What I love about handtools

[Marcus Ward]

The more I use old tools the less I am stressed out. I don't have to worry about flying bits of debris when planing, no dust collector, no noisy motors. It's just work, simple, honest work. I present this picture as a reason, tonight, why I love hand tools. There is no way I would 1. drink wine while working with power tools. 2. Leave a glass within arms reach while using powertools (because it'd become sawdust soup!). Most excellent. My wife's morris chair nears completion. Soon it'll go into the fuming cabinet for a strong ammonia treatment. Then glue-up and finishing. I'll be glad to have this done. Chairs are a lot of work!!

I encourage you all to post pics of your non-powertool safe-work environments. :D

http://www.f-64.org/oldtools.jpg

Regards to all,
Marcus

[Gary Breckenridge]

Ahhh yes, a jug of wine and thou. (refurbished Bailey plane.);)

[Marcus Ward]

Hey how do you know it's refurbished, it could be original (it's refurbished :D).

[Mark Stutz]

Just came from the shop...working on a raised panel. No wine, no dust collector...Doobie Brothers and Pure Prarie League in the background...swoosh, swoosh...doesn't get any better.

We better not make this sound too good and give away the secret!:D

[Michael Schwartz]

Just finished tuning my stanely # 5, hot rodded with a LN iron and chip breaker. Took the first post tuning shavings and had that satisfying grin from ear to ear that only comes from a well tuned plane :D

Now to get the mettal shavings off my hands :rolleyes:

[Lewis Moon]

Man, that pic says it all.

[harry strasil]

Fresh Air, a trio (guitar, banjo, fiddle) playing oldies under a big tent not far away, no sawdust in the air, just a few shavings on the ground, and no loud whining ear splitting noises. Just lay out, pick up a tool and go at it, and a group of onlookers watching intently. Occasionally letting a young person try there skills under supervision and with their parents consent and them watching. Doesn't get much better.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/HNM2.jpg

Then later on at another demo, the same young folks coming around with their parents and asking if they can stay and watch and help while the parents are seeing the rest of the sights and demos.

Or an old time WWer in his 80's or 90's coming and watching intently to see if I am doing it right.

[harry strasil]

It's kind of funny tho that there are more ladies interested in watching me work and then chiding their husbands about why they can't do WWing the quiet way. LOL

And occasionally the real funny part where a lady will come up and give me what for, for filling those blanket chests with then nasty ole dirty tools, I am gonna ruin them.

[Jim Becker]

No wine,

Oh, com'on...it's a holiday. Surely a nice glass of wine would go nicely with the "whosh"...or at least afterward. Just ask Dave... :D

Oh, you meant "whine"....that's definitely absent with hand tools. Until, of course...the blade meets your flesh...:eek: :o Then the wine is not optional. :D

[Marcus Ward]

It's kind of funny tho that there are more ladies interested in watching me work and then chiding their husbands about why they can't do WWing the quiet way.

That's another reason on the LONG list of why handtools are great. My wife likes to hang out in the garage with me while I'm working but doesn't enjoy it much if I have the monsters running. Sometimes I'll do extra work to keep it quiet out there because I enjoy having her out there so much.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Yup, I do enjoy a glass of wine in the shop while working on a project, but only when using hand tools. If the screaming monsters are going to be used, the rule is no alcohol... not even a sip. For me, the wine glass with contents is only shown with a completed project, not when it's under construction. As you might have noticed, I haven't shown many wine glasses recently.;)

Interestingly enough, the interior trim I've been working on for the first floor used mostly a backsaw to make the cuts. With the miters for the beads and the straight cuts to remove part of the beaded areas, ONLY hand tools could do the job.

[Marcus Ward]

I agree - no alcohol when the powertools are running. It only takes a little bit of clouded judgement to render a really bad situation a reality. Mistakes don't happen so fast with a cabinet scraper - although after a couple of glasses I don't try to sharpen tools either. :)

[harry strasil]

LOL, my buddies from service would not know me now. I am a teetotaler now, but in my younger days I didn't get good at much after hours till the First fifth was gone and I was half way thru the second. Went Cold Turkey the day before I got outa the service. Never looked back except for once, when I came home and found first wife on floor. But, I resisted the temptation and haven't been sorry.

[John Shuk]

Marcus,
Would you share your fuming process with us when the time comes. It seems like the way to go with white oak in my mind.
Thanks,
John

[Jim Becker]

Just to be clear, my knoodling about the wine vs the whine shouldn't be taken as a recommendation for alcohol while working with any tools. But it's a nice thing after the whoosh! is done!

[harry strasil]

wine + whine can result in cussing, screaming, bleeding, missing digits, stitches and ruined bloody lumber.

[James Mittlefehldt]

I don't drink wine while working in the shop either, well not much. I find my accuracy tends to go down somewhat, but I do have the radio or cd player on when I am there.

[Bob Oehler]

Boy that picture says it all. It's a wonderful world

Bob O.

[Marcus Ward]

Marcus,
Would you share your fuming process with us when the time comes. It seems like the way to go with white oak in my mind.
Thanks,
John


John, here is my fuming method. First make sure you have all the squeeze-out off of the workpiece and it's ready for finishing because once it's fumed you're not going to be sanding or scraping. Then I put the piece in a tent made from plastic and seal it up with duct tape. I let my wife do this, she's better at it. I slide a large ceramic bowl full of ammonia inside and ignore it for 2 - 3 days. When it comes out it'll be a greyish silver and look very blah - until you put finish on it, then it's like magic and it looks awesome. Let it outgas for a day or so before messing with it because ammonia will still be coming out of the wood. That's it. Easy Peasy Japaneasy. Before I started all this I did some test pieces of oak and walnut to see the effect. Walnut gets very dark, almost like ebony. 24 hours is minimum, 2 days is my personal minimum. 3 days might even be better but I'm impatient. A heated room or garage is best because the ammonia evaporates into the air better at higher temps. Watch out, it's corrosive to certain metals although I haven't had any problems with it.

Here is a pic of my fuming arrangement. You can see the white ceramic bowl inside.

http://www.f-64.org/fuming.jpg

[Dave Lindgren]

I had a friend in the wine business in northern calif. he remembered the days when the journeyman cooper would arrive at his father's winery, and set up to repair barrels, kegs, vats etc. They would have redwood vats up to 4,000 gallons to repair. The cooper would set up beneath the big old oak tree in the winery courtyard with his shave bench, jointer and a small table for his tools. Then he would place an empty pitcher and a glass on the table. The pitcher was kept full by the winery until the cooper was finished with the work at hand.

I always wanted to be a cooper :D

[Don Dorn]

It wasn't even a year or so ago that my woodworking buddies knew me as one who looked at hand tool people as purists who simply liked to make shavings and didn't actually build anything. In fact, as a shop gift, they placed an extention cord on the back of a plane and gave it to me - which I proudly displayed.

Fast forward and they are not letting me live down the fact that I'm making a slow adaption to hand tools. Once I figured out how to properly sharpen chisels, I see them more than a small axe. I started handcutting dovetails (only time I ever used the marking gauge) and now have breathed new life into planes and scrapers I never used. I've added a couple of planes and now have bought a #80 Stanley cabinet scraper (don't have it yet).

I still use my power tools but now believe the best way is to use the right tool for the job, regardless of how it's powered. Guess I'm coming along, little by little.

[Don C Peterson]

I still use my power tools but now believe the best way is to use the right tool for the job, regardless of how it's powered. Guess I'm coming along, little by little.

Agreed. I use what gets the job done, but when the hand tool is even close to being as efficient as the power tool, I choose the hand tool. I have recently discovered the joy of using properly tuned hand saws. My wife asked me why I use the hand saws so much now. My reply was that it is fun and there is just something about cutting a nearly perfect line with a 100 year old tool that I rehabilitated and sharpened with my own two hands... Plus, I don't have to kick the kids out of the shop while I turn on the table saw, and don't have to deal with the dust.

Although I flatten stock with hand planes, I use the heck out of my Dewalt planer; dimensioning stock with hand planes is too much like work for me! My favorite power tool is my Walker Turner 16" band saw. It's as quiet as using hand saws.

[Wilbur Pan]

I love my Walker-Turner 16" bandsaw as well*. But hand tools are great.

It is true that powered tools will give you a speed advantage at some point if you have a lot of the same type of operation to do. However, you have to spend time with set up and test cuts with a powered tool, so that for a small number of operations, what time you save with the powered tool in the speed of doing the operation, you lose in the set up.

The set up and test cut process is often not accounted for in thinking about the time needed to finish a woodworking process. As a result, I think that the number of repeat operations where powered tools actually give you an advantage is much higher than what most people think.

*One of only three powered tools in my shop, unless you want to count the dust collector and air cleaner.

[Bill Brehme]

Marcus, is that a #1 or #2 smoother?:confused:

Cuz if thats a #4, that would have to be one HUGE glass of wine!!!:D

[John Shuk]

Thanks for the info on the ammonia treatment.
The way you describe it seems very safe and doable.
Is the ammonia you use just regular household strength ?

[Marcus Ward]

Yeah I just get it at the hardware store, it's the kind you'd use for cleaning. I think it's about 3$ per gallon. I've read you can't fume properly with household strength ammonia but that's not true, it just takes longer. No sweat! I clean the shop while it's fuming. Don't pour the ammonia into the container until you're ready to seal up the tent because it's eye-wateringly nasty. I will post pics of the chair after it comes out of the tent and before I shellac it so you can get an idea of the effect.

[Greg Cole]

Marcus,
Nice chair! I can't wait to see it finished and placed in it's room.

What I love about hand tools:
#1) the silky smooth finish left from a Neandered surface. Honestly I dove into the Neander realm to simply get away from the monotony sanding & stepping up through the grits.... beer (sorry not a wine or whiney guy :D) makes many mundane things less mundane in many instances NOT sanding.
#2) I find the solitude of the workshop sometimes "calling" for me to grab a tool that has gone basically unchanged for MANY years. Then again the residents of the house aren't keen on me firing up the pig tailed horsepower on weekend mornings either (I'm an early bird to say the least :D). But I do have a penchant for my pony powered tools too....
#3) Once you truly learn sharpening, you'll like your handtools ALOT more.

Greg

[Bill Brehme]

Marcus, is that a #1 or #2 smoother?:confused:

Cuz if thats a #4, that would have to be one HUGE glass of wine!!!:D

[Marcus Ward]

Hey Bill - that's a #4 and yes, it's a HUGE glass of wine! Half a bottle per glass. :D

[Bill Brehme]

MY MAN!:cool:

Excess is best.:D

[Marcus Ward]

#1) the silky smooth finish left from a Neandered surface.

Odd, I could have sworn I wrote a reply to this...

I love that finish too. I hate sanding and sanding dust and will go to great lengths to avoid it. One thing about hand-tooled surface is that it feels different. It's made by hand! It's disgusting that the judge of perfection in the building of something in our culture is how well it resembles something that came from a plastics factory. I say leave in the tactile indications that it's a hand-made surface. Those supposed imperfections are actually higher on the scale of aesthetics to me.


beer (sorry not a wine or whiney guy :D) I'm normally a beer guy too. I make my own. I am just out at the moment. ;)


#3) Once you truly learn sharpening, you'll like your handtools ALOT more.
Boy that's the truth! Poorly sharpened hand tools are just bad hammers. Until you learn to sharpen, it's no fun using them. It's sad that we've got 2 generations in the world now that think a hand plane is some hard to use poor hunk of metal that old timers used. How did they get anything built back then?? What slays me is people who put perfectly excellent hand tools on that auction site and label them 'primitive'. Get outta town! If they'd ever used a properly sharpened one they'd know the truth.

[Marcus Ward]

Okay it's probably bad form to bump your own thread but this is what I did tonight while the chair is fuming and I have nothing to work on but cleaning the shop. All mortise and tenon, quartersawn oak. No finish on it yet but it's up.

http://www.f-64.org/sawtill.jpg

[Greg Cole]

Marcus,
Bout time for a nice hearty winter brew wouldn't ya say? A coworker is home brew guy... nice friend to have. His Irish Red in the late winter is something I barter WW skills for a few growlers of, and at 7% if ya drink a growler of it, ya won't wanna still be in the shop, DAMKHIT.

In regards to sharpening, when I got a granite reference plate from a machinist friend & ditched the glass glued to plywood.... it was like magic!

Nice saw till there, that's one Neader slope of hand saws I've yet to slide on.. but it's on the horizon... just a ways out.

Can't wait to see the chair all done!

Greg

[Marcus Ward]

Yeah I've got a nice malty porter and a irish stout on deck waiting to brew but I'm out of base malt so I need to get some before I can do those.

I'm thinking a granite plate is in my future. I've broken all my glass repeatedly, the only thing holding together the sheets I have now is the sandpaper and glue.

Funny thing is, I'm not much of a handsaw user execpt for joinery. I rarely crosscut anything of size and never rip. I just like saws. :D For dovetails and M&T construction though they're excellent. The old disston tenon saw I picked up for a song is amazing.

If you're ever in the area let me know and you can sample the brew. ;)

[Greg Cole]

Hey Marcus,
Just noticed you live here in Missery too..... I don't make it to that neck of the woods toooo often. But I'd like to put my eyes on that chair when it's done... I've been daydreaming about building one of those and the macthing "setee" or couch.

Cheers and get pics up of that fumed QSWO.

Greg

[Andy Coverdale]

Dang Marcus!!

I am jealous. You actually make a living riding bikes?

I love that Photo!

I am actually in the process of selling powered tools so I can buy more quality hand tools. The more I learn about them the more I love it.

Beer, wine, hand tools and a good women in the shop. What could be better?

Andy

[Marcus Ward]

Wow I just realized I haven't updated my profile since I first joined in 2005. The professional mountain biker was a joke between my wife and I. I was unemployed or not steadily employed for 2 years and during that time raced a LOT and the joke was that I was a professional mountain biker employed by my wife. Unfortunately, I don't make a living riding bikes. I'm an IT guy these days. Sorry about that.

Greg - which part of the show-me state are you in?

[Greg Cole]

Marcus,
I live in KC not far from MCI airport.... I've had a couple chances to do a lumber run down 'that way' just never got the ambition to sit in the truck... I used to get a lot of windshield & airline seat time from the day job.
Where did you get the QSWO? I've been looking for a local source and can't seem to find any.... if you don't mind sharing that is (PM if you don't want to post). Some guys are as secretive about lumber sources as they are good hunting & fishing spots...
I am supposed to be picking up 100 BF of some walnut from a Craigs List ad here in KC (Independance). The pics look to have some nice subtle curl.... and the guy is supposed to have 300+ BF, if you're into walnut it's @ $3 a BF IIRC.

Cheers,
Greg

[Marcus Ward]

Okay, an update. Here's what fumed QSO looks like. Shellac'd. Twice. With wax. :D Glad it's finally finished. http://www.f-64.org/chair5.jpg