Ratìonalizing a tool addiction

[Frederick Skelly]

I don't know about anyone else, but I always feel just a tad guilty buying a new or new-to-me tool to replace (or duplicate) one I already have. I still do it, but I second guess myself:
* "Did you really need the two japanese dozuki saws? You already have LV backsaws."
* "Did you really need that vintage #3 plane? You already have a WR #3."
* "Did you really need those JET parallel clamps - you already have plenty of F-clamps in that size?"
* "Do you really need those Ashley Isles chisels - you have a good set of Marples blue handles and oh by the way why isn't it sufficient to buy just the Narex bench chisels?"

You get the idea. So, today I decided to just look my addiction in the eye and put up the following sign in my shop .......

"For me, woodworking is really four related hobbies:
1. Making nice furniture
2. Building an efficient, effective and pleasant shop over time
3. Making tools when I can
4. Trying out new or new-to-me tools and techniques"

Now I have an excuse - it's my hobby to test out different tools. :D

How about you?
Fred

[Bill Space]

It is good to see that you're making progress towards a cure for your "addiction".

When you are finally cured you will see that there is no reason to second-guess yourself, and no need for any kind of sign in the shop or elsewhere!

A healthy person can never have enough tools! Questioning is a sign of illness, but once one sees it for what it is, he can be healed.

You are definitely on the right track. Buying more tools may help your situation and lead to a faster cure.

It is a bit concerning though that you referred to your situation as an addiction. As your cure continues you will see the fallacy in such a thought.

[Tom M King]

Rehab is for quitters!

[Mike Henderson]

I guess I went into a buying phase when I started woodworking. But then I noticed that I wasn't using some of the tools and I could achieve the same thing with some other tool. So I started cutting back. I have to be sure now that I'll use a tool before I buy one.

The problem with owning anything is that you have to take care of it.

Mike

[Oh, one more comment: Remember the old saying, "When the gods want to punish us, they make our dreams come true."]

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Rehab is for quitters!

THAT made my day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Along those lines, I'm not an alcoholic. Alcoholics go to meetings. And I dont have a #3 plane. Well, I have a 603 Bedrock. And about 29 other planes. I'm not addicted.

[John Goodin]

Well, I also enjoy buying a new tool, as most of us probably do. Luckily, I have gotten to the stage to generally know what is a gimmick and what is a useful tool. I justify the purchases by reminding myself that I do not hunt, golf or fish. Woodworking is an expensive hobby but I can buy a lot of tools for the price of a bass boat or country club membership. I may not provide venison, dove or bass for dinner but I built the table upon which my family eats.

[phil harold]

Stop the discrimination !!!



A healthy person can never have enough tools!
Sick people need tools too...

[Glen Canaday]

My thought...why do you need to rationalize !!?! My addiction is its own reward...!

[Brian Holcombe]

I haven't felt guilty about buying tools.

I do often pare down to what I need though, which you'll see once in a while if you hawk over the classifieds.

[Chris Hachet]

I guess I went into a buying phase when I started woodworking. But then I noticed that I wasn't using some of the tools and I could achieve the same thing with some other tool. So I started cutting back. I have to be sure now that I'll use a tool before I buy one.

The problem with owning anything is that you have to take care of it.

Mike

[Oh, one more comment: Remember the old saying, "When the gods want to punish us, they make our dreams come true."]

This is pretty much my thinking. I am doing more with fewer tools....

[Chris Hachet]

THAT made my day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Along those lines, I'm not an alcoholic. Alcoholics go to meetings. And I dont have a #3 plane. Well, I have a 603 Bedrock. And about 29 other planes. I'm not addicted.

A 603 Bed rock could make me question the simplicity thing...

[Chris Hachet]

Stop the discrimination !!!


Sick people need tools too...

As do blind people....a friend of mine does fire alarm installation work. He told me about a woodworking shop at a school for the blind filled with power tools....I would love to know how that worked out for them....

[Chris Hachet]

I haven't felt guilty about buying tools.

I do often pare down to what I need though, which you'll see once in a while if you hawk over the classifieds.

Which in turn allows me to try out different tools...

[Pat Barry]

* "Do you really need those Ashley Isles chisels - you have a good set of Marples blue handles and oh by the way why isn't it sufficient to buy just the Narex bench chisels?"
Fred

I just bought a 7 pc set of those Narex chisels. They are OK aren't they? I mean, not stellar, but better than my mismatched plastic handle Stanleys, etc. The old ones will go into my travel toolbox for cabin work and work at my daughters house (like opening paint cans for example)

[Ray Selinger]

With my very first pay cheque , I bought tools. I'm still buying tools with my pension cheque, mind you, the woodworking tools I'm buying now were old when I was young.

[Brian Holcombe]

Which in turn allows me to try out different tools...

:D I know they're being put to good use!

Keep an eye out I have a few more going up soonish.

[Chris Hachet]

I just bought a 7 pc set of those Narex chisels. They are OK aren't they? I mean, not stellar, but better than my mismatched plastic handle Stanleys, etc. The old ones will go into my travel toolbox for cabin work and work at my daughters house (like opening paint cans for example)

I am quite happy with mine, actually.

[Niels Cosman]

I collect tools.
It wasn't always that way though. I used to sell the tools that I didn't use or that I got replacements for. At some point I stopped getting rid of tools and started buying tools that without the intention of ever using them.
For me collecting is in my blood. My father collected math and physics books, my grandfather collected radios, and I collect tools. My tool collection is like a personal natural history museum in which you can compare the differences between species or see how a form evolved or devolved over time. For me tools and toolmaking is half of my interest in woodworking. I love restoring tools, I love making tools, and I love using tools in no particular order. I don't feel the need to rationalize it.
When I started becoming interested in hand tools, I was a fulltime craftsperson and fabricator. Handtools became a necessity of space and resources. In the past 4-5 years my studio practice has transitioned and now I am employed full-time as a designer and engineer. As a result I have far less time to make and much more disposable income which I readily dispose of on tools. In my current work I am designing and manufacturing precision devices, in my spare time I have been working on handful of project related to woodworking. In the next year might even have a go at some small batch tool making. The tools that I own are my reference library.

[Jim Koepke]

I try to only buy tools that will be used are can make a profit when sold. Doesn't always work out. Sometimes I have passed on a tool that later gives me regrets for not buying when the opportunity presented itself.

Now that my shop is full of useable tools I am a bit more reluctant to purchase even a good tool that could be useable or profitable.

There have been more regrets about the tools passed by than the ones brought home.

Maybe some of my tools should be put up for sale to make room for a few more.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

The problem with owning anything is that you have to take care of it.

Ha, good thing to remember! That's what I told the girls yesterday when they brought up getting another horse. "But we only have three horses."

At last count I take care of 49 animals every day of the year. That doesn't count the 200,000 bees...

JKJ

[James Pallas]

I'm lucky to own good tools. I gave some away to SIL, good decision they are used. I often think about parting with more and when I do I find that I need that tool for something and that silly idea gets shelved. I enjoy working with good tools and I still buy some when needed or just want to try something new.
Jim

[Stanley Covington]

All things in their season and in moderation.

A wise man once said that every tool with a cord ends up in the landfill. This is indisputable. Often, a better, safer version of a power tool we already have comes out, and it makes sense to grade up. But the garbage heap is its eventual home. And like automobiles, their resale value drops drastically the minute you open the box. So I don't like spending money on power tools.

But handtools, especially the quality ones, are always useful until they break or wear out. Perhaps the resale value will not rise, but over time the good ones hold both their monetary and intrinsic value.

How much money do we spend on things that give us pleasure or satisfaction? Nice clothes? Steak? Coffee? Beer? Donuts (Mmm.... donuts), cars, skis, golf clubs, big-screen TV's? By comparison, quality tools are cheap, actually have value, are actually useful, actually promote healthy activity and productivity, and don't make us fat, sick, dull our minds or raise our insurance rates. And they give many of us a tremendous amount of pleasure and satisfaction.

She Who Must Be Obeyed does not understand. Her feminine mind thoughtlessly rationalises spending a fortune on cloth and thread and needles and computer-controlled sewing machines, but her eye is yellow and leaking poison when she sees my latest chisel. Estrogen poisoning, no doubt.

Will the things we buy now, use, and leave behind when we go to that big woodpile in the sky be cherished by our grandkids, or will they be sold to buy video games? The answer depends on you and your descendants, but I cherish my father's old tools, worn out as they are.

Cheap at twice the price, says I.

[Derek Cohen]

Stanley

I'd give you a "like" or "smile" if there was an instant one :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Frederick Skelly]

Will the things we buy now, use, and leave behind when we go to that big woodpile in the sky be cherished by our grandkids, or will they be sold to buy video games? The answer depends on you and your descendants, but I cherish my father's old tools, worn out as they are.

Cheap at twice the price, says I.

"Here! Here!"
Well said Stan!

[Ray Selinger]

Their inheritance will be the tools. The wife tells me I should record who made them , where, and when. Plus any story about them.

[Prashun Patel]

No shame in upgrading. There's some nobility (in my shop) for keeping the arsenal small.

Sell what you don't use/need, and then don't be ashamed of buying things you love, cherish, and use.

When you DO acquire this level of discipline, let me know how you did it; I'd love to learn how.

[Brian Holcombe]

The cool thing about hand tools is that once you have an effective assortment, you can build practically anything. So even those who do not necessarily want to be 100% hand tools can keep their shop to a minimum by having a few machines and a good assortment of planes/chisels and handsaws, in fact that's probably where most small shops that create very high quality end up.

I've walked through a couple of very top notch shops and they have maybe 5-6 machines for major work and walls of hand tools.

One thing that's kept my assortment small is that I've felt that if I acquire a new tool I need to become very effective in using it quickly, which once you start to acquire a few planes that gets fairly time consuming for a while then becomes easy once again. I feel that eventually my shop will wind up like those mentioned above (though, geared toward all hand tools).

[John K Jordan]

school for the blind filled with power tools....I would love to know how that worked out for them....

I've been hearing more lately about people without vision doing woodturning.
http://www.woodturner.org/default.asp?page=WBBvision
A friend described one gentleman recently. Made me want to try turning something with my eyes closed to see what it was like.

JKJ

[Mike Hollingsworth]

My Grandkids will inherit some of the best tools ever made. In the mean time I get to use them making sawdust.

[Patrick Walsh]

I am constanly going back and forth in my head rationalizing some kind of tool or lumebr purchase. At the moment i am thinking of selling a number of tools to purchase a rather extravagant lot of lumber to build a bench that i cant really afford. Im pretty sure i will find a way to rationalize my way into the irrational as i always do.

I am pretty good at purging myself of anything i dont actually use regualry. Although i have a toll probelm i tend to got through everything i own at oeast 2-3 times a year and ebay or craiglist anthing i dont actually use. Normaly it funds another purchase of something i have convinced myself i will use ;)

[Gary Cunningham]

I think it goes back the primitive "hunter gatherer" instinct.

If one Wooly Mammoth is good, then 3 Bailey #5's are better.

As I tell SWMBO at least I'm not spending $$$ on booze or cigarettes.