The need of a screw-driver is too obvious to require special mention. They are made with blades from two inches up to thirty inches long, and have round, flat, or corrugated handles. The best grip is obtained on either a flat or corrugated one, and two sizes are desirable, a small one with about a three-inch blade, the other with an eight or ten. (Fig. 126.)

Some of the magazine brad awls containing a dozen awls and screw-driver are very convenient, but the combinations supposed to contain a whole tool outfit, including saws, are poor investments.

Ratchet screw-drivers, from which the hand is not removed during the operation of driving or withdrawing a screw, are on the market, but they are luxuries rather than necessities.

Pliers with wire-cutting attachments are convenient, and should be added to the kit when possible; some of them are powerful enough to cut a heavy wire nail. (Fig. 127.)

The Mallet. This simple tool is made in a dozen different forms for various trades. The round-headed kind is perhaps the cheapest. It is made of hickory or lignum vitÆ. (Fig. 128.)

The best form for woodwork has an oblong or square head of lignum vitÆ. The handle should pass clear through the head and be fastened with a wedge.

A blow from this tool does not shatter the tool handle as would a blow from a hammer. A comparison of the two blows might be likened to the action of gun powder and dynamite. The slow burning powder represents the action of the mallet. The hammer should never be used on a chisel or gouge.

Hand screws for holding glued-up work together, sometimes for holding special work on the bench top, are made of wood, with either wood or metal spindles. For ordinary work, the jaws should be parallel, but special forms are on the market which will hold irregular forms, as shown in Fig. 129.

They are made in several sizes, from little ones with 4-inch jaws up to 22-inch jaws. For large and heavy work, clamps of wood or metal may be had as large as eight feet in length. They are useful in the making of drawing boards, doors, etc., but are not a real necessity for boys' ordinary woodwork. Clamps in the form of trestles for specially important large work are made as large as twelve feet in length.

For ordinary purposes, a pair of 6-inch and a pair of 12 or 14 inch wood hand screws will answer. The ingenuity of the young woodworker will suggest other ways of holding glued-up work in the absence of hand screws, such as winding with heavy twine or rope, and twisting a stick through the strands, after the old method of tightening a buck saw or turning saw. In building up a drawing board and gluing the strips together, the requisite pressure may be obtained by laying it on the floor between blocks temporarily nailed there, and wedges driven in, after the method described for picture frames.

A large part of the value derived from woodwork is in the exercise of ingenuity required to meet unexpected contingencies. Just so the owner of an automobile learns more about mechanics and the construction of his machine by being obliged to make repairs on the road, miles from any repair shop, and with a limited number of tools and appliances.

THE HAMMER

This common tool is made in at least thirty different forms, and some styles in nine or ten different weights. For woodwork, the adze-eye claw hammer, weight sixteen ounces, will answer all requirements. For use with brads as small as ³/₈ inch, a brad hammer of three or four ounces is desirable. Both of these forms are provided with claws for withdrawing nails. (Fig. 130.)

Claw hammers are comparatively modern inventions, and there are men now living who, when serving their apprenticeship, were obliged to withdraw their nails with a pair of pinchers. At that period all nails were wrought by hand, and houses are standing to-day on which the clapboards are still held in place by nails forged on an anvil by hand.

THE FILE

A volume might be written about the various shapes, sizes, and methods of cutting of this tool. Its place in woodwork is limited, and it should never be used where another tool will do the work. Like sand-paper, it has a tendency to lead to bad habits and slovenly work. On certain pieces of curved work in hard wood it may be used to remove the sharp edges left by chisel or gouge, especially the latter, but its action even there is apt to tear away the fibres.

An eight-inch, half-round, cabinet wood file and an eight-inch, round, slim No. 0 cut Swiss pattern file are sufficient.

For sharpening bits, a special auger bit file is made, and this may be used for sharpening the marking gauge point and such small work. For sharpening saw teeth, triangular saw files are sold at all hardware stores.

THE SPIRIT LEVEL

This is necessary on outdoor structures which are to be placed on foundations, in securing level or horizontal timbers, and in plumbing the uprights. The human eye is not equal to the task. Masons and builders make use of wooden plumb rods, but as the level is necessary to secure the horizontals, it will be at hand for the uprights, the two glass tubes being at right angles. (Fig. 131.)

RULE

A two-foot, four-fold, boxwood rule, graduated to eighths outside and sixteenths inside, will answer all ordinary requirements. (Fig. 132.)

THE STEEL SQUARE

This simple but valuable tool, about which volumes have been written, is necessary for building construction, but is not needed in the making of furniture or cabinet work.