Smith & Hawken: The Tool Book [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At first glance The Tool Book might look like a dry catalogue of various garden tools, but it's actually a fresh and inspiring history lesson. Author William Bryant Logan carefully intersperses his detailed descriptions of hoes, mattocks, tining forks, or pruning saws with short meditations on the tool's evolution. In a chapter entitled "Digging," he writes, "The growth of civilization paralleled the evolution of the spade and the shovel." Behind the book, there's a vision of humanity constantly forging new technology to more carefully and effortlessly shape the landscape.

Amateur gardeners will learn the vast differences between cheap and expensive tools. Clear explanations of the differences between "stamping" and "forging" metal tools, and how to tell the difference, will change your perspective the next time you go to make a purchase. You will also learn why some handles are short and others are long, and why corn husks with their pointed tips led to the invention of the trowel. To Logan's credit, he understands that gardeners arbitrarily love certain tools and hate others, and thus his descriptions are objective--his book more an orientation than a lesson in the "right" way to garden. Packed with photos, The Tool Book is an essential text for anyone facing the daunting task of creating and maintaining a garden. --Emily White --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Three hundred pages of garden tools may be overkill, but, nonetheless, here are 440 tools shown in 70 full-color photographic spreads. The chapters are organized by task: digging, cultivating, propagating, planting, cutting, watering, composting, lawn care, holding and hauling, and raking and sweeping. Shown, for example, are 26 types of shovels, 21 spades, 12 trowels, 16 hoes, 11 weeders, 18 hand pruners, 10 pruning saws, 24 forks, 21 hose accessories, 11 sprinklers, and 15 rakes. A chapter on clothing and protection tells gardeners what's hot in boots and shoes, gloves and hats, and shirts and jackets. Logan, a writer and arborist, explains how garden tools evolved (Hopi women used a pointed stick of pinon pine to plant corn seed), how to use each tool, and what to look for in buying a tool. Granted, no gardener needs all these tools, but Logan has taken a commonplace subject and made it engrossing. George Cohen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; First Edition edition (January 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761108556
• ISBN-13: 978-0761108559
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,130,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book for choosing garden tools, August 17, 2001

By	"reddahlia" (Forest Knolls, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tool Book: A Compendium of Over 500 Tools and How to Use Them (Paperback)

If you are a beginning gardener and don't know the difference between a shovel and a spade, or what to use them for, this book is immensely useful. It is certainly worth the price and the time it takes to browse through it to find and understand the exact tools you will need for your individual garden before you go out shopping. In addition to pages of full color pictures of each tool, it contains historic accounts regarding the tools and some nice quotes about gardening. After reading this book I felt like I understood garden tools, whereas prior to reading it, I just used tools in a haphazard way without understanding their purpose and how they could help me in the garden.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reference for Design, February 28, 2008

By	Leadster (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smith & Hawken: The Tool Book: A Compendium of Over 500 Tools for the Well-Tended Garden (Paperback)

I purchased this book for a design class where we were making gardening tools to get a better knowledge of the products, and let me tell you it was worth it. This book goes very in depth with not only how the tool is used but how it should be made and the "rituals" surrounding each tool. Also, although I'm not a gardener myself, I could see this book being an invaluable reference or even as a great guide to those just starting out in the gardening world.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly wonderful, July 15, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Göteborg, Sweden) - See all my reviews

A piece of art, fits the coffee table and yet is packed with valuable information