The education of an elitist power tool user......

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am an rank amateur learning to woodwork. Watching Norm, I became an avid power tool user and when I built my standalone shop, I designed it with power tools in mind! :)

A couple of years ago, I ran into some special woodworking events where I began to think that maybe there are times when woodworking hand tools could be of significant importance in my shop. I began to buy some better, though not the best I am sure, hand tools that were within my justifiable price range. I bought a Veritas 1" special chisel. I soon found out that those type of metals can be difficult to sharpen. Then I delved into the glass stones for sharpening the Veritas chisel and the 3 new Wood River Planes I purchased. I have used those glass stones on the Wood River bench chisels set I purchased the same day as the planes. Wood Craft Spokane got some money from me that day. In short, with the purchase of some Shapton stones, some reasonable quality hand tools, I began to see some improvement in the woodworking processes in my shop.

A few weeks back, I began making some octagon legs for a table I am building. When I put a 5" tapered foot on legs, using two sharp planes and two chisels I was able shave the area at the top into a nice arc below a 3" turned area. The turned area looks good except for 1 leg where I experienced a catch with my skew. That resulted in a turned area that is slightly different but I doubt seriously if anyone will notice. I know my customer, my wife, won't notice unless I point it out and won't care anyway.

This week, I began preparing to put mortises in the table legs for the front, rear and side rails for the frame of the table. I sharpened and honed the mortise chisel and bit for my mortiser. Today I built a simple support jig to support the portion of the table legs extending beyond the mortiser bed. I got to the point where I rested a table leg on the jig to see if it would work and found an area that need some relief, some planing to allow the table leg to sit flat on the mortiser bed. I clamped the jig to my outfeed table, put two hand planes to it for a few strokes and voila! I couldn't have set up any tool in my shop and performed the task as quickly or easily.

You notice this was posted in the General Woodworking forum? I didn't want the Neanders seeing me broadcasting the wonders of using hand tools to improve one's woodworking processes! :o:rolleyes::D

[Jim Becker]

Hand tools are an important part of machine based woodworking. They are the finesse part of the craft and help refine things to where you want them to end up because face it...in most cases, the cut on the machine is not "perfect" no matter how hard you work to get it. Even off the CNC. ;) I just added a new sharpening system to my shop as well as a wide 2" chisel to use for safe paring in a variety of situations.

[Derek Cohen]

Hand tools are an important part of machine based woodworking. They are the finesse part of the craft ...

Oooh, I like that comment, Jim! It reminds me of that golfing saying, "drive for the show and putt for the dough".

Ken, it does not help to "hide" hand tool posts on the General side of the forum as (IMO) good woodworkers use both hand and power tools. :)

Use here (chair seats in Hard Maple - current project) ...

https://i.postimg.cc/HsPPmrM8/Build24.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Jointer, Thicknesser/Planer, Slider, Hand Jointer Planes to joint edges and to flatten sides, Drill to mark the boundaries and intersection of the mortices, Jigsaw to cut out edge profile, coarse and fine flat and round rasps to shape the edges and mortices.

The legs were thicknessed and bandsawed to rough shape, and the hand planed to final profile. Using a spokeshave was safer than a router table and a pattern bit with this wood. This option is there because I can choose.

https://i.postimg.cc/m2fFBPLJ/Tools4.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

As soon as curves enter the picture, hand tools will be increasingly important. Similarly, as the wood gets harder, it becomes a necessity to have a way to work it more efficiently, and this means power tools. The point is that one would be signiicantly impacted by remaining at the extreme ends of the woodworking tool spectrum.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ken Fitzgerald]

"As soon as curves enter the picture, hand tools will be increasingly important. Similarly, as the wood gets harder, it becomes a necessity to have a way to work it more efficiently, and this means power tools. The point is that one would be signiicantly impacted by remaining at the extreme ends of the woodworking tool spectrum."

I agree wholeheartedly and for the record, I recently added 2 spokeshaves to my collection, 1 rehabbed Stanley and 1 Veritas.

[Richard Coers]

"As soon as curves enter the picture, hand tools will be increasingly important. Similarly, as the wood gets harder, it becomes a necessity to have a way to work it more efficiently, and this means power tools. The point is that one would be signiicantly impacted by remaining at the extreme ends of the woodworking tool spectrum."

I agree wholeheartedly and for the record, I recently added 2 spokeshaves to my collection, 1 rehabbed Stanley and 1 Veritas.

I caught a lot of poo when I said I barely ever used hand planes when I was running a commercial shop. Since I ran the business for only 8 years, maybe I don't know what I am talking about. But I still insist most commercial shops don't have a huge selection of hand tools. For curved work, a shaper head with a ball bearing guide under the cutter will do an incredibly good job without a spokeshave.

[Derek Cohen]

I caught a lot of poo when I said I barely ever used hand planes when I was running a commercial shop. Since I ran the business for only 8 years, maybe I don't know what I am talking about. But I still insist most commercial shops don't have a huge selection of hand tools. For curved work, a shaper head with a ball bearing guide under the cutter will do an incredibly good job without a spokeshave.

Hi Richard

Of course you can get away without hand planes (and there are those who do not use machines of any kind). But it does limit the extent to which you can design.

Just one example: The chairs I am building are built commercially with CNC machines. Then finished with spokeshaves and hand sanding. The CNC gets close, but leaves a rough finish, which could be dealt with by sanding. But it cannot create the finish quality of a hand tool which is superior to sanding - sanding tends to remove the crisp edges created by a spokeshave.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Derek, I forgot to mention I also bought a set of card scrapers from L-V and a burnishing tool too.

[Ron Citerone]

Good thread Ken! My most used hand tools are my block plane, chisels and card scrapers. I think my honing guide and a few good water stones really made a difference for my use of hand tools. My block planes are vintage Stanley and Craftsman. They meet my needs. I have a mish mash of vintage chisels, mostly the old black handled Stanley’s. I look at the high dollar stuff, but so far have not pulled the trigger.

[Jimmy Harris]

I'm always surprised at this hand tool vs. power tools division. Well, I guess not that surprised, given human nature. But I think we tend to spend too much time trying to label ourselves and others rather than just sharing in each other's triumphs and tragedies and celebrating our shared humanity. We're wood workers. What brings us together is our love of working wood. We don't need to divide ourselves into tiers based on processes. We don't need to define ourselves or each other. Humans are too complex to understand anyway. We should celebrate everyone's unique approach and foster each other's personal growth. If you TRULY love woodworking, then you care about its future. And if you care about its future, then you understand it cannot grow through homogenization. Nothing can. If we want woodworking to endure in this plasticized, hyper-production world, then it needs to grow like the trees from which it is born. Not in a single, monolithic branch, but countless fractal branches reaching in every direction. In that diversity lies its strength.

Woodworking shouldn't worry about what's "best". It should focus on what's possible. We shouldn't look at our tools and wonder what we can make with them. We should look at our boards and wonder what we can make with them.

[Ron Citerone]

I'm always surprised at this hand tool vs. power tools division. Well, I guess not that surprised, given human nature. But I think we tend to spend too much time trying to label ourselves and others rather than just sharing in each other's triumphs and tragedies and celebrating our shared humanity. We're wood workers. What brings us together is our love of working wood. We don't need to divide ourselves into tiers based on processes. We don't need to define ourselves or each other. Humans are too complex to understand anyway. We should celebrate everyone's unique approach and foster each other's personal growth. If you TRULY love woodworking, then you care about its future. And if you care about its future, then you understand it cannot grow through homogenization. Nothing can. If we want woodworking to endure in this plasticized, hyper-production world, then it needs to grow like the trees from which it is born. Not in a single, monolithic branch, but countless fractal branches reaching in every direction. In that diversity lies its strength.

Woodworking shouldn't worry about what's "best". It should focus on what's possible. We shouldn't look at our tools and wonder what we can make with them. We should look at our boards and wonder what we can make with them.

Jimmy, that is so well put! Reminds me of when I picked up a used Jet table top mortiser. Total frustration until I learned how to sharpen a mortising chisel. Then the combination of hand sharpening skills with a machine opened up so many doors of project choices and design.

Your post is so profound!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'm always surprised at this hand tool vs. power tools division. Well, I guess not that surprised, given human nature. But I think we tend to spend too much time trying to label ourselves and others rather than just sharing in each other's triumphs and tragedies and celebrating our shared humanity. We're wood workers. What brings us together is our love of working wood. We don't need to divide ourselves into tiers based on processes. We don't need to define ourselves or each other. Humans are too complex to understand anyway. We should celebrate everyone's unique approach and foster each other's personal growth. If you TRULY love woodworking, then you care about its future. And if you care about its future, then you understand it cannot grow through homogenization. Nothing can. If we want woodworking to endure in this plasticized, hyper-production world, then it needs to grow like the trees from which it is born. Not in a single, monolithic branch, but countless fractal branches reaching in every direction. In that diversity lies its strength.

Woodworking shouldn't worry about what's "best". It should focus on what's possible. We shouldn't look at our tools and wonder what we can make with them. We should look at our boards and wonder what we can make with them.


Jimmy, that is so well put! Reminds me of when I picked up a used Jet table top mortiser. Total frustration until I learned how to sharpen a mortising chisel. Then the combination of hand sharpening skills with a machine opened up so many doors of project choices and design.

Your post is so profound!

Well stated Jimmy and Ron!

When I bought my GI mortiser, I bought a diamond mortise bit honing kit from Rockler and a mortise bit sharpening kit from WoodCraft. I used them successfully and enjoy using my mortiser. When I began turning, same thing, sharpening improved my results with my turning tools.

Then I bought some Shapton glass stones. My chisels and hand planes came alive. I couldn't believe how much better they performed.