Take a guided tour through a stunningly beautiful array of fine
tools. This collection of more than 250 masterpieces features unique
tools built with sumptuous materials, lavished with artistic
decoration, or made for remarkable precision. Locked away in the
vaults of private collectors, many of these exquisite tools have
never before appeared in publication.
Included in this beautifully photographed book are measuring
instruments, handplanes, saws and other cutting tools, striking and
drilling tools, Asian treasures, incredible miniatures, ingenious
foot-powered machines, and improbable combination tools. Each photo
is accompanied by detailed notes that provide intriguing historical
and technical details about the tool.
The Art of Fine Tools will delight anyone who works with
tools. For collectors there is a wealth of historical and technical
information. But this is also a book for anyone who appreciates
practical objects imbued with beauty and crafted with care.
"The Art of Fine Tools photographs clapboard planes and
hand adzes, British spokeshaves and Japanese Ryoba saws as lavishly
and seductively as a display of tarts in Martha Stewart Living."
-- Newsweek
"If tools are your meat and potatoes, this book is
dessert."
-- Leonard Lee, Lee Valley Tools
Introduction:
A well-made tool is a thing of beauty that's as much
of a pleasure to look at as it is to use. But to enjoy lovely tools,
one doesn't have to run out to the shop and raise a shaving or kick
up a cloud of sawdust. Sometimes, it's enough just to sit back and
gaze with admiration. The figured-rosewood and brass body of a try
square, the fancy Victorian pattern cast into the handle of an
antique scraper, the intricate iron filigree decorating the base of
a treadle-powered scrollsaw elements such as these have the
universal appeal of a work of fine art.
You don't have to be a woodworker or know anything about tools to
appreciate their inherent beauty, but attractive tools have an
extra-special meaning to people who work with wood: I have a hunch
that they are at least part of what inspired them to take up the
craft in the first place. Visit any woodworking supply fair or
antique-tool auction and you'll see the aisles filled with aspiring
woodworkers coveting the hundreds of gorgeous hand and power tools
on display. Fortunately, it's possible to enjoy an attractive,
well-made tool, such as a fruitwood handplane or an engraved brass
marking gauge, without having to buy it, just as most car
enthusiasts who can't shell out megabucks for a vintage Ferrari can
still admire its seductive bodywork or thrill to tales of its
adrenaline-pumping performance.
This book is a celebration of the world's most incredible
woodworking tools tools of unique or unusual design that were
crafted with remarkable precision, sumptuous materials, or artistic
decoration. They deserve an intimate examination to appreciate fully
their special qualities. On these pages you will discover tools that
range in age from historic to modern, including a wide range of
19th-century carpentry and cabinetmaking tools and tools from
Eastern and Western cultures. In addition to an extensive collection
of hand tools, including saws, hammers, braces, chisels, layout
tools, and planes, you will also find human-powered machines and
tools that normally wouldn't be found in woodworking shops, such as
miniatures and tools that embody more art than function. Most of
these remarkable tools were gathered for personal collections,
purchased from tool dealers and at auctions, flea markets, and
estate sales across America and around the world. Many are rare
pieces making their first public appearance.
Although tools that are as beautiful as they are functional are
still being made today, many of the most interesting, intricate, and
ornate tools come to us from the past. Older tools are like time
capsules, with much to teach us about their makers' lives and style
of work. Most simple tools were created out of necessity, when a
woodworker needed a special implement to help perform a job more
quickly and efficiently. Early tools made by the same craftsmen that
used them are often so direct that they inspire with their simple
beauty an ax with a blade shaped like a bird's wing and a handle
fashioned to fit the hand. Some of the basic forms have survived for
centuries essentially unchanged. Tools that are staples of the
carpenter's chest, such as the hammer and handsaw, have remained the
same in form and construction since the time of the ancient Romans.
While many people may appreciate the beauty of the ornate tools
featured in these pages, woodworkers may be suspicious of the
utility of highly adorned toolswere they made more for show than for
making shavings? You may be surprised to learn that all but a
handful of the "art" tools (which are featured at the end of the
book) were, in their time, used daily. Many of the wooden tools show
a tremendous amount of wear, and even user-made repairs, often
visible in the photographs. And if you're upset by the fact that
most of these tools now occupy display cabinets instead of tool
chests, please remember that they are valuable heirlooms, delicate
and irreplaceable. As romantic a wish as it is that we keep such
tools as "daily users," it's more appropriate for them to be retired
with dignity and kept in a place of honor. While we may remain
envious of those with the time and means of finding and buying such
tools, I think we owe a certain debt to the perseverance of the
collectors who restore, preserve, and protect these precious
artifacts and, ultimately, the rich history of woodworking that goes
with them.
Whatever your background, it is the goal of this book to acquaint
you with tools you may never get a chance to see in person, much
less use, since many are locked away in the vaults of large private
collections. The photographs provide an intimate portrait of these
treasures; the accompanying text describes their origins and makers,
and in some cases explains construction details and methods of use.
These intriguing vignettes convey a sense of each tool's history,
which is often colorful. Taken together, they stand as a tribute to
human industry and aesthetics.
It is my hope that this book will cause you to look at
woodworking tools a little differently. As this collection richly
demonstrates, a tool can be far more than a utilitarian implement
whose sole purpose is to perform a mundane task. When designed and
wrought to high levels of craftsmanship, a tool transcends its
function and becomes an object of art worthy of attention in its own
right. If you're a woodworker, this book may inspire you to carve
your initials on your best planes or perhaps build a few "special"
tools of your own. A cherished tool adds immense pleasure to
woodworking, and you will have an heirloom to pass on when your
woodworking days are over.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 Marking and Measuring Instruments
2 Handplanes of Fancy
3 Tools for Hammering and Drilling
4 Tool Treasures of the Orient
5 Ingenious Mechanisms and Machines
6 Tools with the Decorative Touch
7 Miniature Marvels
8 The Art of the Tool, and Tools as Art
9 Tools for Sawing and Slicing
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