Hand Tools

There are useful primitive hand tools. The tools in this photo are a bit scarce now but can be found if you keep an eye open for them.

• A brace and set of bits are shown lower left. This is useful for drilling large holes by hand. Uses after the pole shift could range from holes for legs for log furniture to holes in the top roof logs for building a log cabin. The logs that cross to form the top or peak roof line are usually fastened together with wooden or metal pins. A round wood branch, reinforcing rebar rod or large bolt would work for the pin. The hole could be drilled in the log with this brace. The longer the bits you find the bigger the log you can drill. A "T" shaped handle for large bits is some times available. If you find one, buy it. It makes it easier to turn for large holes. Typically for a log cabin the logs are split in half and notched to rest on the lower logs at most places except the very top of the roof line.
• On the right in the picture is shown a smaller hand drill. This is for small holes in wood and light metal.
• At the top of the picture is shown a hand pull type knife for planing and smoothing wood.

For light construction after the pole shift a minimum set of other useful, and more commonly available hand tools, should be saved. These could include: different sizes of wood chisels, hand wood and metal saws, claw hammer, sledge hammer, several sizes of wedges for splitting logs, ax for chopping wood, cross cut saws of various sizes, wood and metal hand files of all sizes and shapes, a vice and several large C-clamps.

Offered by Mike.

I might add that pawn shops and yard sales are an excellent place to find these kinds of tools. I guess those that sell or pawn their tools, get rid of the "most useless" ones first. I saw everyone of those tools just the other day at a local pawn shop. (I already own tools like this).

Offered by Clipper.