Hand Tools - Saws, Hammers, Punches

Hand Tools - Saws, Hammers, Punches

Hand tools are the hand held devices used for performing work on materials or a system. Hand tools can work with either manual force or electricity. The hand tools based on manual force are manual hand tools where as those that work on electricity are the power tools. Different varieties of hand tools are used for performing various jobs. These are generally available in various types, shapes and sizes with different degrees of hardness and varying configurations for accomplishing specific purposes. Some of the popular and well known varieties of hand tools include saws, hammers, axes, arbor, punches, chisels, bolsters, drill bits, screwdrivers, pliers, spanners, bolt cutters, wood working tools, measuring and precision tools and lubrication and paint tools.

Saw

Saw is a tool having thin and flat steel blade with a row of spaced teeth along the edge. This blade is attached to a handle by catching which the cutting operations are performed. Saws are normally available in various sizes and designs depending on their use and the material to be cut. Hand saws, mechanically powered saws and reciprocating blade saws are the popular categories under which saws are classified. However the most common types of saws used widely are hand saw, hacksaw, coping saw, wallboard saw, cross cut saw, jigsaw and reciprocating saw.

Hammers

A hammer is a hand operated tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses of hammers are driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are generally available in different shapes and structures and meant for use for a specific purpose according to their design. Claw hammer, sledge hammer, ball pein hammer, cross pein hammer, brick hammer, scotch hammer, club hammer are some widely used varieties of hammers.

Punches

A punch is a hard metal rod with a shaped tip at one end and a blunt butt end at the other. This is usually struck by a hammer and used to drive objects like nails to form an impression of the tip on a workpiece. They are also widely used for punching holes in different material like rubber, leather, gasket and other hard material. Center punch, letter punch, hollow punch, number punch, pin punch and automatic center punch are some common varieties of punches used for different kinds of punching applications.

Hand Tools - Drilling Bits, Files, Chisel, Wrenches, Spanners

Different Types of Hand Tools and Their Uses

Devices designed for manual hand held operations on a system or material can be called as hand tools. There are different varieties of hand tools available in various types, shapes and sizes for performing various jobs. Some of the widely used and well known varieties of hand tools include chisels, bolsters, drill bits, hammers, axes, saw, punches, screw drivers, spanners, wrenches, wood working tools, measuring and precision tools, inspection tools etc. The applications of some of these tools are listed below.

Drilling Bits

The tools used to drill holes into materials are called drilling bits or drill bits. These are often held in a device called drill, which rotates them and provides force required to create the hole. There are different kinds of drilling bits used for specific purposes. Masonry drill bits, HSS drill bits, SDS drill bits, glass and tile bits, hole saw, step drill, twist drill bits, auger bits are some of the widely used varieties of drill bits.

Files

Files are the tools used for cutting, smoothing off, or removing small amounts of metal, wood, plastic or other material. They are made in various lengths, shapes, and cuts. Generally a specific kind of file can be used for performing specific purpose only for which it is designed. For example round files are used for filing circular openings or concave surfaces, square files can be used for filing rectangular slots and keyways where as flat files file flat surfaces on various materials. The triangular files for filing saws and three square files for filing internal angles are also the popular categories.

Chisel

Hand tool used for carving or cutting material like wood, metal or stone is called chisel. This tool is equipped with a flexible shaped cutting edge blade on its end to perform its cutting task. There are different types of chisels like cold chisels, concrete chisels, carving chisels etc. Whatever be the type the basic operating principle is the same for all - the cutting blade with the help of handle is guided through the object to perform the cutting task.

Wrenches or Spanners

A wrench is a hand tool with fixed or adjustable jaws, generally used for applications like gripping, turning, fastening, tightening, twisting or loosening objects such as nuts, bolts and pipe fittings. They are available in different shapes and sizes and can be used for wide range of applications. Pipe wrenches, general use wrenches, adjustable wrenches and fixed wrenches are some popular categories of wrenches generally used. To know about other kinds of hand tools please visit www.rocktools.com.au.

Woodworking Tools – Hand Saw, Wood Chisel, Woodworking Vice, Bench Plane

Woodworking Tools, Woodworking Hand Tools

Tools used to cut, shape and finish wood fall under the category of woodworking tools and are important assets of a wood worker whose job is to carve furniture and to prepare products from wood.  These can be either the woodworking hand tools that work manually or power tools that run on electricity or some other source. The power tools and modern equipments can greatly enhance the productivity and convenience of woodworking as compared to hand tools, but still manual hand tools have their own importance in wood working and are preferred by many traditional woodworkers till to this day. Let us have a look at some of such important and manual tools for woodworking used by most of the woodworkers.

Hand Saw

One of the most important tools for woodworking is a hand saw. Hand saws are generally available in different sizes and types and are primary tools for cutting wood into shapes and sizes. There are cross cut saws, rip saws, hack saws, coping saws, keyhole saws that are widely employed for different types of wood cutting like trimming, molding, angle cutting, cross cutting and fine line cutting.

Wood Chisel

A wood chisel is a woodworking hand tool having characteristically shaped cutting blade meant for carving and cutting wood into various patterns. Wood chisels range from small hand tools for tiny details to large chisels used to remove big sections of wood. Butt chisel, carving chisel, bevel edge chisel, framing chisels are some of the popular kinds of woodworking chisels.

Woodworking Vice

A woodworking vice is a mechanical screw apparatus used for holding or clamping wood work piece to allow work to be performed on it with tools such as saws, planes, drills, mills, screwdrivers etc. There are jaws made of plastic or metal and split nuts in vice with the help of which the wood piece is tightly held for working purpose.

Hand Plane

The hand plane is one of the basic tools of wood working. It has three jobs in the woodshop - to straighten the wood, to smooth it and to remove it. Bench planes and block planes are two important categories of woodworking planes. Bench planes are characterized by the presence of chipbreaker and bevel facing down while the block planes do not have chipbreaker and have the cutting iron bedded with the bevel up. Rabbet plane, bull nose plane, bull nose rabbet plane, circular plane, chisel plane, combination plane are some special kinds of hand planes widely used by woodworkers for convenient and easy woodworking smoothing tasks.