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.
[Illustration: Fig. 126. Screw-drivers]
[Illustration: Fig. 127. Pliers]
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 128. The mallet]
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 129. Clamp and hand screws]
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.