Keep your tools in good order. You cannot do nice, fine, clean work with a dull tool. A sharp tool will make a clean cut, but a dull edge will tear or crush the fibres and not leave a clean-cut surface. You can work so much more easily and quickly as well as satisfactorily with sharp tools that the time it takes to keep them in order is much less than you lose in working with dull ones, not to speak of the waste of strength and temper.

I assume that you will not attempt to sharpen your tools yourselves until you have had considerable experience in using them; for sharpening tools (particularly saws and planes) is very hard for boys and amateurs, and not easy to learn from a book. So, until then, be sure to have them sharpened whenever they become dull. The expense is but slight, and it is much better to have fewer tools kept sharp than to spend the money for more tools and have them dull. When you get to the point of sharpening your tools, one lesson from a practical workman or even a little time spent in watching the operations (which you can do easily) will help you more than reading many pages from any book. So I advise you to get instruction in sharpening from some practical workman, - not at first, but after you have got quite handy with the tools. You can easily do this at little or no expense. For further points, see Sharpening, in Part V.

1 There are many reliable makers of tools. Among them the following can be named, and their tools can be obtained almost anywhere : Saws - Henry Disston. Chisels and gouges - Moulson Bros.; Buck Bros. Planes - Stanley ; Moulson Bros, (plane-irons) ; Wm. Butcher (do.); Buck Bros, (do.) Files- P. S. Stubs. Rules and squares, levels, gauges, spoke-shaves, etc. - Stanley Rule & Level Co. Braces - Barber. Bits - Jennings. Knives (sloid) - Taylor. Carving tools - Addis ; Buck ; Taylor.

It is a good plan to soak tool handles, mallets, and wooden planes, when new, for a week or so in raw linseed oil and then rub them with a soft rag every day or two for a while. If you use wooden planes give them a good soaking. They will absorb much oil and work more freely and smoothly. You can save tool handles from being split by pounding, by sawing the ends off square and fastening on two round disks of sole-leather in the way adopted by shoemakers. If there is any tendency to dampness in your shop the steel and iron parts of the tools should be greased with a little fat, - tallow, lard, wax, vaseline, - or some anti-rust preparation.