How to become a Neander

[Bobby O'Neal]

What is your story? Do you start out as a hybrid type like me and eventually find your way across the line? Initial buy in price? Dust and danger dislikes?

I find more and more better uses for hand tools all the time. Who knows where this could lead...

[Brian Kent]

I saw Frank Klausz do a dovetail joint. I was hooked.

I love seeing something that I can't picture doing, and then learning to do it.

[Bobby O'Neal]

I saw Frank Klausz do a dovetail joint. I was hooked.

I love seeing something that I can't picture doing, and then learning to do it.

Very true, Brian.

[Zach Dillinger]

Started with the common power tools. Decided I hated the noise and dust. I realized that I can't replicate the work of the past using the technology of today. That, and sticking the end of my right pinky into a spinning router (don't ask... no permanent damage) sealed it. I got rid of all of my power tools and I haven't used one in years (excepting a drill for home improvement stuff and a powered grinder for sharpening). All hand tools here, no hybrid stuff.

[Jamie Bacon]

I started out as a power tool woodworker when I was about 18, influenced by the guy in the flannel shirt on tv every Saturday. Worked that way for quite a few years until about 4 or 5 years ago I started to transition into the hand tools, inspired by the guys at the Anthony Hay shop in Williamsburg, my love of history and traditional ways, and Roy Underhill. I just get so much more of a sense of accomplishment in doing something with traditional hand tools. And I don't miss the noise and dust of the power tools.

[Jim Koepke]

My wife and I wanted some chairs for the back yard.

I had a saw, hammer, electric drill and mostly tools for automotive and electronics work.

The bug bit me.

I do have some electric tools, but mostly do not like the noise. Working swing shift also had me in the shop late after work.

After figuring out how to make a hand plane work my use of sand paper is way down.

Different people may have different ideas about what being a neander woodworker entails. If it is only using human powered tools, then it cuts me out of the league. I like my bandsaw, wimpy though it may be. The drill press and the lathe are also going to stay. The router, scroll saw, circular saw and sanders I would be happy to get rid of, but my wife might not like that.

jtk

[Mike Kelsey]

As a newbie, I asked the same question here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?177669-What-got-you-in-to-working-with-hand-tools

What really drove me toward hand-tools I think ultimately, is slowing down. (Disclaimer still use power tools but only if I have an "excuse". Right now I'm in the process of building Schwartz's saw bench - spent the whole day planing the 8 legs to 2 true flat 90 degree surfaces. I cross cut all the pieces to length with handsaws; I cheated & ripped them with my table saw to width. (If I was retired I would have used handsaws for that also - there’s always the clock, the end of the weekend, etc to contend with for so many of us).But you can learn so much about “working with the wood” as well as yourself, your sense of patience, & your degree of how “good is good enough”. While using the hand plane LN #8 I kept adjusting my hand holding the leading edge, as a fence, till I understood how to adjust for a 90 degree planning surface. I watch the plane shavings; I lean to one side or another to take a high edge down. I check the edges for flatness and right angle & finally get there……

With power tools I would have expected all this to happen automatically. My measure would have been something like: “look how much I got done today” rather than what did I discover, what did I learn about my skill level, about my sense of accomplishment...

I’m not saying anything to most of you who know this innately but rebelling against time I found to be healthy, with the right attitude and a satisfaction in doing it “by hand” as unmatched.

[Eric Brown]

I find that hand tools makes me slow down and think more. Fewer mistakes. It's also provides a higher satisfaction than power tools ever have. Like others, I too have a bandsaw, drill press, etc. but they are best on repetitive tasks. I don't like the noise or dust of power tools. Now if I could just find an Excelsior machine to turn the scaps into something useful.

Enjoy. Eric

[Joey Chavez]

For me it was when I found myself having buyers remorse when I realized my newer 6" jointer was too small for some of the work I wanted to do, and not having the amount of time in the shop that I wish I had, ripping and gluing 6 inch boards was not what I wanted to do. My choices were to buy a larger jointer (couldn't justify that), build a large sled for the planer (made a small version to test, didn't like that either), deal with it (no), or learn how to face plane a large board with a hand plane. Research on the Creek, watching Roy Underhill got it started. It was more for neccessity to save money. I sharpened the iron of a $10 block plane that I had never used, took one swipe of the edge of a small piece of scrap and the rest is history. The sound of the cut, the shaving coming over the top. Seriously one swipe changed my entire view of woodworking. WIthin two weeks my little bench was the center or the shop, all power tools rolled to the corners. 6 months later I "feel" like I am Lee Valley's best customer. The entire process is more rewarding with hand tools.

[Bryan Schwerer]

I'll start off by saying I'm not one to deny anybody a right to make a living. I understand why professionals and manufacturers use power tools because they need to optimize their time. As a hobbyist, I have no reason to do so.

I had limited space/funds. Being a lefty, a lot of the big power tools were optimized for righties and they never felt natural to use. There's a couple of hand tools that are optimized for righties, but a Stanley hand plane and Disston saw are pretty much ambidextrous.

Although he had a table saw, my father had a few old hand planes from the 30's that I always liked. One thing that struck me was my father could operate a circular saw in a closed garage without being bothered by the noise, I had to leave. He needed a hearing aid by the time he was 65.

The commercialism of the power tools industry (Binford tools, more power) always seem to bother me, always some new and fancy device to do things someone did years ago with just a backsaw. The irony of how the devices that were supposed to make thing simpler, actually made them more complex.

Reading Jim Tolpin's New Traditional Woodworker. He focuses on working wood rather than machining it. He also gets into thinking geometrically rather than arithmetically, appeals to me as a lefty.

[Jim Matthews]

Less dust is a huge deal in my house (asthmmatic kid).

The fact that I can work with MUCH larger boards this way was liberating. The surprise that it is considerably cheaper opened my eyes: the magazines I read in the '80s & '90s were geared toward the interest of advertisers -not consumers.

The surprise was that I finish projects now, as there's no set up time with my bench, and I can make incremental progress.

I also have less waste due to operator error.

Jim
Wpt, ma

[john brenton]

Going back to when I was in the trades, the only thing worse than not being able to work because of a power issue was having to unload the generator and unroll the cord just to drill a little hole or thread one piece of pipe. I ended up cruising the swap meets for old hand tools, and I got a taste for rust hunting and rehabbing. I had a whole truck to myself with all the power tools, and all the hand tools. I could perform any task with hand tools with the exception of threading pipe larger than 2", and soon found that I used the power tools only when necessary, and sometimes not at all.

With woodworking it's the same...but I really need to lean into the power side a little more...I'm getting tired of all the grunt work.

[Bob Strawn]

Making a low penny whistle out of cedar was what got me started on toolmaking. (http://toolmakingart.com/2009/01/05/the-project-that-got-me-started/)


http://toolmakingart.com/images/Penny Whistle/PennyWhistle in action.JPG

Every time I ran into a problem the solution was building my own hand tool. Drilling a straight hole in endgrain, meant I had to make a shell bit. Reaming required a handful of custom reamers. Undercutting holes, adjusting tone, every single problem had an expensive, sloppy, unpredictable and poor solution with power tools and an inexpensive, easy and reliable method with hand made hand tools.

About the same time, I ran out of room for all the jigs I had made for the table saw and router. Some of the jigs were detailed with articulate adjustments. A lot of the jigs cost more to make than the hand tools I had made. I could not remember what some of the jigs were for doing. I could look at my most obscure shop made handtool and see where I could use it again and again. About this time, I saw this:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/uploadedimages/fine_woodworking_network/image_resources/cms/img301-img600/IMG524_xl.jpg

Yeung Chan's lovely tool case with lovely and useful tools he made (http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop/WorkshopPDF.aspx?id=2888).

The realization that I could make all my tools pushed me right over the edge.

Bob

[Archie England]

wow!

Sharpening is what helped me turn the corner. Really! Power tools made hobby work faster but not better. I still had blow out and needed to sand greatly after machine cuts. Dull blades require sharpening no matter whether tailed or not. So, once I discovered how to sharpen hand tools blades--and sharpen handsaws, then everything just started falling into place. I'm not that far along in the craft, but I'm having fun rehabbing old tools and developing skills with these old tools. They're fun!

[Joe Hillmann]

I got started by needing to adjust some doors so I picked up a cheap, brand new, Stanley block plane. It was worthless, it couldn't cut at all. I did a little research online about how to make a plane work properly, I spent hours flattening the sole and sharpening the blade and got it all adjusted properly and was amazed at what it could do. I quickly bought a jack plane to play with, from there I started playing with chisels and saws and just practiced making dovetail joints. Since then I have been slowly making and buying more hand tools and with almost every hand tool I am surprised at how efficient it can be when used properly.

I do have to admit that I do use a lot of power tools still and plan in the future to as well.

[Dale Cruea]

I always wanted to be a hand woodworker. I did not have any tools at the time I started woodworking. I started with a radial saw. Then went to a shop full of power tools. I kept buying better power tools and my work improved. Then one day not too long ago I was setting in my shop and noticed that there was enough fine dust in here to fill a small dumpster. I thought... this is why I can breath out here and headaches were killing me. I stated reading about dust collection. Enough..... I quit.... clear out everything and put in my old electric train and forget woodworking. After about a week of doing nothing but grumbling I thought....HAND TOOLS. No noise.... less dust.. more satisfaction and a lot less expense.
The fun of learning how to use all of the new hand tools I have purchased over the last few months is immeasurable. I have been more relaxed, make by far less mistakes and find woodworking enjoyable again. The sound of a hand plane cutting a board is sweet music to me. I am even learning to use a hand saw again. There virtually no fine saw dust in my shop.
I can buy all kinds of neat hand tools for the cost of a dust collection system and don't have to listen to it roar while I try to work.

[Justin Green]

I always wanted to work wood, too. Grandpa built his own house and had a barn full of tools that I played around with when I was younger. I started with basic power tools, and the dust became a huge issue. Not to mention I liked listening to music while in the garage. Can't listen while you're table sawing. Can't hear when you're running the router. Can't hear while you're power sanding. Dust everywhere, and I did not want the expense of taking my hobby to the next level with dust collection (plus I wanted a better table saw at the time). I still have the table saw, and the chop saw, and the router, and the sander, but I'm building my hand tool collection, refurbishing planes, learning about sharpening saws, etc., so that I can make the switch 100% neander.

Lumber for my next bench is sitting in the garage acclimating now. 8/4 soft maple. It needs to be ripped down to 4 3/8" wide for the top. I'm seriously debating doing this by hand now that I have a sharpened Disston with 5 teeth per inch. I might change my mind after ripping the first 8' board... Haven't decided yet. I will definitely have to build a saw bench if I go the hand saw route....

After this operation, however, I'm thinking about selling the table saw.

[Michael Peet]

I got started by making kayak paddles after the West Greenland style:

224632

It is mostly handtool work, so I had to learn to sharpen pretty early on. Then I got a bandsaw to speed up the roughing out.

I am and likely always will be a hybrid worker. I do not enjoy sawing by hand, so other than my dovetail, coping, and fret saws I will probably never own another hand saw. Three out of my four stationary tools are saws. The fourth is a drill press because I also dislike boring by hand.

When I was starting out, everything was a compromise between ease of getting stuff into my basement and cost. For the price of a #7 and a little time investment I got a jointer / planer combo that I can carry with one hand.

Mike

[Don Dorn]

I saw Frank Klausz do a dovetail joint. I was hooked.

I love seeing something that I can't picture doing, and then learning to do it.

That was exactly it for me too. I call him Santa Klausz due to the number of things he "taught" me over the years even though I've never laid eyes on the man.

[Jim Matthews]

Which saw gets most use?

[Zach Dillinger]

Which saw gets most use?


Probably my extremely nice D-23 crosscut saw. I use that saw for everything, although I've never tried it for dovetails... New project for the weekend! Panel saw dovetails!

[Jerome Hanby]

Hacking into Alabama Power, Photoshopping the employee directory photo for the CEO to make him look like transvestite, then getting caught bragging about it on your Facebook page would be a pretty good way to get incentive to go Neanderthal <eg>.

[Zach Dillinger]

Hacking into Alabama Power, Photoshopping the employee directory photo for the CEO to make him look like transvestite, then getting caught bragging about it on your Facebook page would be a pretty good way to get incentive to go Neanderthal <eg>.

Ok, thats just funny, I don't care who you are... unless you're that CEO.

[Jim Matthews]

That depends - does he look good? Or did they dress him in the wrong color?

National Grid (the absentee power company for the NorthEast) has a British CEO that looks good with egg on his face...

[Terry Beadle]

I got started with hand tools when working with my Dad as he was a finish carpenter back in the day. Of course, I started out with a Sears RAS and started down the path to the electric nirvana. However, I found that I was more productive with hand tools coupled with some power tools. I found I was more accurate and did not come close to loosing any fingers.

The more I used hand tools in this way, the better my projects turned out. Less glue, less clamps, less sand paper, less noise, less saw dust,... sort of like the beer commercial where they say less is more !

I did stray a bit though. I found I liked sharpening or tool making more than building a stool, cabinet or what ever. A great wood plane is a creature of happiness in action. Appreciation of other craftsman's works started making me enjoy the process more than the product. A bit off the wood craft path but not much. Thank you to the many many craftsmen that got us to this day where we can enjoy the beauty of working with a great tool, at a great price, and see the magic in the wood. It all goes to show you, wood working is the bomb!

[Michael Ray Smith]

I'm still very new to woodworking, and only as a hobby, but I actually started out with hand tools because it seemed like more fun, and it was a lot cheaper to get started. There's also an emotional element. My dad did some occasional furniture restoration using mostly hand tools. He also taught high school agriculture, which included some shop skills. I never really learned the skills from him, and he's been gone over 30 years now. Using hand tools -- including a couple of his old saws and an old brace -- reminds me of the days when I was a kid, watching him work in the garage on a hot summer day.

I got started by collecting the usual home maintenance tools I had lying around that seemed as if they would serve the purpose. Then I added some modestly priced chisels and a gent's saw. The first really high quality woodworking tool I bought was the LV low-angle block plane, followed quickly by a new Stanley shoulder plane. That gave me enough to make a few simple boxes. Then I learned that old tools offer high quality at a lower price, so I bought a few more chisels and planes to rehab. Then, like Archie (+1, Archie), I found that I enjoy doing that about as much as I enjoy woodworking. The only electric tools I've used are a hand drill and sander. I seldom use the sander anymore, actually preferring to do it by hand, and I've recently started using the electric drill less often because I picked up a Millers Falls push drill and a couple of Millers Falls eggbeaters to add to my dad's old brace, which is a Craftsman but from the days when Craftsman tools were pretty good quality. I suspect the brace was actually made by Stanley.

[Greg Berlin]

I'm fairly new too and I think I own or did own every power tool on the market including welders, home improvement tools, large power tools (table saw, jointer, planer), and auto tools basically because I love tools and what they can do. After watching paul seller's video online of making a wood box and rob cosman cut a 2 minute dovetail, and reading christopher schwarz's books, and Jim Tolpin's book, then seeing paul sellers do work at the woodworking show and literally creating a shooting board on scene before the show started with nothing but a hand saw, a cheap square he bought at the discount tool center next to his booth, a #4 plane, and couple chisels, I was hooked. I started to think that every power tool I owned was maybe a huge waste of money and space. I hate the dust and noise and I always thought power tools were needed to do accurate work. Those few things opened my eyes completely. I'm still a hybrid toolworker mostly because there are some things that doing by hand takes way too much time and are unenjoyable, like dimensioning wood. If it's under 6" wide, it's through the jointer and planer. That way I can get on to the enjoyable work, which is making joints, cutting dovetails, etc etc. To be honest the real obsession with me was learning to handcut dovetails. I had bought a jig I thought I had to have because there was no way that I would be able to handcut dovetails. Tried it once and put it back in the box with frustration realizing that it took forever to set up and make accurate joints. Then I watched videos online of rob cosman and others and practiced and practiced and practiced and now it seems like second nature. After learning that skill, I got hungry to learn how to do more joinery by hand and I'm intrigued how accurately and tight fitting joints can made, all in safety, with no noise, dust masks, while listening to radio all after midnight. Now I keep buying hand tools and DVD's and books and selling power tools. I've even toyed with the idea of selling the table saw because I rarely use it anymore. The only thing I use it for is dimensioning wood and ripping it down to size, which my bandsaw would be perfectly capable of doing as well as a handsaw. I'm building a workbench now and the only thing I've used power tools for was the dimensioning of the wood. All the joints, the mortise for the end vise, etc have all been done by hand so far.

[Greg Berlin]

^^Oh and I learned to sharpen by hand which has taken less time away from the sharpening process and more time dedicated to the wood working process. I'm learning to sharpen handsaws now on some cheapie ebay disstons I picked up in a lot.

[Jim Koepke]

I always thought power tools were needed to do accurate work.

My discovery is that trying to measure cuts to the thousandth of an inch make things that do not fit as well as those that are cut without super careful measurements.

Another discovery is that starting by getting things squared also saves a lot of time and wood.

jtk

[Mike Holbrook]

I started a partial transition about a year ago. After a month or two I fell off the cliff. I had to turn the table saw on a few months ago to trim the sides of the hand planes I was making. I could not believe how I disliked the experience and the incredible amount of dust,noise... So now I am restoring and buying hand saws. For me it started because I wanted small projects I could work on at night. Made a few wooden planes, then I started buying and restoring, braces and drills...It is a great deal of actual fun to work with my hands with hand tools, many of which I make or restore myself. The machines are a mental challenge but I do not enjoy using them like I do the hand tools. I still use a few Festool tools for construction and probably will continue to, but hand tools are more of a craft even an art, compared to the powered tools.

When I work with my hand tools I feel like I am making things, when I use the powered tools I feel like I am trying to figure out how to coax some machine into doing the work for me.

[Greg Berlin]

My discovery is that trying to measure cuts to the thousandth of an inch make things that do not fit as well as those that are cut without super careful measurements.

Another discovery is that starting by getting things squared also saves a lot of time and wood.

jtk

Haha that's probably been one of the biggest most amazing discoveries I've had since starting woodworking especially with hand tools!

[Craig Hunt]

I've been reading up on what the basic tools I would need
and have been starting to sell off my most unused and hated tools
to fund the purchase of some nice hand tools.
First one to go was a scms which never cut true.


I have a few planes,chisels and marking tools etc. and have been picking up new skills and really
enjoying the process. My new LN dovetail saw is my favorite.


Heres what I did today to make me determined
to go more neander. . .
I went to cut a bevel on a 2x3 to make a french cleat.
Cranking the wheel on my table saw to get to 45 degrees was like a time warp.
It was more exercise than hand planing could ever be.
I get the tilt set and my blade bites the edge of the metal insert plate, so out comes
the file. The next time dump was spent filing the insert plate. I gave up and backed off the wheel a bit.
Fixed it!
With my stylish safety glasses on ear muffs covering my head and the all important dust mask.
Thank you, said my lungs.
Turn on the saw, whoooosh, bam I have a blunt wooden missile fly past me at 50 mph.
ending up 20 ft feet away. Now I have a nice dent in my new garage door.


The next tool I'm buying is a Disston
rip saw.

[Zahid Naqvi]

I thought we had had a similar discussion before, so here it is (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?158476-Why-are-you-a-Neander&highlight=how+I+became+a+neanderthal) if anyone is looking for their previous answers to the same questions. Better stick to your original story ;)