Hand Tool Only Workshops

[Bill Vittal]

Do any SMCers operate hand tool only workshops? Although it may not be realistic, it seams like a hand tool only workshop would avoid many of the problems of using power tools such as their large space requirements, noise, dust collection, or worse living without dust collection. A good set of hand tools ( skill to use the tools), a workbench, an assembly table, and probably a good dose of energy would be the basic requirements. Is this an unrealistic ideal?

[James Mittlefehldt]

Not at all, my workshop is roughly 21 by 12 and the only power tools I have are a disused scroll saw, which is in the way most of the time, and a Ryobi 12 inch bench model drill press that gets used rarely. It is really surprising how much room you have when you are hand powered.

The rest is hand tools only, no cyclone dust collectors, no large footprint power tools, just my bench and wood, and tool storage. I have a cd player that is great to listen to, but I don't consider that a power tool.

I am currently doing my first totally neander project a dovetailed blanket box, from rough to finish using only hand tools no power planers or anythng else like that. I will let you all know how it comes out. That is if it ever gets warm enough to work out there.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Hi Bill--not unrealistic if that is one's goal. I know a few people who are hand tool only shops, though not members here. But I know more "mostly" or "largely" hand tool shops.

The way one works is certainly different. I have no romantic notions of what it must have been like. It was work. Hard work. Even when I owned a commercial fully-powered shop, there is no way I could approach the shear output of many a joiner's shop.

Also, there is a different way of thinking involved as regards acceptable surfaces. At least if one is to emulate an average 18th century shop. Insides of cabinets are largely rough in comparison to what we today often strive for. But you can choose to remain faithful to your design aesthetics using only hand tools. It is peaceful--between the periods of hard work.

The skills come with use. Do it and they will develop. Don't strive for perfection, strive for simply doing. The former will drive you nuts, the later will be rewarding.

Take care, Mike

[Ken Bryant]

Mine's a hand-tool only shop, unless you count my bench grinder, only used to do rough grinding of blades. Otherwise, not even an electric drill.

[Bill Vittal]

I think I should give you some background. I've been building furniture for several years. I have a fairly complete power tool workshop. Not top of the line by any means, but adequate.

For me this whole thing started with planing. I was looking for an alternative to belt sanding. I picked up one of Jame Krenov's books, which has redirected my thinking on building. So, over the past couple of years, I have acquired a fairly complete set of bench planes, which I try to use regularly. For instance, I almost always reach for my jointer plane when prepping panel edges for glue up instead of using my powered jointer. More recently, I have been using hand saws. Instead of always going over to the powered miter saw, I pull out a small wooden miter box I built and an 8-inch back saw, and have at it. Even more recently, I acquired some full-sized panel saws. I have made a couple of small shop projects (rack to hold my hammers and mallets) almost entirely without electricity. I don't have a brace, so I used an electric drill. I haven't committed to building a significant piece of furniture completely without power tools as of yet. I think that is the next step.

Although this has been a little long-winded, I would be very interested in reading other SMCers experiences doing all or part of their projects without power tools. I have read several posts on this forum and others, where people do some or most of their work without power. For instance, I have read several of Derek Cohen's posts, where he explains that he does all his jointing and thicknessing of lumber without power tools, but apparently draws the line at handsawing (for milling purposes). I think it would help me to see how others have come up with non-powered building solutions.

[Jason King]

While I have a Table saw and bandsaw, the only time I turn on the bandsaw is for resawing. ( I draw the line at cutting 12/4 maple into 1/4 inch thick slices.) Otherwise, I use handsaws and handplanes for most of my work. The projects I do lend themselves nicely to handwork though (small boxes, furniture). I don't think I'd have much fun making a kitchen full of cabintets, but after choking on dust from tailed tools for years, I really enjoy working unplugged.

[Jim Becker]

I suspect that for the majority of the woodworking population that embraces hand tool work today, "some" power tool activity will always be a part of their project work. More specifically, power tools for the "heavy" jobs that would just take more time than they can afford to give to do manually, not to mention the brutal physical work it would involve. That "compromise" lets them truly spend their time using their hand tools to perform the craftsmanship and joinery that makes hand tools so enjoyable to use. I honestly think that is in accord with those whom we might consider "masters" in history...using the right tool for the job...with the provision that for each person, the "right tool" might be different.

I'm personally at the other end of the spectrum...someone who is incorporating (and learning) more and more hand tool skills to bring refinements to my projects that machine work cannot provide while still letting me perform the work in the meager time I have available. But through that, I really have learned to appreciate why folks are so passionate about using hand tools to make wood into art...

[James Mittlefehldt]

Although this has been a little long-winded, I would be very interested in reading other SMCers experiences doing all or part of their projects without power tools. I have read several posts on this forum and others, where people do some or most of their work without power. For instance, I have read several of Derek Cohen's posts, where he explains that he does all his jointing and thicknessing of lumber without power tools, but apparently draws the line at handsawing (for milling purposes). I think it would help me to see how others have come up with non-powered building solutions.

Okay then you asked lol.

I recall reading something by Christopher Schwartz about rip sawing that pretty much went with what Derek said, that is if you have to rip saw something longer than a few feet, get a power saw, as it is just too hard.

Well in the same or an issue close to that one, Adam Cherubini did a column about sawing and he basically said you need more than one saw, depending on what you are sawing. I concur with that. I have recently been using a century old rip saw with fairly agressive set to rip saw white pine, not the hardest to saw admittedly, and frankly it was no big deal I did some six foot long pieces of the pine in less than five minutes and was not even winded. The secret I beleive was having a saw set up for that. For hard woods I have a Diston D-8 that works a treat.

Another example, I am also, when not engaged in other stuff, ie projects for wife and friends, I am working on a shaving horse, and had to cut a, 21 inch long by 3/4 inch wide groove 1/4 inch to 3/8 deep in it. I figured once the layout was done, the same for any method, I would for a powered router have to first set up a stop along the slot, to guide the router, along with whatever fiddling that took, and then after cutting it square off the ends with a chisel.

I estimate it would take at least 20 to 30 minutes to do that. (Those of you who know routers better than I, can verify or dispute based on your experience ) I used a three quarter registered mortise chisel, Robert Sorby, and a Lee Valley router plane for cleanup, and I doubt it took me longer than twenty minutes to complete.

My point being often as not you can do it just as fast by hand as by machine, depending on what you do. Hope that helps. I don't see either method as right or wrong, just whatever pleases you, after all it is supposed to be fun, ...............isn't it?

[James Owen]

Do any SMCers operate hand tool only workshops? Although it may not be realistic, it seams like a hand tool only workshop would avoid many of the problems of using power tools such as their large space requirements, noise, dust collection, or worse living without dust collection. A good set of hand tools ( skill to use the tools), a workbench, an assembly table, and probably a good dose of energy would be the basic requirements. Is this an unrealistic ideal?

Bill,

It's not unrealistic at all.

My shop is hand tool only. The last several projects -- a pine book case each for my son and daughter, a walnut Shaker shelf for my daughter, and a red oak book case for my wife's cook books, as well as helping a friend build a ladder for her son's loft bed -- were all done from rough lumber using only hand-powered tools.

Some of the construction features on the book cases were fun to figure out the "how to" part, and then figure out the actual hands-on techniques to do the cutting and fitting. For example, my daughter's book case has stopped dadoes for holding the shelves. It was fairly quick and easy to figure out how to do this, and it ended up being good practice for the next two book cases. My son's and my wife's book cases presented more of a challenge, since both use sliding dovetails for the shelves. Sliding dovetails, as I discovered, require a higher level and a different kind of precision than dadoes. It took considerably more time to figure out the techniques and to build the jigs (a 10° sawing guide and a shooting board), but in the end worked out very satisfactorily and added a couple of new techniques to my skill set.

There's a fair learning curve, but most hand tool operations are generally some combination of a handful of basic skills: accurate sawing to a line/depth; accurate chiseling -- square and flat, to a line/depth, etc; accurate drilling; appropriately precise planing; accurate measuring & layout; quick and accurate sharpening; etc. IME, a good portion of becoming good at a particular hand tool operation is practice -- lots of repetition (among other things, to get to know the tool being used and to build the muscle memory); after sawing to a line five hundred or a thousand times, it becomes second nature -- you don't even have to think about it, you just do it -- quickly and accurately. Another, and probably more important part, is understanding what you are doing and why -- what it is, how it works, why it works, what the limitations are, and so forth.

One thing to keep in mind, as Mike mentioned, is that it tends to be a very physical endeavor: the first time you use a hand saw to rip a four foot long rough-sawn oak board to width and then plane it square and true to finished dimension, your arms will let you know that you have abused them that day. But...you get used to it: and the sense of accomplishment in taking a rough board and turning it into a finished part of your project using only hand tools is something that, IMO, just can't be beat!

For me, hand tool only work is very satisfying, but it may not be for everyone. I suspect that many people incorporate hand tool work into their woodworking methodology, but that relatively few will go completely Neanderthal. Either way, whatever gives you more pleasure in, and adds to the fun and challenge of woodworking, has to be a good thing.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Very cool bookshelf, James! I like the drawer.

Nice work, Mike

[James Owen]

Very cool bookshelf, James! I like the drawer.

Nice work, Mike

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the kind words.

The dovetails at the front of the drawer were my first-ever half-blind dovetails; even though there's always room for improvement, I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out.

This shelf was a Christmas present from me for my little girl (ok, not-so-little: she's 14).

[Andrew Homan]

I use handtools for 90% of my woodworking. The other 10% is mostly at a friend's shop -- for instance, if I need to dimension a lot of rough boards, I've gone there to use the powered jointer and planer. Then I've also got a vaccuum and Tormek, and of course lights, so I have no illusion that I'm working entirely off-the-grid!
I find ripping boards to be enjoyable -- and I've had occasion to rip 6' ash boards -- hard work but also relaxing. I can rip pretty accurately "to the line."
Crosscutting accurately is a different story for me. I find it hard to do it accurately, and cleaning up an off-square board by planing endgrain is not a pleasant task unless the board is small enough for the shooting board (which I love to use).
I think that there are a variety of reasons why people choose to work more or less with handtools, and that we also do have some common themes in our work. There are some misconceptions that all of us are "against" the use of power tools -- in my case, this couldn't be farther from the truth. I'd like to have more machines in my shop, but there are some processes that I'll always enjoy accomplishing by hand.
-Andy

[Doug Littlejohn]

I have a full assortment of power and pretty much have a full assortment of hand tools save saws which I am now gathering.

I find myself using handtools more and more but use power tools when repetition or bulk efforts are needed. While I get more satisfaction out of handtools, surfacing, ripping to width 150-200 bdft of maple for my bench seems like I can find better use for my time. So, I will use my planer and table saw to do that. When it comes time to do the joinery, then I will use handtools because it's not that much more overall work to do so and I won't be spending months doing 10 M&Ts or a couple of sets of DTs. I will get great satisfaction from this work whereas I would have just got worn out with surfacing so much lumber.

My Small CMB bench has been 98% handtools. My saw bench will be 100%. My tool cabinet will probably be around 85-90% handtools. Many will be 100 % and some will have a little power use.

Of course, as I learn more, my handtool use will grow even more.

Sherwood

[Mark Stutz]

I have the usual gamut of power tools...TS, BS, planer, jointer, DP...becuase I had them long before I "discovered":D hand tools. I find myself using hand tools more and more and enjoy using them more than the power, because I don't have to look for hearing and dust protection. Although I'm repeating others, working from rough sawn lumber is work, it is satisfying. Although not "perfect"...listen to MIke...the hand tool cabinet I built totally by hand will always be a favorite.

Power tools are often referred to as "tailed apprentices". Certainly the Master joiner did not spend a lot of time ripping boards to width, squaring stock, resawing, etc. These tasks were usually done by apprentices.