A stunning array of edge and boring tools from Britain, continental Europe and North America provides a survey of hand tool-making from prehistory to today.

The Most Valuable Tool in Your Toolbox Lacking the edge on tool information? Cut through the competition and hammer home deals like a pro with Antique Trader Tools Price Guide. Featuring 700 color photos, thousands of listings with current values, market trends, and collecting advice, it's the definitive reference on antique tools. This book features: • 700 color photos, with actual prices received at auctions • 2,000 listings covering planes, braces, drills, saws, hammers, levels, rules, squares, gauges, scientific instruments, patented tools, advertising, and much more • Information on building a collection, condition grading, market trends, and investing New! • Chapter on collecting Stanley tools • Condition grading photos

Here is the book that finally unlocks the secrets that professional restorers have been using for years. It explains critical (and previously closely-held) restoration techniques in a way that even the most uninitiated can understand and follow, giving the reader confidence throughout and making the art of restoration not only extremely remunerative for the collector, but satisfying and fun as well. There are chapters covering all the categories of tools, as well as a general chapter on cleaning and refinishing. The author explains how to make a bow for a bow drill, how to tighten loose heads on Sheffield and Ultimatum braces, how to make wedges for planes, how to replace vials in levels, how to repair chipped or missing threads on a plow plane, and literally hundreds of other such invaluable instructions.

This reference for collectors of antique tools and machinery showcases tools from some 50 trades, including plumbing, logging, blacksmithing, printing, gardening, beekeeping, and carriage and wagon making. Each illustrated entry is accompanied by notes on use of the tool, companies that made it, and pricing information for collectors. A section of color photos is included. Wendel, a collector of antique tools, has written previous books on antique farm machinery and tools. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

" ... This comprehensive guide covers Stanley's advertising, memorabilia, bit braces, catalogs, chisels, defiance tools, hand & breast drills, four square tools, marking gauges, hammers & mallets,hatchets, levels, mechanics's [i.e. mechanics'] tools, miscellaneous, mitre tools, planes, plumb bobs, rules, screw drivers, spoke shaves, squares & bevels, tape measures, tool cabinet & sets, tool handles & awls, trammel points, vices [i.e. vises], zig zag rules"--Back cover.

A price guide is only as helpful as its prices are current. With this in mind, we offer a new fourth edition of Herbert Kean's A Price Guide to Antique Tools, its prices taken from the latest live and internet auctions as well as from private sales. As before, there are over 12,000 prices (individual and chart combinations) that represent extraordinary tools, as well as those found in flea markets. There is an explanation for each tool group that allows the reader to judge the condition of a tool, the most critical of all factors when determining price. The chapter on American wooden planes covers over 400 makers, each graded with a single value number, a system that is at the same time simple and comprehensive. To help even more, almost every tool is illustrated with a photograph or line drawing. The section on internet prices explains the mechanisms of electronic auctions and gives tips for successful bidding. If you have ever wished that you could consult with an expert before investing in a tool, this is the book for you. It puts at your fingertips the knowledge and expertise of noted tool collector and dealer Herb Kean, both in determining current prices and in evaluating condition. Altogether, an invaluable book.