Pliers are designed to provide a mechanical advantage, allowing the force of the hand's grip to be amplified and focused with precision. Pliers also allow finer control over objects that are too small to be manipulated by the fingers alone. The standard configuration is combination pliers which provide a fixed maximum jaw width. Other styles include adjustable joint pliers that allow selecting jaw width, needle nose pliers for holding small objects in tight spaces and locking pliers that will lock in place to hold or clamp objects together.

The most common striking tool is the hammer and the most common variety of hammer is the claw hammer. The claw hammer has two ends, one to drive nails and one to remove nails. Ball-peen hammers replace the claw with a rounded end that's used to round off the edges of metal pins and make gaskets.

The joint created by welding is as strong or stronger than the original metal.

Rulers are used to both measure distance and to draw straight lines. Tape measures are flexible rulers useful for measuring longer distances and in tighter spaces. Rulers and tape measures provide similarly accurate measurements.

A Class 8 bolt is made of very hard metal and larger TPI saw blades are most appropriate for very hard metals.