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by: Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Topics include: ivory plow plane, geared drill, vintage tools, router plane, plow planes, bubble vial, lever caps, bit brace, rabbet plane, miniature tools, front grip, bevel gauge, giveaway item, touch marks, presentation tools, early tools
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From Book News, Inc.
Presenting a "sort of tool museum in print," the California author of The Art of Fine Tools (1998) and a former editor of Fine Woodworking magazine traces collectible tools from Stone Age axes and vintage iron handplanes to computer-aided miniatures. What collectors and craftsmen (and women) will especially relish are Nagyszlanczy's many color photographs of these often highly decorative tools and their maker's unique logos. Lacks references and resources.Copyright Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Book Description
Over the centuries, craftsmen have transformed humble objects-drills, saws, planes, and levels-into works of art. This new title expands on Sandor Nagyszalanczy's acclaimed The Art of Fine Tools by offering a world tour of objects that rarely leave the private vaults of collectors. A visual feast of the finest and most beautifully crafted vintage tools ever made, Tools offers engaging facts about their history, function, and manufacture. Collectors and craftsmen will relish the depth of historical and technical information that accompanies each of the over 400 color photographs. Anyone who has ever held a hammer or a saw will marvel at these masterpieces of art and utility.
Tools Rare and Ingenious
Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Celebrating the world's most amazing tools
Craftsmen, over the centuries, have transformed inherently humble objects -- drills, saws, planes, and levels -- into works of art. Tools Rare and Ingenious expands on Sandor Nagyszalanczy's acclaimed book The Art of Fine Tools by offering a world tour of objects that rarely leave the private vaults of collectors.
In more than 375 color photographs, the author presents tools ranging from calipers that mimic dancing ballerinas to a carved breast drill that's shaped like a violin and, astonishingly, outfitted with a bow. Some tools glitter with silver and jewels, others are breathtaking in their simplicity. Included in this fascinating history are maker's marks and logos, jewelry-like miniature tools, patent and prototype models, and elaborate presentation tools that were created as awards or gifts.
This is a book to treasure. Collectors and craftsmen will relish the depth of historical and technical information that accompanies each picture. And anyone who has ever held a hammer or a saw, no matter how briefly, will marvel at these masterpieces of art and utility.
About the author
Sandor Nagyszalanczy of Bonny Doon, California, is a professional furniture designer, freelance writer, photographer, and tool consultant. A custom furniture builder for over twenty-five years, he has also been a senior editor of Fine Woodworking magazine. He has appeared on History Channel's Modern Marvels and ABC Television's World News Tonight to discuss antique and modern tools. Nagyszalancy has written and photographed eight books also published by The Taunton Press, including The Homeowner's Ultimate Tool Guide, Power Tools, The Art of Fine Tools, Setting Up Shop, and Woodshop Dust Control. He is a four-time winner of the Golden Hammer award for excellence in home and workshop writing.
Tools Rare and Ingenious
Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Celebrating the world's most amazing tools
Introduction
Primitive and Ancient Tools
Decorated Tools
Fine and Fancy Tools
Ingenious Mechanisms
Maker's Marks and Logos
Magnificent Miniatures
Combination Tools
Patent Models and Prototypes
Presentation and Exhibition Tools
Tools of Many Trades
Craftsman-Made Tools
Reviews:
Tools Rare and Ingenious
Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Celebrating the world's most amazing tools
About half a decade has passed since I wrote The Art of Fine Tools, the first book I had written and photographed that explored the realm of magnificent vintage tools. The premise for that book was simple: Present the most amazing vintage tools with artistically taken photographs that provide the viewer with an intimate look at the beauty and subtle details of those tools. The woodworking and other tools featured in that book were from many of the best private collections across America.
To my great delight, the concept seems to have resonated with woodworkers and other craftsmen alike, in addition to many individuals who had never picked up a hammer or plane in their lives but who admired those marvelous tools not only for their historical and functional qualities but also for their aesthetic appeal. Indeed, the finest vintage tools deserve to be seen and appreciated in much the same way we admire a handsome Asian porcelain vase, a lithe Italian marble statue, or a classic bronze bust from ancient Greece.
The success of that first book emboldened me to once again take my camera in hand (this time, a digital model) and embark on another photographic safari, to stalk and capture the most remarkable vintage tools I could find. I had the great fortune of starting this project with a very full Rolodex® of premier tool collectors who were gracious enough to allow me into their lives to see and photograph their best tools. For this project, I expanded my horizons to include not only the collections of North America but also several fine collections in England, Germany, and Austria. And I enlarged the scope of my quest to incorporate vintage graphics and tool-related ephemera in addition to the tools themselves.
One chapter delves into tools used by specialized trades, such as wheelwrights, coachmakers, coopers, and blacksmiths, that are now relegated to the history of the early industries. A chapter on combination tools provides colorful examples of tools made both for the professional tradesman and the household fix-it person. These inventions, which combine the functions of three, four, ten, or more basic tools into a single compact device, often display great ingenuity on the part of their creators.
Finally, a chapter dedicated to craftsman-made tools surveys the many unique creations that resulted when tool users became toolmakers. Working either out of necessity or a desire to create the tools they used on the job, these craftsmen produced one-of-a-kind tools that range from strikingly primitive examples, like a handplane cobbled together from chunks of raw wood, to impressively sophisticated plows, levels, and even geared drills.
As you peruse the collection of amazing tools presented in these pages and read of their rich histories, I hope you will feel, as I do, that they comprise a sort of tool museum in print. I use the word museum here as the venerable author Eric Sloane did in his classic book A Museum of Early American Tools: "a collection of things brought together for musing; for the exploration of their qualities; for the wonderment of their origins." Although the tools themselves are scattered around the world, they have, indeed, been assembled here for your musing. It is my sincere hope that these remarkable tools bring you pleasure and enrich your sense of the fertile history of the toolmaker's creative craft and inspired art.