Interesting book: "With Saw, Plane, and Chisel"

[Frederick Skelly]

I didnt want to hijack the Woodworker's Block thread, so I'm posting this separately.

Patrick Chase comments briefly on Zach Dillinger's book. (Zach posts here sometimes, but I wasnt aware of his book.) So I just went to Amazon and read the sample they have posted. It was easy to read and fascinating in content. What caught my attention was a couple paragraphs in the intro. They explain that hand tools can be as fast or faster than machines, if used in the way they were a couple hundred years ago. For example, surfaces, joinery, etc were only as perfect as they needed to be - they weren't the perfection that I strive for throughout a piece today (ala Krenov). It says that to use them otherwise is "a misuse of the technology".

I don't know anything about period furniture, so I can't intelligently comment on that statement. But it was a fascinating idea to me, for sure. Fascinating enough that I'll order a copy today.

Anybody read it? Have thoughts to share?
Fred

[Rick Malakoff]

Frederick, I went to Amazon last night and put it in my cart just need to ad 5$ to the order for free shipping. That same line "hand tools can be faster than machines" defiantly caught my attention. James Krenov was/is a great inspiration for me over the years, and as far as period furniture goes, not my cup of tea and I probably never attempt to build anything like a Duncan-Fife Highboy, but the dresser on the cover does have some appealing qualities.

Thanks to Zach for making the effort for all of us!

Rick

[Bill Houghton]

Can't comment on the book, but t'other day, I needed to remove some width from a board; and the drawknife got me there about as fast as the table saw would have, and with a smoother finish to boot.

[mike holden]

First a disclaimer: I know Zach

His book is well worth reading. His claim of hand tool speed is backed up by many other hand tool gurus, Schwarz, Fidgen, the guy from Mortise&Tenon magazine, etc. They will all also point out that time was not spent on surfaces that did not show and did not affect the build.

Proper use of the tools is key.

Zach's book will help you do that.

I have no skin in this game but I know and respect Zach, so take this for what it's worth.
Mike

[John C Cox]

I can give many instances where a hand tool is much faster and more efficient than a power tool... And vice versa.....

Often as not - it takes me longer to set up the saw and dust collector than it does to finish the work with a hand saw... Same for making final fits with a plane or chisel..

But I don't buy that the reason is that we are now doing all this unnecessary work or that we are applying unnecessary excellence to our craftsmanship.... I think it's tool chops. But I think its also that we don't accept horrible sloppy workmanship as in the past.

Watch an old master craftsman make joints by hand... Zip zip zip and it's done.... And its done right. Good tight fit,
No gaps.. Its done fast because he has tool chops.

But also take a look at old furniture that is around because it was forgotten (not because it survived the test of time)... Oftentimes - the craftsmanship was poor, joints were loose and wobbly, and it would have failed and been discarded long before the present... But it survived because it was locked in a storage room for 75 years..

I inherited some furniture like this.... Its a wobbly mess because of poor workmanship.. And it's a royal pain to make it right because it was never right to begin with.

[Patrick Chase]

As I noted in the other thread, I'm reading it right now. It's a great book so far!

FWIW my take is that for truly fine period woodworking of the sort Zach does and that I've begun to aspire to, hand-tools are at least competitive and in some cases offer necessary capabilities that can't be replicated by power tools.

On the other extreme, nobody in their right minds would try to make, say, Ikea-level furniture with hand tools. That stuff is basically designed around the strengths of power tools.

[Jim Koepke]

On the other extreme, nobody in their right minds would try to make, say, Ikea-level furniture with hand tools.

Yeah, just try cutting a dado in particle board with hand tools.

jtk

[bridger berdel]

As I noted in the other thread, I'm reading it right now. It's a great book so far!

FWIW my take is that for truly fine period woodworking of the sort Zach does and that I've begun to aspire to, hand-tools are at least competitive and in some cases offer necessary capabilities that can't be replicated by power tools.

On the other extreme, nobody in their right minds would try to make, say, Ikea-level furniture with hand tools. That stuff is basically designed around the strengths of power tools.

Not just power tools- large scale automation. You'll lose your shirt trying to compete with Ikea on those designs in your garage with a table saw and a drill press.

[Noah Magnuson]

Yeah, just try cutting a dado in particle board with hand tools.

jtk
Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick any two.

[Kees Heiden]

For most of us it won't be easy to be faster with handtools then a machine, on almost anything in woodworking. Chopping a mortise goes really quickly with a mortise chisel, but a hollow chisel mortiser is quite a bit faster still. You just need to have the machine up and ready to run. When you first need to drag it out of a dusty corner, have to give it a service and have to do all the adjusting, then it becomes a slow machine.

Likewise for preparing large panels. It helps when your stock is as straight as possible and as close to the desired thickness too. Of course in handtool woodworking you can take whatever thickness the board presents, but still, a door panel over an inch thick might be just a bit too much and you will have to go back and forth a lot with your jackplane to get it to a reasonable size. Sending it through a thicknesser is a lot quicker and you don't get as tired, saving energy to do a bunch more work.

Likewise for ripping or large scale crosscutting or any of these other labor intense jobs.

Craftsman of old were highly skilled with their tools. A proficiency that is hard to aquire when you have a 9-5 job in another profession. And they indeed had a lot of tricks to speed up the work. Avoiding unnecessary work as much as possible (like end grain planing). Images of old time woodworking shops also always show them using axes or adzes. Tools that hardly made it into the modern handtool shop. I tried a bit of stock removal with an axe, enough to learn how difficult it is! But those tools are promissing too to increase your workspeed in dimensioning wood.

I'll see if I can get a copy of Zach's book overhere. I really like his work and the way he does it.

[Pat Barry]

I downloaded a free Kindle sample of the book and it looked like it was well written and might be worth buying. On my Phone, the few images that were contained in the sample were clear and viewable. Makes me think I might buy the electronic version for $14.99 or whatever they charge (50% less than real book)

[Mike Allen1010]

I'm a big fan and highly recommend Zach's book.IMHO, he doesn't excellent job of showing how to use hand tools in an efficient way to build classic early American furniture styles. I enjoy having a hard copy of the book, because it's easier for me to use in the shop as a working example.


For me one of the benefits of mastering fundamental hand tool skills is the flexibility to focus your time and effort on the woodworking tasks you most enjoy. I enjoy sawing stock to final dimensions, planing show surfaces and cutting joinery. I like a bandsaw for Resawing.


In some ways it's a question of whether it's the "journey" or the "destination" that motivates you to spend time at shop. When I had a young family my motivation was to create the essential beds, toy chests etc. we needed but couldn't afford to buy. These days the truth is we have a way more furniture than we need and I have the luxury of focusing on interesting projects that give me an opportunity to build the skills I'm interested in. In short, today I value the "journey", e.g. build process much more than I did when the primary focus was delivering the desired result. For me, there's satisfaction in building new skills and importantly a satisfaction in the better executed/more sophisticated projects those skills enable.


My apologies – way more pontificating than I intended.


Best, Mike