Most underestimated or forgotten hand tool?

jack of all

Just for a bit of fun, what do you think is the most underestimated/ or forgotten hand tool- preferably a tool that was very familiar to everyone and commonly used in the past?

I nominate the Stanley handbrace- I picked up an 8" one at a boot sale some years ago and only put it to use in recent weeks. I used it (with a hex bit chuck adaptor) to strip an some old gates and shed doors which had been sheeted using tek screws. The screws were pretty rotten along their shanks and I wasn't having a lot of success with a power driver. So I decided to use the brace, what a revelation- as much torque as I wanted, easy to control and no sheared heads! I think I paid €5 for the brace and it made that tiresome job so easy! Power drivers are great but I think the hand brace can hold its own!

time lord

Defo a marking knife.

saltandpepper10

time lord wrote: »

Defo a marking knife.

i would say the handsaw

time lord

Most suggestions will be era dependent. So many of the tools died out numerically when carpentry practices changed. Chop saws and the lack of jointing in everyday carpentry and joinery must surely be the reason for the decline in tenon and hand saws.
The decline in bit and brace I'd put down to variable speed cordless drills.
All just an opinion though :-)

fergal.b

I still like to use a spokeshave probably not the most underestimated or forgotten tool but you don't need to plug it in and it makes a lovely sound when cutting wood.




.

Hootanany

I miss my Yankee:mad:

time lord

fergal.b wrote: »

I still like to use a spokeshave probably not the most underestimated or forgotten tool but you don't need to plug it in and it makes a lovely sound when cutting wood.




.

Our first year apprenticeship teacher used single us out if we said "wood". He'd say something along the lines "wood grows in a f#%+ing forest, when its shipped here its timber." We always wanted to point to our work shop door which said WOODWORKERS. Lol ps like spoke shaves too, one was concave can't remember the other maybe just flat. Blades a bitch to sharpen unless you made a extension for holding them I seem to remember.

fergal.b

time lord wrote: »

Our first year apprenticeship teacher used single us out if we said "wood". He'd say something along the lines "wood grows in a f#%+ing forest, when its shipped here its timber." We always wanted to point to our work shop door which said WOODWORKERS. Lol ps like spoke shaves too, one was concave can't remember the other maybe just flat. Blades a bitch to sharpen unless you made a extension for holding them I seem to remember.

I must have gone to a different school all I learned was

Esau Wood sawed wood.
Esau Wood would saw wood with a wood saw.
Esau’s wood saw would saw wood
One day, Wood’s wood saw would saw no wood,
so Wood sought a wood saw that would.
Then, Wood saw a wood saw saw wood as no
wood saw Wood ever saw wood sawed wood.
So Wood sought the wood saw that sawed wood
as no wood saw Wood ever saw ever sawed.
Now Wood saws wood with the wood saw Wood
saw saw wood as no wood saw
Wood ever saw would wood saw wood.

And

How much wood could Chuck Woods' woodchuck chuck, if Chuck Woods' woodchuck could and would chuck wood? If Chuck Woods' woodchuck could and would chuck wood, how much wood could and would Chuck Woods' woodchuck chuck? Chuck Woods' woodchuck would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as any woodchuck would, if a woodchuck could and would chuck wood.

time lord

fergal.b wrote: »

I must have gone to a different school all I learned was

Esau Wood sawed wood.
Esau Wood would saw wood with a wood saw.
Esau’s wood saw would saw wood
One day, Wood’s wood saw would saw no wood,
so Wood sought a wood saw that would.
Then, Wood saw a wood saw saw wood as no
wood saw Wood ever saw wood sawed wood.
So Wood sought the wood saw that sawed wood
as no wood saw Wood ever saw ever sawed.
Now Wood saws wood with the wood saw Wood
saw saw wood as no wood saw
Wood ever saw would wood saw wood.

And

How much wood could Chuck Woods' woodchuck chuck, if Chuck Woods' woodchuck could and would chuck wood? If Chuck Woods' woodchuck could and would chuck wood, how much wood could and would Chuck Woods' woodchuck chuck? Chuck Woods' woodchuck would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as any woodchuck would, if a woodchuck could and would chuck wood.

Ah yes he'd of loved you. He had hands like shovels, I need say no more :-)

1chippy

A 28 oz estwing with a serrated head to leave more of a print on the finer aspects of cabinet making.
P.s. extra long handle

Boiled-egg

3 foot rule

kadman

Scratch stock.

Hootanany

My Rawl plug tool very handy when no power.

time lord

kadman wrote: »

Scratch stock.

Every time I see one I thank God for routers.

kadman

time lord wrote: »

Every time I see one I thank God for routers.

Proper set up scratch stock, or coach makers shave , would put a de walt router to shame:D

Industrial revolution has you young bucks spolied with leccy:p

kadman

endacl

Scrapers. A nice sharp scraper is a joy to use. Rounding edges and micro planing.

And of course, a scraper is buggerall use without a burnishing tool.

time lord

kadman wrote: »

Proper set up scratch stock, or coach makers shave , would put a de walt router to shame:D

Industrial revolution has you young bucks spolied with leccy:p

kadman

I'll have you know I was the charge hand on Noah's Arc. Seriously though I have nightmares about grinding cutters for scratch moulders used on a raking moulding following the turns and rise of a staircase off a drawing. Nightmares still. Burn them all, let their dark art die. The world is a beautiful place without them.

tabby aspreme

cabinet scrapers, scratch stock,first thing we made in college and spokeshaves ,l have 22 of them all brilliant and great satisfaction using them but the simple things i find really useful are a Japanese marking knife, a Stanley hinge marking gauge no 47 095, and a small pincers for pulling things out of wood that cost 25p at a boot sale

The Glass Key

So here's one that make you all "shudder" a Stanley RB10 plane.

Its horrible in any traditional sense but the bad as also the good, the RB stands for Replaceable Blade (maybe also ReBate?) so because it doesn't need sharpening its great to throw in the bag and have handy for those rougher jobs. Plaining a sticking door thats covered in paint would be an example.

You can get two types of blade for it, and the straight blade makes is handy for rebates.

JoeB-

fergal.b wrote: »

I must have gone to a different school all I learned was

Esau Wood sawed wood.
Esau Wood would saw wood with a wood saw.
Esau’s wood saw would saw wood
One day, Wood’s wood saw would saw no wood,
so Wood sought a wood saw that would.
Then, Wood saw a wood saw saw wood as no
wood saw Wood ever saw wood sawed wood.
So Wood sought the wood saw that sawed wood
as no wood saw Wood ever saw ever sawed.
Now Wood saws wood with the wood saw Wood
saw saw wood as no wood saw
Wood ever saw would wood saw wood.

The wood in red doesn't seem to fit. Other than that full marks, he he.

azul

Hootanany wrote: »

I miss my Yankee:mad:

Brilliant!! I was just thinking of the same thing. They disappeared over night when the cordless came in.:(

2 stroke

I love the idea of a screwdriver tip in the handbrace for removing difficult screws, you could get quite a bit of shoulder presure in there. Have to try that.

2 stroke

Most forgotton woodworking tool surely is the pitsaw. Pity the poor guy underneath.

The Glass Key

2 stroke wrote: »

I love the idea of a screwdriver tip in the handbrace for removing difficult screws, you could get quite a bit of shoulder presure in there. Have to try that.

I don't do the sort of work that needs then now but I still have two braces and used to use one for putting in long (100-120mm) No3 Pozi screws. You have to be careful as you can easily get enough torque to snap the screws if you don't predrill the holes first, but there is the beauty of the system, drill in the cordless drill and bit in the brace.

Double Barrel

Shooting board and a donkeys ear.
+1 for Shaves and Braces.

My old friend David Trevallion using a brace fitted with a hand ground straight bit while working on a stubborn action pin, also known as a screw.

Ah, it worked!