening (a must for any hand tool user), then saws, chisels, and the like. The last section are a couple of projects that blend hand tools and power tools well, and that will serve any workshop well for years to come. Honestly, the beautiful tool cabinet of Christopher Schwarz’s is worth the cost of the book by itself!This is a must have for, I believe, any woodworker. There’s no preaching about hand tool supremacy, nor any reference to “quaint” ideas of woodworking. Instead, this book offers the modern woodwork a glimpse of the realms where hand tools still excel, and how they can be incorporated into the modern workshop. At the same time, it shows how a hand tool only shop can still produce quality work equal to that of the powered shop.

Great book!
This book is great for a beginner as well as for someone who is already familiar with hand tools. Early chapters deal with purchasing hand tools to outfit your shop. Later chapters give advise on sharpening tools of all kinds and on using the tools properly. A lot of information is packed in this short book and yet it is an easy read.

for beginner
gave some useful tips better suited for the beginner and would send them in right direction chosing tools and showing how to care for them

Parte de la idea que las herramientas manuales son un excelente complemento a las eléctricas. Buen enfoque en el momento actual

A collection of Popular Woodworking articles and reviews, more than a thorough overview and or introduction to hand tools and how to wield them. Still very useful and informative. There’s a lot of information here clearly presented and well illustrated, but as with various “Fine Woodworking” collections, there are gaps and omissions due to the nature of the format.There are other books you should probably get first if your just starting with hand tools, but this is a solid companion piece.