Toolmanship

Toolmanship: Your Complete Guide to Wrenches

by Brett

It’s been three years since the last post, but welcome back to our Toolmanship series! The goal of this series is to teach the very basics of tool use to those men who never got around to learning how to be handy when they were growing up. In this edition, we turn our attention to [...]

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Strong, Durable, Collapsible, and Versatile: How to Build a Better Sawhorse

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editors Note: This is a guest post by Ethan Hagan from One Project Closer. Check out some of his other manly contributions to AoM like repairing drywall and building a workbench. As I continue to expand my workshop, I quickly discovered the need for some good sawhorses. Sawhorses are great for setting up a temporary [...]

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How to Restore an Heirloom Axe

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Josh Tucker. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” –Abraham Lincoln Whether Honest Abe used his axe as a potent metaphor to illustrate the primacy of preparation or as his trusted weapon in a covert [...]

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The Walt Kowalski Toolbox

by Brett & Kate McKay

“Take these three items right here. You can have this. WD-40, vise grips, and some duct tape. Any man worth his salt can do half the household chores with just those three things.” -Walt Kowalski The other day I sat down to watch Gran Torino for the first time, and boy was it awesome. While [...]

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How to Build a Quick and Easy Sawhorse

by Brett

A few months ago, Craftsman flew me up to Chicago to visit their Craftsman Experience shop for a blogger summit. (If you’re ever in Chicago, I definitely recommend stopping by the Craftsman Experience and checking it out. It’s free and open to the public.) I spent the day playing with tools and learning how to build [...]

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Sharpen Up! Basic Essentials of Sharpening Your Edged Tools

by Darren Bush

This post is part of a series brought to you by RAM. For more information about RAM Series trucks visit us at: http://www.ramtrucks.com/en/guts_and_glory/. What’s this?I think sharpening edged tools is one of the more useful outdoor skills, and it has a glorious payoff in the home as well. The good news is that it’s no longer a Black Art practiced only by shamans and mountain men who eat only bear meat. The old days of nothing but Arkansas stones and a little luck are over. You don’t need to know anything, you just need the right equipment.

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Four Essential Power Tools

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Marc Lyman of HomeFixated.com. Tools. They are what separate most of us from the animal kingdom. For a species that started off chipping rocks into spearheads, we’ve come a long way. Even post-Neanderthal era, building just about anything revolved around hand (not power) tools. As your manly [...]

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How to Fell a Tree

by Brett & Kate McKay

A few years ago, AoM reader Will shared his tips on how to split firewood. Great advice, but where do you get those small logs to split in the first place? You can buy logs, but a man heads into the forest to get them at their source. It’s a manly job that requires you [...]

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Toolmanship: How to Use a Screwdriver

by Brett & Kate McKay

Share Today we return to our series called Toolmanship. The goal of this series is to pass on the basics of tool use to a generation of men who never got around to learning how to be handy. In this edition, we turn our attention to the lowly hand screwdriver. We’ll take a look at [...]

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Toolmanship: How to Use a Handsaw

by Brett & Kate McKay

Share Today we return to our monthly series called Toolmanship. The goal of this series is to pass on the basics of tool use to a generation of men who never got around to learning how to be handy. In this edition, we take a look at how to properly use a handsaw. We’ll give [...]

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Toolmanship Basics: How to Handle a Hammer

by Brett & Kate McKay

A lot of men today are clueless when it comes to tools. The increased affluence of the past 50 years led many men to outsource handyman work instead of doing repairs and home improvement themselves. And let’s face it. Men today can be pretty darn lazy. They’d rather play their Xboxes than work on building something with [...]

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How To Sharpen a Pocket Knife

by Brett & Kate McKay

About a year ago, we wrote an article on why every man should carry a pocket knife. A lot of you out there agreed that the pocket knife deserves a permanent place in every man’s pocket. After we wrote the post, we started getting emails from men who were first time pocket knife owners asking [...]

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12 Tools Every Man Should Have in His Toolbox

by Brett

Your girlfriend needs help putting some furniture together. Your wife asks you to install a ceiling fan. Your kid needs her bike fixed. Of course you have the tools to take on these jobs, right? For many younger men these days, owning a well equipped toolbox is something that only their dads do. Often when [...]

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