Section 1: Cutting & Shaping Tools

Cutting and shaping tools are designed to sever, carve, shape, smooth, or remove material from a workpiece. This category encompasses a wide range of implements used across trades like woodworking, metalworking, electrical work, plumbing, and general construction, each adapted to specific materials and precision requirements.

Hand Saw

Saws:

Tools with toothed blades for cutting materials, primarily wood, metal, or plastic. The design of the saw, particularly its teeth, determines the type of cut and the material it handles most effectively.

  • Hand Saw (Panel Saw): General term for saws used for cutting wood. Panel saws are technically smaller versions.
    • Rip Saw: Designed for cutting wood along (parallel to) the grain. Features larger, chisel-shaped teeth optimized for efficient cutting on the forward stroke. Typically around points per inch (ppi).
    • Crosscut Saw: Designed for cutting wood across the grain. Features smaller, knife-like teeth that score and sever wood fibers, often cutting on both push and pull strokes. Typically around 8-12 ppi.
Backsaw

  • Backsaw: Saw with a reinforced spine along the back edge, providing rigidity for more accurate cuts, often used for joinery. Includes tenon, dovetail, and carcass saws.
    • Tenon Saw: Larger backsaw used for cutting tenons and larger joints. Often rip-filed, around 10 ppi.
    • Dovetail Saw: Small backsaw with very fine teeth (14-18 ppi), typically rip-filed, used for cutting fine joints like dovetails.
    • Carcass Saw: Medium-sized backsaw, usually crosscut-filed (around 12 ppi), used for precise crosscuts in joinery.

Coping Saw
  • Coping Saw: Saw with a very thin, narrow blade held in a U-shaped frame, used for making intricate curved cuts or removing waste from joints like dovetails.

Hacksaw

  • Hacksaw: Saw with a fine-toothed blade held under tension in a frame, primarily used for cutting metal (like pipes, rods, bolts) but also effective on plastic. Blades are replaceable and come in different TPI (Teeth Per Inch) counts; lower TPI for thicker materials, higher TPI for thinner materials and cleaner cuts.
Jab Saw

  • Jab Saw (Keyhole Saw / Plasterboard Saw / Drywall Saw): Saw with a pointed blade extending from a handle, used for piercing soft materials like drywall or plasterboard and cutting holes for outlets, pipes, etc.

Pruning Saw

  • Pruning Saw: Saw with coarse teeth designed for cutting tree branches and shrubs, available in various sizes, including folding models.
  • Piercing Saw: Similar to a jeweler's saw, with a very fine blade in a frame, used for intricate cutting in metalworking.

Knives

Knives:

Single-bladed cutting tools used for slicing, trimming, carving, or scoring.


Utility Knife


  • Utility Knife (Box Cutter / Stanley Knife): Versatile knife with a replaceable or retractable blade, used for general cutting tasks like opening boxes, cutting cord, trimming materials, scoring plasterboard, or sharpening pencils. Fixed, retractable, and folding versions exist. Some convert to scrapers.
Putty Knife


  • Putty Knife: Tool with a broad, flat, flexible blade used for applying and smoothing putty, filler, or scraping surfaces. Rigid scraper versions also exist.
  • Hori Hori Knife (Soil Knife / Weeding Knife): Japanese gardening tool with a heavy blade, often serrated on one edge and concave, used for digging, planting, weeding, cutting roots, and transplanting. Highly versatile.
  • Marking Knife:Used for precise layout lines in woodworking.
  • Electrician's Knife: Specialized utility knife often with features suited for cable stripping.

Chisels:

Tools with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (bevel) on the end of a blade, used for carving, cutting, or shaping hard materials like wood, stone, or metal, often struck with a hammer or mallet.

  • Wood Chisel: Used for cutting, paring, chopping, and shaping wood. Common types include:
    • Bench Chisel: General purpose woodworking chisel, often bevel-edged. Standard set might include 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1" sizes.
    • Bevel Edged Chisel: Sides are beveled, allowing access into corners like dovetails.
    • Mortise Chisel: Thick, strong chisel designed for heavy chopping to remove waste when creating mortise joints. Often requires a mallet.
    • Paring Chisel: Longer, thinner blade used for delicate shaving and finishing cuts, typically pushed by hand rather than struck. Wide paring chisels (1.5-2") are very useful.
    • Firmer Chisel: Sturdier chisel with a rectangular cross-section, used for general purpose and light chopping.
  • Cold Chisel: Chisel made of hardened steel for cutting or shaping cold metal (not heated in a forge).1 Struck with a hammer. Various tip shapes exist (flat, cape, round nose).
  • Masonry Chisel: Heavy-duty chisel for cutting or shaping brick, stone, or concrete. (Common type).

Planes:

Woodworking tools used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, impart a smooth surface to, or shape wood by shaving material off with a cutting blade (iron).

  • Bench Plane (General): Standard category of planes used for dimensioning and surfacing lumber. Sizes are numbered (e.g., No. 4, No. 5, No. 7).
    • Scrub Plane: Used for rapid removal of large amounts of wood, often across the grain, to quickly reduce thickness. Features a narrow body and a heavily cambered (curved) blade. A No. 5 Jack plane can be set up as a scrub plane.
    • Jack Plane (No. 5): Versatile, medium-sized bench plane (11-15" long) used for initial flattening, jointing shorter boards, or rough stock removal (when cambered). Often recommended as a first plane. Low-angle versions are also popular.
    • Jointer Plane (No. 7 or No. 8): Longest bench plane (22-28" long) used for flattening long boards and accurately straightening ('jointing') edges for glue-ups. The long sole bridges low spots, ensuring flatness.
    • Fore Plane (No. 6): Size between a Jack and Jointer (18" long), used for flattening and jointing medium-length boards.
    • Smoothing Plane (No. 4 or No. 4 1/2): Shorter bench plane (6-10" long) used for the final smoothing pass on a surface, creating a fine finish. Set for a very thin shaving.
  • Block Plane: Small plane, typically held in one hand, used for trimming end grain, chamfering edges, and light smoothing tasks. Often has the blade set at a low angle (bevel up).
  • Router Plane: Specialized plane used to cut grooves (dadoes, rabbets) or trim tenon shoulders to a precise, consistent depth relative to a reference surface. Very versatile for joinery.
  • Shoulder Plane: Plane with a blade extending to the full width of the body, used for trimming the shoulders and cheeks of tenons and other joints. (Woodworking specific).
  • Spokeshave: Plane with a short sole and side handles, used for shaping curved surfaces like spokes or chair legs. (Woodworking specific).

Files & Rasps:

Tools with hardened steel surfaces covered in cutting teeth, used for smoothing, shaping, sharpening, or removing small amounts of material (metal, wood, plastic) through abrasion.1 Classified by shape, length, cut (tooth pattern), and coarseness.

  • File: Generally has finer teeth than a rasp, used for smoothing metal or wood, sharpening tools, or refining shapes.
    • Flat File: Rectangular cross-section, for general filing of flat surfaces.
    • Round File (Rat-tail File): Circular cross-section, for enlarging holes or filing concave curves.
    • Half-Round File: One flat face, one curved face, versatile for flat surfaces and curves.
    • Triangular File (Three-Square File): Triangular cross-section, used for filing angles, corners, or sharpening saw teeth.
  • Needle File Set: Set of small files in various shapes for fine, detailed work.
  • Rasp: Has coarse, individually formed teeth, used for rapidly removing wood or other soft materials, leaving a rougher surface than a file.5 Often used in shaping wood.

Snips & Shears:

Scissor-like tools designed for cutting sheet metal, wire, or other materials.

  • Tin Snips (Tinner's Snips): Traditional snips with long handles and short blades, used for making straight cuts in thin sheet metal like tin, aluminum, or mild steel.
  • Aviation Snips (Compound Action Snips): Use a compound leverage mechanism for easier cutting of tougher or thicker sheet metal (up to ~18 gauge steel). Often color-coded handles indicate cut direction (straight, left curve, right curve).
  • Shears (Hand Shears / Bench Shears): Larger, heavier-duty cutters for sheet metal, often bench-mounted for leverage. Power shears also exist.
  • Bolt Cutters: Heavy-duty cutters with compound hinges providing high leverage for cutting through bolts, chains, padlocks, rebar, and thick wire.
  • Cable Cutters (Heavy Duty): Designed specifically for cutting thick electrical cables cleanly without crushing the conductors. Often insulated. Power versions exist.
  • Wire Strippers: (Also see Fastening Tools) Primarily used to remove insulation from electrical wires, but most also include cutting jaws. Automatic versions adjust to wire gauge.
  • Scissors (General / Garden): Basic tool for cutting paper, fabric, string, or thin materials. Garden scissors/snips are used for light pruning, harvesting, deadheading. Electrician's scissors are robust for cutting wires/cable.
  • Pruning Shears (Secateurs / Hand Pruners): Handheld shears for cutting plant stems and small branches (up to ~3/4 inch).
    • Bypass Pruners: Two curved blades pass each other like scissors, making a clean cut ideal for live wood.
    • Anvil Pruners: Sharp blade closes onto a flat surface (anvil), better for dead wood but can crush live stems. Ratcheting versions increase cutting power.
  • Loppers: Long-handled pruners providing leverage to cut thicker branches (up to ~1-2 inches) or reach higher areas. Available in bypass and anvil types.
  • Hedge Shears: Large shears with long blades, operated with two hands, for trimming hedges and shrubs. (Gardening specific).
  • Grass Shears: Handheld shears for trimming grass in areas a mower can't reach. (Gardening specific).

Specialty Cutting/Shaping Tools:

  • Deburring Tool: Used to remove burrs (rough edges) left after cutting or drilling metal or plastic pipe. Reaming tools enlarge holes.
  • Glass Cutter: Tool with a small, hard wheel (often carbide or diamond) used to score glass so it can be broken cleanly along the line. (Specialized tool).
  • Pipe Cutter (Tubing Cutter): Tool that clamps onto a pipe (copper, brass, aluminum, plastic) and uses a sharp wheel to cut it cleanly as the tool is rotated around the pipe. Ratcheting versions exist for tighter spaces. Internal PVC cutters are also available.
  • Nibbler: Tool (hand or power) that cuts sheet metal by taking small overlapping "bites," allowing for curved or intricate cuts without distorting the metal.
  • Hand Scraper: Tool with a blade used for removing paint, adhesive, gaskets, or smoothing surfaces. Blades can be metal or plastic. Some utility knives convert to scrapers.

    The effectiveness of cutting and shaping tools often depends on the sharpness of their edge. Maintaining sharp blades on saws, knives, chisels, planes, and pruners not only improves performance but also enhances safety, as dull tools require more force and are more likely to slip. Furthermore, the choice of tool is heavily dictated by the material being worked; a wood chisel will be damaged if used on metal , and a hacksaw is needed for metal pipes where a wood saw would be ineffective. Precision requirements also guide tool selection, from rough shaping with a rasp to fine finishing with a smoothing plane or needle files.