Author Describes Hand Tools With Near Reverence

BOOKS

The truly dedicated craftsman doesn’t merely like his tools, he’s practically wild about them. Author Garrett Hack is one of those guys, having written frequently about how important these implements are not only to his work, but also to his life.

His latest ode is “Classic Hand Tools” ($35, Taunton Books, 1999), which considers tools as nothing less than art objects. The author devotes chapters to hammers, chisels, planes, scrapers, measuring tools and saws and discusses their beauty and history. Photographer John Sheldon seems just as enamored as Hack, and his up-close photography gives a detailed look at these pieces.

Hack includes sidebars on how to restore (and use) antique tools and explains ways to protect them. The book offers no-nonsense info on which tools, new or old, are best for what projects. Hack dwells on getting the most out of your tools, whether you want to sit back and admire or actually put them to work.

Taunton also recently came out with a softcover version of Hack’s earlier book, “The Handplane Book” ($25), which dedicates more than 260 pages and 175 photos to this toolshed standby.

THE WEB: Ponder These Backyard Sites

It’s called pondering and has nothing to do with sitting around thinking big thoughts. Pondering involves gazing at your backyard and envisioning a pond, then building it. The last step, for the true ponder, is creating a Web site and inviting everybody to drop by.

Some take great steps to show just how their ponds came to be, with pages and pages of detailed drawings and in-progress photos. Others just explain why their ponds are the centerpieces of the best place on the planet and then present dozens of photos to back up the claim. Some of the sites are primitive, others more complex and beautiful.

One of the more elaborate (and, frankly, a little bizarre) is the Amazing Waterlily Cam! (https://h2olily.rain.com/cam.html), which lets you take a look at a pond in Oregon in real time. If it’s still too static for you, there are audio files of frogs that can be clicked to enliven things.

Here are a few of the dozens of pond sites:

* Welcome to Pam’s Puddle!: Wildlife and Water Gardening (https://www.viagrafix.net /pingle/puddle.htm)

* Jordon’s Pond Project (https://www .viagrafix.net/pingle/jordon.htm)

* Trey and Jacque’s Pond Page (https://www .geocities.com/PicketFence/Street/1229/)

* Murphy’s Fish in a Barrel (https://www.well .com/user /gjmurphy/pondintro.htm)

* John the Pond Boy (https://home.att.net /~wb5tht/pages/pond.html)

* Shubun’s Pond (https://members.aol.com /Shubun/pond.html).

* To have a book or Web site considered for this column, send information to: Home Design, The Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Mark Chalon Smith also can be reached by e-mail at mark.smith @latimes.com.