Thomas Wilson
01-23-2019, 9:07 PM
Hi,
I am Thomas Wilson. I have been around this forum for years but mostly I just read it. You may treat me as a newby, even though I have been at woodworking as a hobby for more than 50 years. Since I spend more than half my time these days in a condo in a big city to be near grandchildren, I have taken up hand tool woodworking. I am not a true Neanderthal. I am more a pretender, a dilettante, like Marie Antoinette pretending to be a peasant at the Hamlet. I have a large closet in the condo that I call my "shop". I am developing a nice collection of hand tools, mostly new. I have a weakness for bronze. I bought my workbench from Sjobergs. I use a sharpening guide (I own a classic old General guide that is shaped like a paint scraper with wheel at the handle, a Veritas Mk 2 with all the accessories, and a Lie-Nielsen with all the jaws.) I have a fence for my jack plane (check out Chris Schwarz on page 304 of the Anarchist's Tool Chest. He has one. He may be a dilettante too.) I haven't made anything with hand tools yet. My first project will be a saw bench (Isn't that cliché!?) The next will be a shooting board (It will have the Veritas shooting board track!) I confess I cannot saw a straight line with a handsaw. I have never flattened a board with hand plane. But, I have read lots of magazines and books, watched many youtube videos, and listened to many podcasts. I have subscribed to Fine Woodworking since the very first issue. I think there are many aspiring hand tool woodworkers. That is why articles about the first things, like tool boxes, workbenches, and shop design are so popular. I am probably a perpetual aspiring woodworker. With hand tools, I may never get beyond making practice cuts in 2x4s and sharpening my tools, but I shall try to do something useful and learn as I go. I should probably take a picture of my shop with all the tools laid out on the bench, but then I would have to wrap them back up in their packing paper and put them back in their boxes. That should tell you about where I am in Neanderthal country.
Don't misunderstand my experience, I have built lots of things with power tools and have a complete selection of those too. I built the kitchen and bathroom cabinets for our last three houses. I have gone through my antique reproduction phase. I have built and repaired furniture for friends. When I sold the house where the kids grew up and I had my career, the shop went too. The power tools are currently in storage. I have a project to build a garage at the lake house with space for a power tool shop. There are problems of time and land for the construction. The plan is a dream workshop but so far that is about as far as it has gotten. Tomorrow I go to look at a nearby piece of property on which to build it. Maybe it will work out.
You may think I am mocking the group but truly I am just being honest. I admire those people who work fast and efficiently with hand tools. I admire people who build their own benches by hand, cut dovetails without marking, and restore 100 year old tools to pristine working condition. I am not one of those people. I will probably share my funny experiences or if perchance I do something I think is worthy, I will post about it. I think that is all a woodworking dilettante can or should do.
Cheers,
TW
I am Thomas Wilson. I have been around this forum for years but mostly I just read it. You may treat me as a newby, even though I have been at woodworking as a hobby for more than 50 years. Since I spend more than half my time these days in a condo in a big city to be near grandchildren, I have taken up hand tool woodworking. I am not a true Neanderthal. I am more a pretender, a dilettante, like Marie Antoinette pretending to be a peasant at the Hamlet. I have a large closet in the condo that I call my "shop". I am developing a nice collection of hand tools, mostly new. I have a weakness for bronze. I bought my workbench from Sjobergs. I use a sharpening guide (I own a classic old General guide that is shaped like a paint scraper with wheel at the handle, a Veritas Mk 2 with all the accessories, and a Lie-Nielsen with all the jaws.) I have a fence for my jack plane (check out Chris Schwarz on page 304 of the Anarchist's Tool Chest. He has one. He may be a dilettante too.) I haven't made anything with hand tools yet. My first project will be a saw bench (Isn't that cliché!?) The next will be a shooting board (It will have the Veritas shooting board track!) I confess I cannot saw a straight line with a handsaw. I have never flattened a board with hand plane. But, I have read lots of magazines and books, watched many youtube videos, and listened to many podcasts. I have subscribed to Fine Woodworking since the very first issue. I think there are many aspiring hand tool woodworkers. That is why articles about the first things, like tool boxes, workbenches, and shop design are so popular. I am probably a perpetual aspiring woodworker. With hand tools, I may never get beyond making practice cuts in 2x4s and sharpening my tools, but I shall try to do something useful and learn as I go. I should probably take a picture of my shop with all the tools laid out on the bench, but then I would have to wrap them back up in their packing paper and put them back in their boxes. That should tell you about where I am in Neanderthal country.
Don't misunderstand my experience, I have built lots of things with power tools and have a complete selection of those too. I built the kitchen and bathroom cabinets for our last three houses. I have gone through my antique reproduction phase. I have built and repaired furniture for friends. When I sold the house where the kids grew up and I had my career, the shop went too. The power tools are currently in storage. I have a project to build a garage at the lake house with space for a power tool shop. There are problems of time and land for the construction. The plan is a dream workshop but so far that is about as far as it has gotten. Tomorrow I go to look at a nearby piece of property on which to build it. Maybe it will work out.
You may think I am mocking the group but truly I am just being honest. I admire those people who work fast and efficiently with hand tools. I admire people who build their own benches by hand, cut dovetails without marking, and restore 100 year old tools to pristine working condition. I am not one of those people. I will probably share my funny experiences or if perchance I do something I think is worthy, I will post about it. I think that is all a woodworking dilettante can or should do.
Cheers,
TW