I admit it, I'm hooked

[Matt Ranum]

Well its official now. I'm hooked on hand tools.:p I got into this kinda by the back door in January when I got some planes from a lady I was buying some power tools from. All of them I got from her were pretty old, 1900 era, and since I didn't use hand planes and didn't want to use hand planes(bad experience from a new piece of crap) I figured I would clean them up and put them on a shelf. But I'm curious and wanted to know what I had and started looking. Thats when I found this site and a couple others.

Long story made short, I had a Stanley/Bailey No.8C type 9 that I got from the lady, and I thought , ya know it would be pretty neat to have a set of those type 9's, well all except the #1 & #2, I can't see mortgaging my house to get them. So I start looking at that auction site. Meanwhile I decide to build a new bench and figured its as good as any reason for an excuse to buy more tools. After watching a bunch go by that were way more than I want to spend I ended up buying a #4 and a #5, both later type 9's with the frog adjuster, nice shape except a chipped horn on the #5. Anyway I spent a day reconditioning them and got them ready just about the time my new benchtop was all glued up.

So today was the day, I decided to spend the morning working the new top down. I ended up resharpening 3 times. Each time they got better and the last time I put it back together and it cut like butter.:D I still didn't go the level that I'm sure most of you go to with sharpening but I will be.;) All in all it took me 3 hours to flatten both sides of a 30x60 slab made out of Maple, Walnut and a little red Oak thrown in for good measure. Some of the Maple is figured and I had a little tearout with the #5 but not terrible, I then set the #4 real shallow with the blade and the frog and cleaned most of it right up with shavings I could see through. With my learning curve I didn't figure that was too bad.

My grandfather was a carpenter and was born in 1888. I found it oddly strange although extremely satisfying that here I was using a tool that he himself could have used when he was a teenager. The feeling I got while doing this job is hard to describe although I'm sure most of you felt it before as well.

Thats why I say. Its official, I'm hooked.















But my power tools are here to stay.:D

[Mark Singer]

I know the feelings! The better you get the stronger the feelings!

[gary Zimmel]

Matt

Welcome to the slope.......

Feels kind of good looking down the abis

[Mike Cutler]

Matt

Handtools are cool.:cool:

In school we used to loathe using them, we always wanted to use the machines. The funny thing is that we started out on handtools and "graduated" to machines. They were the carrot, so to speak, to learn to use handtools.
Now that I'm considerably older, I realize how backward that philosophy really was.;)

Machine save a butt ton of time on the milling/dimensioning process, but the handtools can be much faster in the final stages. I

Now that you're finished with that 60x30 top. How'd ya' like a little more "practice" on a 36"x84" piece of padauk.:eek:,:rolleyes:

[Greg Cole]

One peek over the edge and down ya go.:D
Once you get your hands on a decent plane and learn to sharpen it is great day. Too many budding ww'ers wind up with a "borg plane" and get a bad taste from it, including me. I banished hand tools based off "experiences" with circa a 1999 or maybe 2000 Stanley block plane & a Buck Bros bench plane. I'll leave all other brands out of this or your thread will become so long winded, you'll need an hour to read it.:D:D:D
In all honesty, those that avoid hand tools are missing out. I like all my tailed tools and won't give'em up... same for the non tailed ones now.

Greg

[Matt Ranum]

My bad experience came from a #4 sized Great Neck brand. I figured I needed a bench plane and well, a plane is a plane right?:p I screwed with it for a while and after ruining a board I put it in the cabinet and didn't look at it for years. I didn't help that I didn't know how to actually use it, and the blade was installed upside down from the factory.:rolleyes:

After learning tons from here and elsewhere, I decided to play with it again and low and behold it cut:D, only problem was the adjustments have sooooo much slop in them that after about 4 or 5 cuts you have to readjust it cause the blade will walk its way right back into the sole. Now thats craftsmanship:p

My 100+ year old Baily's are like comparing a Yukon to a Yugo, the real sad part is I think I have less money invested in the old ones than it cost me for that boat anchor.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

My bad experience came from a #4 sized Great Neck brand. I figured I needed a bench plane and well, a plane is a plane right?:p I screwed with it for a while and after ruining a board I put it in the cabinet and didn't look at it for years. I didn't help that I didn't know how to actually use it, and the blade was installed upside down from the factory.:rolleyes:

After learning tons from here and elsewhere, I decided to play with it again and low and behold it cut:D, only problem was the adjustments have sooooo much slop in them that after about 4 or 5 cuts you have to readjust it cause the blade will walk its way right back into the sole. Now thats craftsmanship:p

My 100+ year old Baily's are like comparing a Yukon to a Yugo, the real sad part is I think I have less money invested in the old ones than it cost me for that boat anchor.

Matt, when I aquire planes from estate sales, and that bay site, it is amazing how many of them have the blade upside down. Don't know if someone took them apart and reassembled wrong before the sale, or some clueless soul decided to try grandads plane, and had a bad experience. I'd guess 15 to 25% at least.

[Jim Koepke]

Well its official now.

[snip]

My grandfather was a carpenter and was born in 1888. I found it oddly strange although extremely satisfying that here I was using a tool that he himself could have used when he was a teenager. The feeling I got while doing this job is hard to describe although I'm sure most of you felt it before as well.

Thats why I say. Its official, I'm hooked.

Welcome to the long slippery slope.

jim

[Jim Becker]

Yea, I even did some hand-sanding with a block the other day on some face frame and door components...:D

But seriously, even for a dedicated tailed-tool user, there is so much opportunity use and enjoy hand tools in every project. My feeling is that one should use the best tool for the particular job, and many times that's a plane, chisel, hand-saw, etc.