#HTE

Tools & Craft #105: The Proper Grip for Hand Tools

Sometimes at tool shows, people pick up one or more of our Gramercy saws and suggest that the handles were too small. While I am sure there are people for which our handles are too small, a lot of times the problem is the grip the person was using on the tool.

The correct grip for handsaws, planes, and most tools is a three fingered grip with the index finger pointing straight out in the direction of the cut.

There are two reasons for this: If you use a tool like a saw or a plane with all four fingers wrapped around the handle, the tendency will be to grip tighter and tighter. Tools don’t need to be held so tight and the stronger the grip the less control you will have, and more importantly, your hand will tire faster and possibly cramp up. With the index finger extended you can’t grip anything in a death grip, so it becomes a much more comfortable grip which is less tiring with greater control. In addition by pointing your index finger you get a certain consistency in the direction you are working - which makes it easier to cut accurately, and the tool can’t rotate in your hand (which it can do with a four fingered grip - which makes you want to hold it even tighter).

Consequently handles are traditionally sized so that a three fingered grip feels comfortable and a four fingered grip feels crowded.

When you extend your index finger on metal bevel-down planes, rest your finger along the side of the frog, this allows you to relax. One of my biggest complaints about bevel-up planes is they have no frog, so there is no comfortable place to rest your index finger, and consequently all four fingers hold the handle in a tiring death grip.

Try it, you will like it.

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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.