A tool whose prime mover in operation is the human hand: an implement whose graspable form and working end are shaped so that the hand alone — by grip, strike, twist, or motion — applies the force, motion, or precision the task requires. Its parameters are: (1) a hand-scaled form (handle, shank, or body sized for the human hand to grip directly), (2) a working end (blade, tip, bit, jaw, striking face) shaped for a specific task, (3) a hand-amplification relation in which the implement redirects, concentrates, or multiplies the hand's force or precision — the handle as lever, the bit as torque converter, the blade as edge concentrator. A screwdriver is a hand tool when gripped and turned by hand; the same object is a power tool when a motor drives the bit — the category tracks the mode of operation, not the object, so the kind is stable across substrate changes.
Persistence mechanism: the hand-tool form persists through re-manufacture and through transmitted grip knowledge. How to hold a handle, strike a chisel, or swing a hoe is embodied in the training of each practitioner, and the object is re-made to fit that training generation after generation. From chipped flint hand axes to ratcheting ergonomic drivers, the kind survives every substrate (stone, wood, bronze, steel, polymer) because the human hand remains the prime mover it is built around.
[instrumentum manuum | matter | as-long-as-us | false | 0.41]