The Complete Illustrated Guide to Everything Sold in Hardware Stores

When I opened this book I was not only surprised but very impressed. Packed with easy to understand descriptions, instructions and images- this book is exactly what I never knew I needed. It would make a Great gift for any DIY'er, homeowner, or curious consumer. Thank you Mr. Ettlinger for writing such a gem.

This is a great reference book. Before I had it a week, I had solved some mysteries about pieces and parts of stuff...and where to buy them, and what they looked like! Of course, sometimes it's fun to just graze through the book and find all sorts of items you didn't know existed. If you're into home repair, or home improvement, this gem is a great addition to your how-to collection.

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.

If what we've lost in the move from small neighborhood hardware stores to "big box" home centers is help and advice, this book is a wonderful substitute. Describes in just enough detail all the gadgets, tools, and other "stuff" that one needs in completing home fix-up projects. No, it won't tell you how to build a deck. This book will, though, be thoroughly helpful in explaining everything that you'll use to do it.

This book is beautifully written and illustrated, but the neat format makes it an easy, really usable reference and that makes it outstanding. This book came out quite a few years ago, but now this updated paperback version is so much better! There are so many puzzling things in home and hardware stores, and knowing what you need and what to do with it -- and incidentally, what NOT to buy -- is a terrific help. It was good in its original version, and this is better. Good for the woman who needs to maintain her home by herself and is unfamiliar with many tools and methods. Excellent!

The first "Complete etc." was the best advice, guide, help of any of this genre for the do-it-yourselfer, so this updated version is long overdue and very welcome. The illustrations are fascinating; descriptions clear, but best of all is the genuine assistance the book offers for using the particular tool -- and why to buy it. Just so much better then comparable books of the same type!