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A hand tool is a device for performing work on a material or a physical system using only hands. The hand tools can be manually used employing force, or electrically powered, using electrical current.

Examples are almost endless, from general tools like the hammer to specific tools like calipers. Some hand tools are mounted to walls, such as pencil sharpeners.

In general tools can be classified as: driving and chopping tools (hammers, mauls, sledges, screwdriver and bit, chopping tools); cutting and smoothing tools (saws, chisels, planes, files and rasps, brush-cutting tools, miscellaneous cutting tools); drilling, boring and countersinking tools; measuring, levelling and layout tools (rules, tapes, marking tools, levels and plumb bobs, squares); gripping, prying and twisting tools (pliers, wrenches, bars); holding, raising and grinding tools (vises, clamps, jacks, grinders and oilstones); timber handling and climbing tools; digging tools (shovels, posthole diggers, picks and mattocks); portable power tools and trailer-mounted tools (electric tool trailer and generator, portable power tools); miscellaneous tools.

Virtually every type of tool can be a hand tool, and many have also been adapted as power tools, which get their motive power from motors or engines rather than from human mechanical action. Some hand tools cannot be easily or safely converted to power tools, for example chisels. Other examples are used by laborers such as hammer and saw.

[edit] See also

• Antique tool
• Cutting tool
• Diamond tool
• Garden tool
• Power tool
• Laborer hand tools

[edit] External links

• This Old House Essential Hand Tools: 26 essential tools to renovate and repair your home. New York: Time Publishing Ventures, Inc.. 1998. ISBN 0-9666753-0-4.