Books on Old Tools

We maintain an extensive supply of books about tools and related items. All of our prices include shipping, via US Mail, Book Rate, within N. America,  and my be ordered in the same way as our tools.

"Stanley Tools 2004 Pocket Price Guide" by John Walter $12.00 (4 3/4" x 5 3/4") These books are currently unavailable.

An indispensable reference for everyone from the vintage tool cllector to those just curious about their old tools. Distinguishes valuable tools from the more common models, gives production years, dimensions and sizes and how much you can expect to pay if you are buying or receieve if selling.

"The Antique Tool Collector's Guide to Value" by Ronald S Barlow $16.95 (Soft Cover)

At last this classic has been fully updated. First published in 1985, revised in 1989 and 1991 (3rd. Edition) and now the lastest 2004 edition. This new edition contains the same pictures and text but with updated values for each listing. If you have an earlier edition you will be impressed at the increase in the value of most of the tools. This extensive paperback is full of useful information on just about any tool imaginable. It is a must for any new collector of old tools and is still helpful for those with experience. A great value.

"The Hand Plane Book" by Garrett Hack. $34.95 (Hard Cover)

A wonderful book for anyone involved with woodwork, from the full time professional cabinetmaker to the weekend amateur or novice woodworker. The book covers just about everything you would want to know about woodworking planes including history, theory, and practice.The practical side includes discussion of everything from tuning and adjusting planes to planing technique. The historical information traces the lineage of the plane from Roman times to the present, with special emphasis on the golden age of planes (19th and early 20th centuries). Also covered are the many specialty planes used in ancillary woodworking professions. The concluding chapters take a look at contemporary plane makers and explain what to look for when buying a plane for the shop or as an investment.

272 pages, 175 color photos and 152 drawings. 9 1/4" x11 1/2"

"A Price Guide to Antique Tools" by Herbert P. Kean. $17.95 (Soft Cover)

Here at last, is a price guide for the 21st century! It stands out as the only price guide for tools to factor in prices realized from tool sales on the internet.

The prices in this third edition of Price Guide to Antique Tools (a total of 12,000 individual and chart combinations) are averaged from recent live auctions and electronic auctions, as well as from the author's knowledge of general marketing trends. The prices cover tools from top-of-the-line treasures to common flea market prices. They demonstrate that tools collecting has reached its maturity, where top condition brings increasingly higher prices. The book covers tools that are available in the marketplace, with explanations for each tool group to help the reader classify the most critical of all factors condition. The chapter on American wooden planes is at the same time both simple and comprehensive, covering over 400 makers, each graded with a single value number.

New to this edition is a section on internet auctions, where the author explains the mechanisms of electronic auctions and explains some of his secrets for successful bidding. Also included are sections on buying antique tools, tool wood identification, clubs and organizations to join, and a comprehensive list of books on tools. Completely indexed and easy to use, this edition of Price Guide to Antique Tools is truly invaluable to everyone from the woodworker with only a few early hand tools in his shop to to the serious collector and dealer.

154 pages, 10" x 7"

"WHEELMAKING, Wooden Wheel Design and Construction" Edited By The American Carriage Museum and Don Peloubet $29.95

The last half of the nineteenth century marked a huge transition in carriage building--basically, from individual carriage shops to large, industrialized carriage factories. A major factor in this transition was the concurrent change in the manufacture of wheels, basically, from individual wheelwrighting to industrial wheel making.

This book is a compilation of articles on wheel making taken from late 19th century journals published in America for the carriage industry. It chronicles an industry being transformed, partly by a spate of new patented designs, but chiefly by the advent of power machinery and the mechanization of the wheel making process.

The articles are divided into ten sections: the first is a long overview of wheel making technologies of the time, followed by sections on the dishing of wheels, hubs, spokes, fellows and rims, tires, rubber tires, patent wheels, and wheel repair. Taken together, the articles give the reader a full understanding of the fast-moving changes that took place in the wheel making industry during the late 19th century, how the various new patents and processes worked, and how the various experts in the field felt, and differed, about them.

This is altogether a fascinating book, full of detailed information valuable both to the general reader and to the practicing wheelwright.

245 pages, 9" x 12" Soft cover

"PRACTICAL CARRIAGE BUILDING" Compiled by M. T. Richardson $24.95
This combined reprint of Volumes 1 and 2 of the 1892 edition of Practical Carriage Building is perhaps the most complete and accurate contemporary work on the subject. it covers in great depth, and with many illustrations, the materials and tools used, the making and repairing of wheels, the making of carriage parts and their assembly, framing and construction, axles, yokes, whiffletrees, patterns and layouts, and many other useful and fascinating subjects. All sorts of carriages are discussed: buggies. cabriolets and broughams, phaetons, rockaways, as well as sleighs and sleds, and express, delivery, and farm wagons. A definitive, easy to follow reference on this early trade that is now enjoying a well-deserved renaissance.

512 pages. Fully illustrated. 51/2" X 81/2". Soft cover. ISBN 1-879335-50-6.
 
 
 
 
 

"THE AMERICAN PATENTED BRACE 1829 - 1924" by Ronald W. Pearson D.O. $22.95

This is a vastly expanded successor to Dr. Pearson's earlier Guide to American Brace Patents 1829 -1910. Not only are many newly discovered patents included, but these are now cross-indexed and illustrated and, for the first time, the author provides an indication of their rarity.

Over 500 brace patents are listed alphabetically by patentee name and chronologically by date and patent number. There is a third index that lists patents by type of brace in four different categories: brace ratchet patents, corner brace patents, brace wrench patents, and brace combination tool patents.

Each patent is shown in one or more illustration, providing the reader with a convenient way to identify any example, giving the patent number, date, patentee location, description, an illustration, and an indication of its rarity.

An invaluable reference to anyone having an interest in these fascinating examples of American ingenuity. 185 pages, 8 1/2" x 11", Soft cover.

"Restoring, Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools" By Michael Dunbar $19.95 Sorry, no longer available

Another good value. This paperback is great for the woodworker who plans on using his old tools. It provides guidance on buying old tools, where to look and what to look for as well as a description of a number of early tools; their use and how to clean them and tune them for use.

A word of caution: If you are fortunate to stumble on a valuable collector tool then it must be recognized that cleaning, if any, should be left to the expert. The value of many a tool has been significantly decreased by "cleaning".

" THE WOODEN PLANE: Its History, Form, Function" By John M. Whelan $37.50

This comprehensive reference describes, illustrates and classifies all types of wooden plane from the common to the rare - then traces their development and explains their use. Includes not only American and English Planes, but also French, Dutch, Japanese and Chinese. An extraordinary book, valuable not only for collector, but also for craftsmen and restorationist in reproducing and designing classical furniture and architectural details. 513 pages. 1041 illustrations. 7" x 10". Soft cover.

"Collecting Antique Tools" by Herbert P. Kean and Emil S. Pollack $29.95

A comprehensive guide that describes and illustrates over 700 of the most important antique tools, covering all categories from wooden and metal planes, braces, and measuring devices to axes, saws and wrenches. Included are over 250 original photographs plus many line drawings that show these tools in use. A beautifully presented and well-organized reference for anyone interested in antique tools. 203 pages. 8 1/2" x 11". Soft cover sewn binding.

"A Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes", 4th Edition By Emil & Martyl Pollack, revised by Thomas Elliott. $39.95

The definitive guide, covering American plane makers from the earliest individual makers who worked before the Revolutionary War to the last few manufactures of the twentieth century. This comprehensive directory includes nearly 2,000 biographical entries, together with over 2,200 imprint illustrations and wedge outlines. The most comprehensive book on American wooden plane makers. 462 pages and over 3,000 illustrations. 7" x 10". Soft bound.

"The Workbench Book" by Scott Landis $30.00

"The Workbench Book" benches from a traditional Shaker bench to the mass-produced Workmate®. There are benches for cabinetmakers, boatbuilders, carvers and county chairmakers. They hail from such diverse places as Scandinavia, England, rural America and Japan. In each case, detailed photographs and illustrations show how the bench works and help guide you through parts of its construction. A fabulous book for the person who wants to make his own bench to the person interested in the history and design of workbenches. 246 pages 9" x11". Hard Cover.

"American Machinist's Tools" by Kenneth L. Cope $29.95

An Illustrated Directory of Patents. Over 1000 Diagrams fully illustrated of machinist's tools patented through 1905, and the more important ones from 1906 to 1916. Indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by the type of tool, making identification a much easier job with minimal information. 424 pages. 7" x 10". Soft cover.