Hand Tools
Can't find the hand tool for that special job? Hand tools are any hand operated device that helps us to measure, hold, cut, shape or manipulate metal or wood materials or parts. Popular hand tools include screwdrivers, wrenches, saws, pliers, pry bars, and hammers. The very first hand tools were manufactured out of stone over 2.5 millions years in the what we know as the Stone Age. Around 2,000 BC tool makers started using bronze to make weapons such as spearheads, swords, and knives. As early as 1500 BC, tool makers used iron to make tools which continues to be the primary material of choice. With the Industrial Revolution came new technologies that allowed tool makers to design hand tools of increasing complexity and precision. Today, hand tools are mostly created by machines with great precision and in massive quanties.
| Home Depot is where you will find the best selection of hand tools on the web including chisels, clamps, cutting tools, drywall tools, files, glue guns, pipe tools, pliers, rivets, safety, saws, scrapers, screwdrivers, wrenches, utility knives and much more. |
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Kinds of Hand Tools
There are several hand tools that are shared by many industries. Hammers can be used by mechanics to loosen a bolt, or a construction worker to nail two pieces of board together. There are other hand tools designed specifically for a particular industry. Electrical tools are good example. Made to deal with cutting, bending and holding wire, cable and installing electrical devices, these tools are unique in their own special way. There are construction tools, plumbing tools, and tools used exclusively by mechanics to work with automobiles. Regardless of industry they are associated with, hand tools break down into tools that alter the shape of material and objects and tools that combine, turn, hold and measure things. Woodworking tools, for instance, include any implement used by a craftsman in a shaping operation, such as chopping, chiseling, sawing, filing, or forging. Other complementary tools, often needed as auxiliaries to shaping tools, include such implements as the screwdriver or wrench for turning screws and bolts, a hammer for nailing, a vise, for holding and tools for facilitating accurate measurements, i.e., the rule, divider, and the square. These same tools are used in similar capacities whether it be the electrical or automotive industry. These are the tools that should form any basic tool set.
Tool Functions
Tools are invented and used for a variety of functions. Many tools or groups of tools serve to perform one or more of a set of basic operations. Hand tools, for example, were invented to perform a variety of functions: cutting, i.e., a knives and saws, prying, i.e., crowbars and tire irons, concentrating force, i.e., hammers and vises, guiding, i.e., set squares and rulers, protecting seizing and holding, i.e., pliers and wrenches. Other speciality tools include electrical, automotive and plumbing tools that are diagnostic in function and help you to identify problems or whether things are working as they should be. There are also those multi hand tools like the first pocket survival tool by Tim Leatherman in 1983. A pair of pliers that fit in a pocket, the Leatherman also squeezed eight different screwdriver and knife blades into its hollow handles. Craftsman, fishermen and hunters alike all agreed that they felt naked without one because it was so useful. Used for everything from adjusting driving lights on a car to filing rock dings off a damaged boat impeller to stripping wire while repairing a lamp, the versatility of this tool was undeniable.