Hand-tool buyer’s guide
From combination squares to handsaws to bench chisels and waterstones, we survey the hand tools that got the best reviews in head-to-head tests over the past 20 years. Use these to compile your tool kit, and you won't go wrong.
Synopsis: We’ve been conducting real-world tests on the best hand tools for decades now, long before the explosion in hand-tool appreciation of the past few years. From combination squares to handsaws to bench chisels and waterstones, we survey the hand tools that got the best reviews in head-to-head tests over the past 20 years. Use these to compile your tool kit, and you won’t go wrong.
Whether you’re trimming machine-cut tenons for a perfect fit, leveling one surface to another, planing decorative chamfers, or squaring up a router-cut corner, you can count on hand tools to do the job quickly and efficiently. They’ll also do it quietly.
Appreciation for the peacefulness and pleasure of handwork has grown markedly in recent years, fueling an explosion of products, from handmade collector’s items to excellent factory-made options. But with so many options available, it can be hard to know where…
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Comments
The waterstone test is from 2012 and the source (toolsfromjapan.com) that you list where to purchase the Sigma Power Ceramic, one of the brands rated "Best Overall," is no longer in business. Why would you include this in the 2020/2021 Hand Tool Buyer's Guide when the source for them is no longer available. So how does one go about purchasing the Sigma Power that you have rated so high?
I'm not sure where you're seeing that. Neither the stones or the source is included in this updated article.
I thought the same, I even wrote a comment with the same point.
When you view the following page (https://www.finewoodworking.com/2020/10/28/hand-tool-buyers-guide) it looks like that is the article. I was thinking why are they regurgitating reviews from the past 20 years, cheap skates.
Then I noticed the little 'view pdf ' link. Most sites these days put there articles as the main page, not a link to a pdf download.
I'm slowly getting used to how this site works and finding content I didn't know existed.
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