Neander

[Jerry Thompson]

How can one tell when one has reached full Neanterthalhood? Do your knuckles drag on the ground?

[Frank Drew]

You stop paying your electric bill?

[mike holden]

Naw! The hair on the knuckles keeps em off the ground (grinnn)

[Bob Noles]

Large gaps of missing arm hair from testing sharpened blades :eek:

[Terry Beadle]

If you can measure the dust on your routers, then you know you've reached the peak.

If you never buy sand paper again.

If you turn on a tool with a tail and register some shock..no not electric..just "What's that sound?"

If you don't need any one to tell you what Excelsior is...
( I didn't know but my brother Steve had to teach me. It's shavings! )

If you find your self in a nervana state at the water stones with no mantra required...

If your hair on your arms has to grow at a prodigious rate to keep up with your sharp edge testing...

If you've been brought to tears at the sound of a crisp shaving rolling up thru an LN..

If HNT Gordon is not an investment house..

Excuse me. I have to go now. There's some men here with white coats insisting I go on a camping trip with them.

Hoot!

[harry strasil]

When you brag to people that there are no metal fasteners in a project except for the hinges

[Richard Niemiec]

Harry, I've actually done that; but I must confess, I prepare stock with planer and jointer.

[Doug Hobkirk]

When you feel like you're making concessions to the modern world by using tools that utilize steel.

[Michael Faurot]

When you look at a problem and think of the solutions in the language of hand planes, spoke shaves, scrapers, chisels, hand saws, braces, etc.

[Dave Lehnert]

When your broke buying all LV, LN or Bridge City tools. HEY! we all must be true Neander's. My money is gone. LOL!!!!

[Jerry Thompson]

What if Harley-Davidson made power tools? Would there be more Neanders?

[Bill Houghton]

and you ask, "Did you get the Lee Valley, the Lie-Nielsen, or did you go the purist route and get the ECE?" And then can't understand why he looks at you funny and changes the subject.

[Steve Hamlin]

When your table saw goes around corners, your cross cut saw can differentiate between fingers and sausages and a serious injury from your jointer just needs a sticking plaster for an hour or two to keep the work clean.

[Billy Chambless]

When threads about battery life in cordless drills make you chuckle smugly.

[Ken Werner]

When perfectly even machined dovetails look ugly to you.

[Jim Koepke]

When most of your friends know what fettle means.

When you come into work on Monday with hair missing from your arms and people say, "So, how many blades did you sharpen this weekend?"

When you bring a late 19th or early 20th century plane home from a yard sale and show it to your spouse saying, "look at the new plane I got."

When you look in an antique store's window display and say, "that's a No. 4 type 10 with a replacement blade and overpriced."

When you try to explain to the young clerk in the hardware store that you need the 6 inch double X slim file to sharpen your saw and why a regular 6 inch file will not do.

When you trim a quarter inch off a long board with a hand saw, then try to imagine what you are going to be able to make out of the waste.

When you make something using the waste from trimming a quarter inch off a long board with a hand saw.

When it looks better than what you made from the original board.

When you decide to make another one, you look for a long board that you can take a quarter inch from with a handsaw.

jim

[James Mittlefehldt]

When you read Christopher Schwarz's blog and scratch you head wondering what he is going on about when he says his 8 year old cordless drill needs to be replaced as all of your cordless drills are over fifty years old and work just fine.

[Mark Singer]

If you can use power tools well, and still occasionally prefer picking up a rasp, a handsaw or plane to improve the quality of what the power tools can do, your there. For example hand cut and designed exposed joinery really makes a piece of furniture. It is great to be able to pick up a handsaw and use it properly. To use a chisel regardless of make and make something worth while by hand. The bottom line is your work says it all. It speaks louder than all the dialogue we enter into. So go build something:rolleyes:

[Bob Smalser]

How can one tell when one has reached full Neanterthalhood? Do your knuckles drag on the ground?

Your work shows gobs of tool marks yet nobody seems to notice.

[Glenn Crocker]

When your dust collection system is a bench brush.

[Dan Barr]

when you THINK that you can accomplish by hand tool every operation, technique or method that a power tool can and you argue with yourself that setting up the power tool will probably take longer than the use of whatever hand tool... then you are ALMOST a neander.

when you KNOW that you can accomplish every operation, technique or method that a power tool can and more and you dont care how long it takes because hand made is just better... then you ARE a neander.

cheers,

dan

[John Schreiber]

When you sometimes plane or pare a surface, just because you want to feel the wood.

[Doug Shepard]

When you try to see if you can read better thru your reading glasses or a tissue thin plane shaving:D

[Don C Peterson]

When you can work and carry on a conversation at the same time.

And, You no longer have to chase the kids out of the shop when you want to get that project done.

[James Owen]

How can one tell when one has reached full Neanterthalhood? Do your knuckles drag on the ground?

When talking about tools, you can say -- in all seriousness -- "I defy you to cut your finger off, using a hand saw....." ;)

[Alfred Cole]

hand cut and designed exposed joinery really makes a piece of furniture.

You are truly Neanderthal when, like the UK woodworker Ray Kingshot, you build a davenport and the drop down flap has hand cut concealed dovetails on a mitre at it's edges and you don't think it's at all unusual because that's the way it should be done.

I just dream that I could be as good.

Jerry

War does not decide who is right. War only decides who is left.