What got you in to working with hand tools?

[Mike Kelsey]

Maybe this has been asked before, if so tell me to go "search it':D. But another thread of mine got me to thinking about what the turning point was behind choosing to use hand tools and to what extent over power tools. I'm not talking about the pleasurable rewards/ experience ( no noise, intimacy with tools, wood, etc) but what the driving desire was. Was it something you just stumbled into & found yourself in hindsight using hand tools more & more? Did you try it as a challenge or have a mentor?

Inversely for me, I think starting with power tools became "training wheels in self-confidence" - my father had no hands-on skills, so my siblings & I didn't feel very competent working with our hands.

[Chris Griggs]

For me it started out as a simple matter of space and equipment. Even if I could afford to suddenly put together a full power tool shop, I have no real shop to put the tools in. I realized very quickly that in order to do the kind of work I wanted to do I would need to learn to do it by hand. Using hand tools allowed me to spread out purchases and get a tool that was best suited for the given task I needed to accomplish, and it also let me put together a pretty functional shop that takes up a less than 10x10 space.

Also, I figured by learning to do everything by hand, eventual power tool purchases would be decided out of what would help me to do my work faster/better, and not out of having no other way to do something.

(The love of hand tools and related esotera followed quite quickly I might add)

[Matt Radtke]

For me it started out as a simple matter of space and equipment. Even if I could afford to suddenly put together a full power tool shop, I have no real shop to put the tools in. I realized very quickly that in order to do the kind of work I wanted to do I would need to learn to do it by hand. Using hand tools allowed me to spread out purchases and get a tool that was best suited for the given task I needed to accomplish, and it also let me put together a pretty functional shop that takes up a less than 10x10 space.

What he said. I made a simple project with BORG lumber. It turned out okay, not great, mostly because of subtle problems with the lumber that required jointing to fix.

So I started looking at jointers and planers and very quickly realized I didn't have the space for their use. Also, SWMBO would have killed me because of the noise and dust they create in my basement shop. So I asked the dumb question, "What did they do before jointers and planers?"

I did it "backwards." I didn't buy a #4 because I hate sanding and then devolve into a full arsenal of planes. No, I didn't start with a dovetail saw because I didn't like my router and end up with a nest of saws. I started lusting after a #8 and a good fore because I needed to prep my lumber.

[Chris Griggs]

What he said. I made a simple project with BORG lumber. It turned out okay, not great, mostly because of subtle problems with the lumber that required jointing to fix.

So I started looking at jointers and planers and very quickly realized I didn't have the space for their use. Also, SWMBO would have killed me because of the noise and dust they create in my basement shop. So I asked the dumb question, "What did they do before jointers and planers?"

I did it "backwards." I didn't buy a #4 because I hate sanding and then devolve into a full arsenal of planes. No, I didn't start with a dovetail saw because I didn't like my router and end up with a nest of saws. I started lusting after a #8 and a good fore because I needed to prep my lumber.

Yep that was my progression to, although my first plane was actually a No 4, the first plane I remember wanting was a jointer. Identical situation - made a couple tables and really struggled to get good edge joints, looked at power jointers, quickly realized it wasn't going to happen, and so started researching and buying hand tools.

You do hear the whole,"got sick of sanding" thing a lot - I wonder if that is how most folks got into handtools or if thats just one of those things that's been said a lot for some reason. For me the only sanding that I was sick of was when I was trying to flatten and level my table tops with an ROS, once again the work of the jointer and foreplane, not the smoother.

[Dale Cruea]

I had a shop full of power tools. All setting in the corner now.
I had a project where the wood I had purchased was too wide to fit on my jointer. After I somehow got one side half flat I ran it through my planer.
After gluing the boards together I found it would not fit in planer.
I really wanted build this project for my grand daughter. I had a #3 hand plane from LN. I tried it but it was too small.
I was at a flea market and saw a Bedrock #7 for $25.00.
It was dead flat and had a good blade.

After I saw shavings coming off of that plane I was hooked on hand tools.
I finished that project and 2 more with hand planes because the wood would not fit my power tools.
Now I can buy what ever size lumber I want and it will not be too big to plane.

Several planes and too many saws later I put all of my power stuff in the corner and started building by hand.

I have to learn some stuff about hand tools but it is fun and relaxing.

[David Weaver]

Distaste for tool setup, and distaste for learning the quirks of inexpensive tools.

There are two types of tools I like to use - extremely expensive machine tools (because they precisely do exactly what you expect them to) and pretty much any hand tool that functions the way it's supposed to (fortunately that doesn't mean extremely expensive).

Using inferior power tools is a nuisance, and it corners you into building what you can build with the tools rather than building what you want to build.

In 3 years, I've turned a router on exactly two times. I felt with power tools like I was spending 90% of my time doing something I didn't want to do just to get it done, and 10% of the time enjoying some part of it.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Space, money, less space, and less money. Those are my four top reasons ;) Having found a couple of Grampa's tools got me curious. Finding that distant relatives (Baldwin planes) were toolmakers got me even more curious. I spend my work day in a shop, which is noisy (ever test a 60kW generator?). I'm sure in my small neighborhood my neighbors wouldn't appreciate firing up any powertools at 5 am. I am hooked on antiques as well, I enjoy searching for old tools, rehabbing them and putting them to use. I have learned as much about history by researching tools than I ever learned in school.

[Mike Holbrook]

I had not finished putting together a power tool shop when I started realizing I did not like the tools and in the case of the table saw and router was scared of them every time I turned them on. I got a Festool saw and stopped using the table saw, a part way step. Now I am working on a set of hand planes to replace the router. Six months ago I was thinking about buying a good router table & new table router. Once I got the wet up I wanted priced out I had to ask myself how many hand tools I could get for the same money. The table saw, router and power sanding equipment made such a mess I just did not want to use them. Like David said I want to spend more time doing the hand work that I enjoy.

[Archie England]

terrible, aweful, really bad results in sanding! Arrgh, I hate sanding because of all my terrible, really no good, bad results. So, sanding!

Now, the other reason is childhood memories of my granddad using handplanes, braces, and hand drills, along with axes, hatchets, etc., for making all manner of building and repair projects on the family farm. I use to play with his tools. Gosh, I wonder what happened to those old Millers Falls and Stanley tools we had. Only later in life did my dad realize that I had grown up using his tool chest, which he had built as a class project in school.

[Tony Zaffuto]

A quest for the best and fastest tool for the job. Many times it is a table saw, many times it is a handsaw. Can't see any job completed without tweaks from a handplane, no matter how much sanding you do. I have a complete series of Fray/Spofford, each set up with a center bit, one with a countersink and one with a straight screwdriver bit. Got a crapload of pushdrills, each with a different size bit. But sometimes, I still need to grab a powered drill or use the drill press. Cut a bunch of rabbets the other day with a handplane, quicker than I could have set up a dado blade in the table saw or set up a router table.

I've been messing with this stuff since the early seventies (not counting earlier years in my Dad's basement shop), and will be messing until I'm planted. It's a matter of efficiency!

[Dave Lehnert]

For years I used a belt sander to get my glue up panels flat. It took me forever, the panels were never flat, Sanding belts were expensive. etc..... I picked up a used hand plane at the flea market. took a glued up panel and made a few swipes. I thought "You got to be kidding me how easy this is" Unbelievable.
Also living 20 min from the Popular Woodworking shop with Chris Schwarz had a hand in it too. (Stealth gloat).215828215829215830

[matt swiderski]

I still use a lot of power tools. I like to use hand tools because sometimes its just quicker to bring out the hand planes then it is to get the power tools out. Plus I really like the look of the all the shavings an the floor and bench.
Matt

[Jim Matthews]

I read Anthony Guidice's book, which brought my revulsion of Norm Abram's expensive shop into focus.

I didn't make sense to spend $50,000 to build end tables. That text showed me how I could get started without the dedicated shop. Hand tools trade time for expense.
It actually works out to LESS time, as I would need to work several years to afford all the motorized stuff.

With hand tools, I'm building now.

[Bill White]

Roy Underhill, but don't tell him that I still use power as well.
Bill

[Robert Joseph]

My grandfather left me a wide variety of hand tools when he died and got me off the power tool bandwagon. Funny, but by the time I was born, he had given up woodworking and just kept everything in his attic. Didn't even know he had worked in that field until after he died. Would have been nice to learn from him.

[Van Huskey]

I am relatively new to using hand tools other than the basics to suppliment power tools, you kinda have to be able to use a chisel... SMC is what really began to pique my interest and seeing Tommy McDonald use them on Rough Cut even in a full powered shop really sealed the deal. I have no desire to become completely electric free or even use handtools 25% of the time but they really are a great compliment to my power tools.

[James Owen]

Top 8 Reasons for Migrating Away From Using Power Tools:

~ The expense of quality power tools;
~ The frustrations of lower-/lesser-quality power tools;
~ Total dislike of sanding;
~ Saw dust everywhere and in everything;
~ Screeching noise;
~ Spending more time making one-time-use jigs than actually building the piece of furniture;
~ Being restricted to what the power tool could do;
~ Trying (unsuccessfully!!!) to non-surgically remove fingers with a table saw one time too many (still have all 10 and all 10 still work as originally designed....it was time to quit while I was still ahead.....);

Top 13 Reasons for Migrating to Using Hand Tools:

~ Cost (partial reason -- some tools, LN hand planes, for example, are decidedly not inexpensive; on the other hand, a Sweetheart era #4 has to be one of the best deals ever.....);
~ The joy of using quality tools;
~ Hand planing;
~ Shavings;
~ Quiet;
~ The ability to shape wood in a very precise way -- .001" at a time, if desired or needed;
~ The ability to do things directly with hand tools that require jigs, etc., with power tools;
~ Flexibility;
~ The ability to use a handful of appliances in a number of ways to do a great variety of things;
~ Relative safety (for example, with a well-sharpened hand saw, you can certainly cut your finger pretty badly, but it's really, really hard to accidentally cut it off....);
~ Tradition;
~ Desire to do things the "old fashioned" way;
~ Roy Underhill and Chris Schwarz;
etc.....

[glenn bradley]

I use what gets the job done. Sometimes this is a power tool and sometimes it is a hand tool. Ratio has a lot to do with what I enjoy and what I don't. Ripping 40" of 8/4 walnut with a handsaw holds no romantic allure for me so I would use a tablesaw. A ROS leaves an unacceptable surface for me so I prefer planes, scrapers and shaves. Molding planes are cool but a properly setup router table will win with me every time. Likewise I rarely drill holes by hand when I can do it easier and faster with a small lithium drill motor. Contrary to that, I do drill holes by hand when delicacy is required and I favor a rasp over a large router bit so, there you have it (or don't) :D

[David Keller NC]

Hmm - Haven't seen this on the thread, but it's my reason:

One cannot make a reproduction of a piece of furniture or other wooden object from the age of handwork without using the tools and methods appropriate to the period. And my goal is to make pieces that are utterly indistinguishable from those made in the period, except for age.

The other reason I have has already been mentioned - power tools are often very limiting, and one winds up making pieces that are designed to be easily produced on the machines one has, rather than building the design as originally envisioned.

The last one is just a comment - I have a fully equipped power tool shop that I hardly every use unless I'm making multiples of utility things (like decking boards). And the total for a shop full of Delta stationary machines (and not the entry level ones, either) was far, far less than the monetary investment I've put into hand tools. I suspect that this is simply a measure of the enormous economies of scale that are available to the manufacturers of stationary power tools - there's a heck of a lot more metal in the DJ-20 jointer I have than went into the Norris smoother, but the expenditure was about the same.

[Joey Chavez]

My transtion transition to hand tools is only beginning, but I'm already hooked for life. A couple months ago my step father recalled that grandpa had cut down a walnut and cherry tree about 40 years ago and had thought some of the lumber was still sitting in the back of the antique shop that was sold off after grandpa died 15 years ago. So my dad called the guy and sure enough it was still sitting in the racks after all this time. The guy told me to take what I wanted for $75, and I ended up with a full truck of about 300 bd ft, 60% walnut, 40% cherry. I don't throw gloats out there but if I did, that would have been my first. Not to mention dad has several walnut logs laying around on the farm.

I've built up a nice collection of power tools over the last couple years and was ready to take on breaking down rough lumber. Then I realized had I known I'd start working with rough lumber I would have reconsidered the 6" jointer and the lunch box planer. I couldn't justify upgrading two tools that I've had less than a year, so I just had to deal with it and rip and glue when I needed wider than 6". Many of the projects I could see in the future would have 8 - 12 inch widths.

I wondered though, how tough could it be to flatten a wide board with a hand plane, I could at least avoid the larger expense of upgrading the power tools. I didn't get the neander group of woodworkers, I wondered how they could get anything done. So I saw this as a potential neccessary evil. My test was to blow the dust off the $10 Buck Bros. block plane I thought I could use at one time, but sat in the tool box because I had no clue about hand planes or how to use them. My studies began and I learned enough to get the $10 planed sharpened by hand on a cheap oil stone. No where near as sharp as it should be but sharp enough............

I clamped a small piece of that walnut edge up and took a swipe at it. In the second that it took to take that first shaving everything changed, I guess it was the sound of the cut and watching that thin shaving curl up over the top of the plane. The feeling I had that I was shaping the wood myself, rather than letting a machine do it. I got it, I got all the Neander talk, I understood the slippery slope, that neccessary evil became my preference, in literally one swipe of a cheap block plane on a 4 inch piece of walnut. Just one last test though, if I started flattening out a 4 foot slab of walnut with a little block plane, which I knew was not the right tool for the job, I would let myself start the slide down that slippery slope. I sharpened that iron the best I could and went to work, I hadn't even realized two hours went by and although I hadn't gotten far, my hands were sore, my arms were sore, and although it was cold in the garage I was sweating, but I had the most fun I have had since I started this woodworking hobby.

All the great advice I've researched in the Creek led me to the LV Low Angle Jack plane, a selection of diamond and water stones, and an MKII Honing Guide. I love them, I feel like my woodworking is taking on an entirely different life. That slab is not perfect, but I'm working on my technique and having fun doing it. Everything I have been working on, I've been looking for an excuse to pull out the jack plane and have discovered card scrapers too. My power tools have been moved to the corner to make room for the bench and more room around it. My Christmas list is all planes and chisels. I have my eyes set on a set of hand saws too. Although I bought a nice Leigh dovetail jig a couple months ago I find myself excited to learn how to cut dovetails by hand. And the bench that nearly tips over every time I use my plane, yeah I've been studying a Roubo build too. My machines aren't going anywhere, I need them for the grunt work. I can't remember the last time I was on the general woodworking forum. You never know where this hobby could take you.

[Mike Kelsey]

I found the comments (or should I say mini-stories) so far really fascinating. I haven't commented about my attraction to hand tools because I haven't built much with them, but then again learning set-up techniques are part of it. Making an cheap hand plane into a silk shaving machine was a thrill. I still ask my self what is this fascination about? Part of the answer, for me, I've found, in reading an intriguing book: Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford. Part of the premise is that there has been a disconnect between our hands, bodies and our minds ever since the industrial revolution.

Factory work as optimized by those like Henry Ford was the fait accompli - people became cogs in the wheel when it came to making/manufacturing things. Before mass "industrial" production craftsmen were hired not only for their tool skills but for their conceptual thinking, their signature of style.
Speaking of tool skill, I have noticed myself, the tactile feedback from hand tools which has no comparison with power tools. I like the precise cuts of the table-saw & I don't feel nervous around power tools ( I've been involved with heavy construction for 40 +years & the safety "sixth" sense kicks in automatically); but my focus is on making a safe cut first - out come second. With hand tools it's different - I control the RPM's of the saw - it's definitely a more relaxed approach (sure stupid things can still happen: Alfred E Newman - "What me worry":p).

As many of you have said production slows but pleasure increases. That is a kind of rebellion against our I-want-it-now-consumer-culture-so-I'll-settle-for-mass production crap. Christopher Schwarz talks about this in explaining word for the word the title of his book: The Anarchist's Tool Chest . Slowing down, getting in "touch", in a real sense, with what we're doing in the moment appears not to be practical, affordable when it comes to making a $$living, a sad fact. Oh well I think I'll go put on a 33 1/3 out-of-print record on the phonograph player in the mean time.......

[David Keller NC]

Mike - In general, you are right on the money when it comes to not having to think about safety with hand tools - it would be dang hard to remove a finger with a back saw. But as you get into hand tools, there is one exception that can very easily cause a more severe injury than power tools - a chisel or a carving gouge. What tends to happen is that folks that have used power tools for many years have an inadequate workholding appliance (i.e., a workbench). This doesn't matter all that much with power tools because one can hold the work with one hand and cut or rout with the other safely so long as there's sufficient separation between the work-holding hand and the power tool.

So one tends to think along these lines and holds the chisel or carving gouge by the tool's handle (first mistake - you hold it by the blade to limit the cut), holds the workpiece with the other hand (second mistake), and then slips with the tool and shoves it all the way through the off-hand (third mistake). The consequences are large - generally permanent nerve and/or muscle injury, or in the case of working alone in a shop without readily accessible emergency communication, shock from pain/blood loss and possible death.

Many that get into hand tools, as you've seen on this thread, do so to limit expenditures, and it can be a tough realization to understand that one needs to spend, at minimum, another $300 - $400 to build a proper bench to use the new $75 chisel set. But it is absolutely necessary, not just a nicety.

[Gordon Eyre]

Well believe it or not, it was this forum, Neanderthal, that got me started. I had a couple of planes that I never used and likewise some saws that were in poor shape and I went to work reconditioning them and things progressed from there. I found that my planes were a joy to use once they were reconditioned and ditto my Diston #12 saw. I bought a set of chisels and a good L.N. block plane and I was on my way. I still use power tools when it makes sense but more and more I find myself turning to hand tools for much of the work.

[Ron Bontz]

Oddly enough I was just out in the shop going down the line with my planes, all 20 of them, making fluffies. Wondering. I spent all day making noise with power tools, dust collector, etc. So I stopped and decided I would finally put that Jorgy vice I've had for almost a year on my work bench. Why? Just so I could clamp a 2 x 4 to my bench and plane away, tuning and sharpening my planes, comparing a Stanley iron to a Veritas and so forth. All with only the music in the back ground. The best couple of hours I've had all day. I wish I had started to get back to hand tools long ago. I think there is just something about using hand tools that transcends the every day grind. Does that make sense?

[John Coloccia]

I got tired of making templates and jigs for everything I did.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I got tired of making templates and jigs for everything I did.


Bingo, that one.

Handplanes get a lot of love, but this is the thing that made it stick for me.

Hand sawing and trimming can be so damn liberating. Once you learn to saw to a line life becomes magical. I make cuts that I have no idea how I would jig up and do safely with power equipment.

A I just grew to hate pattern routing. I'd rather be a little bit off of my ideal line, but with smooth and fair curves from a shave, than almost perfect with a pattern router if I can only find that chunk that blew off in the pile of dust and glue it back on. Actually, getting away from the router was the other reason I began to focus on handtools - it just wasn't much fun anymore. Although sometimes I wish I had kept it, not too often.

[harry strasil]

I guess you could say I was born using hand tools, I started my blacksmith apprenticeship at age 7 in 1951, and I started out repairing wooden wagon wheels using my grandfathers hand tools. He passed away before I was born, but my father and uncle still used a lot of his tools in their business. My Dad was on the frugal (tight) side, so most of the toys I had, I made from scraps from the lumberyard across the street and scraps of iron from our smithing shop.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to ALL.

[Tom Vanzant]

It's hot in Houston for 7-10 months of the year, and earmuffs and facemasks don't make it any cooler. My power tools are parked in the corner, used only to rough out material, and I utilize hand tools for the rest of the work. I can cut and shape with hand tools all those shapes that were a pain to do with power tools, and I do not miss the noise and sawdust. As others have said, it's nice to have music in the background. After military service and fifty-odd years of rifle and pistol competition, I am trying to keep that part of my hearing that I have... hand tools are the way.