This Old House Essential Hand Tools: 26 Tools to Renovate and Repair Your Home

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: This book is a good read and a practical reference.

Although I am not a professional craftsperson, or even "seasoned" by most standards, I am a tool nut and have been using them for nearly fifty years in a variety of situations and know my way around a toolbox. However, the book showed me some common tools in a new perspective and has even given me an excuse to pick up a few more unusual tools for my collection. An example would be the cat's-paw. I was not familiar with this device before, but have now learned how superior one is to the claw of a hammer or a flat pry bar for pulling nails.

The book is more a discussion of the philosophy and theory of tools than it is an instruction manual. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it to anyone trying to get a handle on how to start putting a kit together and those who are curious about what two famous carpenters have to say about a tool you may have been using seemingly all your life.