Hand tools
Any tool - plumbing or surgical, manual or machine - is made for specific purposes. And in order to properly and confidently wield any instrument, you need to know everything about it: what it consists of, how it works and what it is intended for.
In this lesson we will talk in more detail about hand tools, their types and purposes.
But before we start talking about them, let's touch on history a little and try to figure out when and how hand tools appeared.
If we take Darwin's theory of evolution as a basis, then the first hand tool was an ordinary stick that our ancestor took to get fruit from a tree.
Then, of course, the story continued. Our ancestor thought about how to make his existence easier. And the first thing he drew his attention to was that if you take a stone in your hand, you can increase the force of your hand’s impact. This is how the first, oldest type of percussion hand instrument arose.
Then the primitive man noticed that when falling from a height or with a strong blow, the stone splits and many pieces of different shapes are formed, some of them having sharp edges. From these pieces, primitive man chose the one that fit best in his hand and had a conveniently located cutting edge. A second type of hand tool arose - cutting.
Gradually, man moved from simple to complex, from primitive to perfect. He looked for ways to solve life problems, for example, how to process this or that material, and found these ways.
A lot of time has passed since then, but all this time hand tools have not ceased to accompany a person.
Today we don’t think about how a person came up with the idea to come up with this or that instrument.
History has not preserved the names of the inventors, but we owe them everything that we have today and use to decorate our home.
So, what do we mean by the term “hand tools”
?
It's easy to guess that hand tools
– these are those tools that are designed to perform work using one’s own force. They facilitate and improve manual labor.
In the modern “technically advanced” world, people often resort to the help of all kinds of machines and mechanisms.
Specialists of various professions use electric, pneumatic or gas-powered tools in their work.
However, hand tools remain man's most faithful assistants in repair and construction for many centuries.
Currently, their number has increased significantly, they have become more versatile, functional, reliable and of higher quality.
Most of the hand tools can easily be replaced by their mechanical counterparts, driven by current.
But even though the level of technological development has reached significant heights, some hand tools still remain indispensable.
The purpose of hand tools has a wide range: from construction, plumbing to finishing work.
Among hand tools, depending on their purpose, there are: metalworking tools
,
carpentry
,
fastening
,
measuring
,
cutting
,
painting
,
gardening
and others.
Let's take a little look at each of the listed types of hand tools.
So, plumbing tools
designed for processing various materials - from plastic and wood to metal. Without them, life would be very difficult. The range of locksmith tools is very wide - these are hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, vices, chisels, files and so on.
Carpentry tools
are often used in everyday life to carry out minor repair work. These are chisels, chisels, planes, axes.
It is easy to guess that fastening tools
are needed to fasten any elements. These include: clamps, staplers and staples, riveters.
To perform even the simplest operation it is impossible to do without measuring tools
. After all, even the smallest mistake or error can ruin long and labor-intensive work. As they say, “measure twice, cut once.” There is a wide variety of measuring instruments. The most popular of them are rulers, squares, tape measures, levels, and calipers.
Regarding cutting hand tools
, then they are needed for cutting the material. These are all kinds of scissors, knives, hacksaws, metal brushes, glass cutters.
It's easy to guess that painting tools
are intended for finishing work: for example, whitewashing, painting, priming. The list of painting tools is quite large. These are brushes, rollers, trowels, graters, smoothers, spatulas, trowels.
Gardening Tools
designed for work on a personal plot. These are shovels, rakes, scythes.
Now let's try to determine what advantages hand tools have over electric ones.
Firstly
, they are incomparably cheaper than any of their electric counterparts.
Secondly
, hand tools are easier to operate and maintain.
Third
, the service life of hand tools is always several times longer than that of electric ones.
And fourthly
, hand tools don't use electricity or gas, they don't make noise, and they never run out of batteries.
Hand tools, like any other, have a certain service life. The service life of a tool characterizes the time during which the tool is still in working condition. In order for a tool to serve you for a long time and faithfully, it must always be kept in good working order and used only for its intended purpose. After all, any instrument does not like to be treated carelessly. Especially if the tool is not used for its intended purpose.
For example, when a drill is hit with a hammer, they try to draw with a ruler, but a brush with paint is left in the air and it dries out.
The serviceability of a tool before recovery in minutes or hours of operation is usually called tool life. For example, sharpening a saw or drill.
They strive to increase the durability of hand tools. New tool materials are invented, cutting and cooling fluids are used for cutting and drilling, and tool designs are improved.
People who make tools are called toolmakers
. This profession is always valued. Toolmakers are considered highly qualified specialists.
For processing various thin materials, tin, roofing work, and for the production of outdoor advertising, you need convenient and ergonomic tools
.
There is a whole science that studies human movements during work, energy expenditure and the productivity of specific human labor. It's called ergonomics
- this is the science of economical and convenient human work.
A person performs most labor movements with his hands.
At the same time, he uses various tools that have handles, or controls machines and mechanisms using steering wheels, levers, buttons, and toggle switches. The problem of creating rational forms of elements with which a person interacts with the hands, or more precisely, with the hands, is dealt with by a separate section in ergonomics - chiropractic
. In chiropractic care, special attention is paid to those hand tools that have to be held in the hand for a long time, and even perform not very convenient operations.
Interesting to know!
Scientists predict the modernization of the instrument: the transformation of individual instruments into a single universal “instrumental organism.”
Depending on the nature of the operation being performed, the tool can turn into wire cutters, side cutters, scissors, pliers, and so on. The elements of the tool set are equipped with a universal clamp for their quick connection.
Lesson summary
In this lesson we talked about hand tools. We discussed their types and purposes. Finally, I would like to say that every master should have a whole arsenal of convenient and useful tools at his disposal.
Perhaps all adult men have their own idea of what tools and in what quantity they should have at home. It’s true that a hammer, pliers and a small set of screwdrivers are enough for one owner, while another dreams of collecting a whole collection for all occasions and buys something new for himself with every salary.
But even those who are completely far from repair work understand perfectly well that they cannot do without hand tools on the farm.
