A good way to understand hand tools, is to look at what was available before the advent of power tools, to see what craftsmen had available to them 100 years ago. If you’re getting into hand tools, this is a must.
This book "Information on Stanley, Catalogue No. 34" is just that, these are the tools that our forefathers had to use. With them, many amazing creations were crafted. Their processes were vastly different than they are now with the current range of tools available.
When a manufacturer now creates a new hand tool, they often refer to publications like this, and even the real article if it is available. After all, why reinvent what has proven to work in the past?
This book has detailed pictures of each tool, exploded diagrams, materials used and a good description explaining the use of each tool. For the tool collector, this is possibly one of the best guides to use as a reference.
The catalogue is based on tools available in 1914, what we are looking at is pretty much as it was when it was printed in the early 20th century, only the printing process has changed, and the paper quality has improved.