Sunday afternoon thoughts on hand planes (long)

[Roger Myers]

Having a quiet Sunday afternoon in the shop spending some time installing french cleats around the perimeter of the shop and making some tool racks for them. I wanted a flexible set-up that could accomodate my hand tools and could be modified over time as the shop and tool assortment evolves.
I use both power and hand tools in my woodworking but frequently find that the hand tools provide more satisfaction, less noise, less dust, and can often do the same job in less time....

The french cleats were made from Cherry, to dress up the shop walls a bit, and the tool racks will be primarily made of cherry and maple...

As a bit of detail on the french cleats, and on some of the tool racks I planed a small 3/16" bead...just enough detail to catch the eye. This was planed with a wooden molding plane and the cleats were surfaced with a smooting plane.... and the ensuing quiet in the shop leads to this posting...

here are the cleats installed, and a few pictures of the process of detailing them...noting fancy, just some food for thought for those who think of venturing more into hand tools...

Roger

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for sharing that, Roger. I've been seeing more and more use of french cleats for perimeter applications and flexible positioning of cabinets, racks and the like. WOOD Magazine's "Idea Shop #5" utilizes these and I noticed that Chris's shop in the Woodworking At Home DVDs also features them. I'd surely take more advantage of them in my own shop, but with so many windows, I unfortunately have little wall space to accomodate them. But the "wheels are turning" and I'll find places to use them when I do some additional cabinetry I have planned for the west wall in the south portion of the shop.