Hardware Cyclopedia [Paperback]

Steve Ettlinger (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cyclopedia | Publication Date: June 17, 2003

This classic bestseller is now available in a new, compact edition. Ever wonder about those bent-looking washers, or how to replace a pipe fitting correctly the first time? And why are there so many types of screwdrivers anyway? This comprehensive, portable guide (small enough to take along in a pocket while shopping) to absolutely everything sold in a hardware store empowers even the clueless to pick and choose knowledgeably among the unfamiliar-looking tools and devices. It's an essential manual and guidebook for anyone undertaking a home repair project. Featured throughout are practical tips on use, price, and technique, along with black-and-white line drawings to help identify products clearly.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Ettlinger is a book producer and president of Ettlinger Editorial Projects. He is the author of six books, and as an amateur, he has helped renovate and maintain six very old houses.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; Revised edition (June 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762414383
• ISBN-13: 978-0762414383
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,375,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Do-It-Yourself
  • #88 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Hand Tools

More About the Author

Since 1988 Steve Ettlinger has written seven books and has produced, edited, or agented a total of 40.

Steve specializes in explaining very common but complicated subjects in an entertaining way. His most popular book is about artificial food ingredients ("Twinkie, Deconstructed"); he gives presentations around the country about his work on this book. His first book, "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Everything Sold in Hardware Stores," has remained in print for well over 22 years and is now an e-book. Steve has appeared on all the morning network TV shows in the course of publishing his books.

For more information, or to see past TV interviews, please visit Steve's website, www.steveettlinger.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Small Wonder, December 9, 2003

By 

Bill Marsano (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hardware Cyclopedia (Paperback)

By Bill Marsano. Putting in a new faucet means taking out your old one, so you head off to the hardware store. So far, so good, but because you are an unrepentant sinner it is not Ace, the place with the helpful hardware man; neither is it, say, Home Depot, which has a pretty aggressive program of training its employees (they call 'em 'associates') so they will understand what you want even when you don't. Which is the case just now. You need that weird little tool with the sping-loaded half-claw gripper that works at right angles to the handle, and the clerk you're talking to breathes through his mouth, can't focus more than one eye at a time and can't think of anything to say except "If you don't see it on the shelf, we're out of it." (That, brothers, is the Official Lie of American retailing.)

Only then does the manager arrive. You start over and within 10 seconds he stops you and says, "Right--a basin wrench. Why didn't you say so?" And now you're the one who feels like a dope. As you would if you needed trammel points (or heads), a spud wrench, some castellated nuts or a box of pinch dogs.

Your house and workshop are full of such things or should be, but they aren't, so you have to go get them at the least convenient times from clerks singularly ill-equipped to assist you.

If you have this little book your life will be a lot easier, because you will be able to ask for things like angle stops, hawks, ballcocks and four-in-hand rasps with the ease of a pro. These item,s have thjeir strange and partoicular little names because they are partocular things. A pinch dog, for example, is not exactly the same as a pinch puppy. We started with a sink, remember? With this book you'll flip to Part VIII (plumbing stuff), flip past fixtures and fittings and pipes and valves until you come to implements of destruction, where sure enough between Plumbing Wrenches (p. 555) and Special Plumbing Tools (p. 571) you will find the basin wrench of your dreams, probably with a nice picture to help you out.

Same goes for all other areas of do-it-yourself house-damaging--walls and floors, electrics, windows and more.

All in all, you would think this is a very handy little book, but it's not. It is very useful and very helpful but not at all handy. In fact it's damned clumsy: It measures 4-1/4 by 5-1/2 inches and is about as thick as a brick. You can see that it isn't especially easy to flip through. Worse, the type and illustrations are commensurate with the page size, which means they're too small unless you're used to reading insurance contracts. OK, it's a good book--but if re-sized to the proportions of a standard paperback it would be terrific. Still, that's its only flaw.--Bill Marsano can drive a nail without hitting his thumb, but that's about it. What he's really good at is going to hardware stores on sale days.