Classic Hand Tools

Garrett Hack

Reviewed by:

Ken Greenberg

Essentially a coffee table book with beautiful photography by John S. Sheldon. Broader coverage than Hack’s earlier Handplane Book which pretty much covered the spectrum of plane types, this book attempts to cover everything else – chisels, boring tools, saws, etc. with a single chapter on planes. Plenty here to drool over.

There are plenty of reasons to want a book that describes a wide variety of woodworking hand tools, especially if you are new to this area. Don't know what a twybill is? You can look it up in the index and find out what it is, how it is used, how to sharpen it, and you also get to see a nice picture of one.

The point should be made, however, that this territory is covered by a number of other books. On the old tools list, the standard has always been Mike Dunbar's book on tools. So the obvious question is - how do these two books compare? Hack has the edge when it comes to illustration - in comparison Dunbar's mostly black and white photographs come out second rate. However, there is more information to be had in Dunbar. First, it covers planes in much more detail (in fairness to Hack, that territory was well covered in his earlier book). Second, Dunbar provides a good deal of information on restoring the tool should you have recently acquired one at the flea market or yard sale and don't quite know what to do with it. This information is not found in Hack. Plus, Dunbar provides such things as a list of recommended tools to have on hand at various levels of woodworking.

So, where does this book fall? Well, it could fall on your coffee table quite nicely. Then, when people ask about your odd old tools addiction, you can show them the beauty and utility of old tools with many examples. For in the shop reference purposes, though, you would be better off with Dunbar. There are no restrictions against owning both books (I do) and having the best of both worlds.