There is still left not only in the Manual Training systems but also in some of the Sloyd systems, a trace from the past in the notion that children should be forced to accomplish their wood work by means of as few and as old-fashioned tools as possible. That idea hangs on, and has wrongly been brought into the classroom from that time when wood work was no school subject, but simple a trade, contrived for the acquiring of a livelihood, which was meager enough to prevent the purchase of new and improved tools of various sorts. And one can still behold tools of a very old-fashioned and inappropriate style used in the Manual Training departments of schools, where it never for a moment would occur - say to the teacher of penmanship - to train the pupils of to-day to use the feather pen of grandfather's time.

By using only a few and imperfect tools the pupils will become automatical and slow, not only at the wood work, but in their perception at large; while a great variety of tools, which are up to date, will quicken and sharpen their faculties of discrimination and observation with regard to the best means of gaining a desired purpose.

The great objection to letting little children under ten begin with wood Sloyd has been the danger of the sharp tools in a child's hand. If there is any real danger, then it comes especially from the knife. I mean the genuine Sloyd knife, not the pocket knife, which should be entirely abolished from the Sloyd room.

The knife is beyond question the best educational medium amongst all the tools, because it is the least mechanical of them all and hence requires the greatest individual attention and by that develops the accuracy and the self-judgment of the child. The real educational influence caused by the use of the knife can not be fully replaced by any joint action of different other tools. Yet I hesitate to let little children use that sharply pointed tool, and suggest substituting for it a knife with two handles, a kind of a small drawing knife. That knife can also in many cases replace the spoke shave, Which is a very mechanical tool, because the child can not see the cut that is made, and only has to take the strokes by chance. For the same reason I often prefer in a child's hand the straight cabinet scraper to the smoothing plane. In the following Sloyd series the saws have a predominant place as producing tools.

To children should be given tools only of the best kind of material. For here comes in the same comment that was made concerning too fragile wood. And compasses, marking - and mortise - gauges, try squares, bevels and rulers should be graded ones.

In order to secure tools of good quality, it should be observed at the purchase that the name of the maker is on all the tools.

The handle of the tools should not be polished; if they are, the polish should be rubbed off with sandpaper. Polished handles slip from the hand so easily, and the pupils might hurt themselves or each other in that way.

For cleansing the tools vaseline is much preferable to linseed oil, because of being volatile, so if some spots of it should happen to come on the wood, it will evaporate within a very short space of time.

Tools which the pupils are in constant need of, should stay on the work benches; but tools which are not frequently used are to be kept on special tool shelves. It is important to observe that these tool shelves should be detached from the walls of the Sloyd room. For the walls are as a rule more or less damp, and the shelves will, if placed close to the walls, absorb the dampness, thus causing the tools to contract rust.

As Sloyd is a comparatively new school subject, the terminology of it is not settled as yet. There exists a great difference in the terms accepted by different systems and used at different Sloyd schools. This concerns especially the names of the tools. One can find the same tool called by quite different and often even contrary names in the different schools. And with no one of the tools is the confusion more puzzling than with all the sundry names that are bestowed upon the saws.