What got you in to working with hand tools?

[Mike Kelsey]

Maybe this has been asked before, if so tell me to go "search it'. But another thread of mine got me to thinking about what the turning point was behind choosing to use hand tools and to what extent over power tools. I'm not talking about the pleasurable rewards/ experience ( no noise, intimacy with tools, wood, etc) but what the driving desire was. Was it something you just stumbled into & found yourself in hindsight using hand tools more & more? Did you try it as a challenge or have a mentor?

Inversely for me, I think starting with power tools became "training wheels in self-confidence" - my father had no hands-on skills, so my siblings & I didn't feel very competent working with our hands.

[Chris Griggs]

For me it started out as a simple matter of space and equipment. Even if I could afford to suddenly put together a full power tool shop, I have no real shop to put the tools in. I realized very quickly that in order to do the kind of work I wanted to do I would need to learn to do it by hand. Using hand tools allowed me to spread out purchases and get a tool that was best suited for the given task I needed to accomplish, and it also let me put together a pretty functional shop that takes up a less than 10x10 space.

Also, I figured by learning to do everything by hand, eventual power tool purchases would be decided out of what would help me to do my work faster/better, and not out of having no other way to do something.

(The love of hand tools and related esotera followed quite quickly I might add)

[Matt Radtke]

For me it started out as a simple matter of space and equipment. Even if I could afford to suddenly put together a full power tool shop, I have no real shop to put the tools in. I realized very quickly that in order to do the kind of work I wanted to do I would need to learn to do it by hand. Using hand tools allowed me to spread out purchases and get a tool that was best suited for the given task I needed to accomplish, and it also let me put together a pretty functional shop that takes up a less than 10x10 space.

What he said. I made a simple project with BORG lumber. It turned out okay, not great, mostly because of subtle problems with the lumber that required jointing to fix.

So I started looking at jointers and planers and very quickly realized I didn't have the space for their use. Also, SWMBO would have killed me because of the noise and dust they create in my basement shop. So I asked the dumb question, "What did they do before jointers and planers?"

I did it "backwards." I didn't buy a #4 because I hate sanding and then devolve into a full arsenal of planes. No, I didn't start with a dovetail saw because I didn't like my router and end up with a nest of saws. I started lusting after a #8 and a good fore because I needed to prep my lumber.

[Chris Griggs]

What he said. I made a simple project with BORG lumber. It turned out okay, not great, mostly because of subtle problems with the lumber that required jointing to fix.

So I started looking at jointers and planers and very quickly realized I didn't have the space for their use. Also, SWMBO would have killed me because of the noise and dust they create in my basement shop. So I asked the dumb question, "What did they do before jointers and planers?"

I did it "backwards." I didn't buy a #4 because I hate sanding and then devolve into a full arsenal of planes. No, I didn't start with a dovetail saw because I didn't like my router and end up with a nest of saws. I started lusting after a #8 and a good fore because I needed to prep my lumber.

Yep that was my progression to, although my first plane was actually a No 4, the first plane I remember wanting was a jointer. Identical situation - made a couple tables and really struggled to get good edge joints, looked at power jointers, quickly realized it wasn't going to happen, and so started researching and buying hand tools.

You do hear the whole,"got sick of sanding" thing a lot - I wonder if that is how most folks got into handtools or if thats just one of those things that's been said a lot for some reason. For me the only sanding that I was sick of was when I was trying to flatten and level my table tops with an ROS, once again the work of the jointer and foreplane, not the smoother.

[Dale Cruea]

I had a shop full of power tools. All setting in the corner now.
I had a project where the wood I had purchased was too wide to fit on my jointer. After I somehow got one side half flat I ran it through my planer.
After gluing the boards together I found it would not fit in planer.
I really wanted build this project for my grand daughter. I had a #3 hand plane from LN. I tried it but it was too small.
I was at a flea market and saw a Bedrock #7 for $25.00.
It was dead flat and had a good blade.

After I saw shavings coming off of that plane I was hooked on hand tools.
I finished that project and 2 more with hand planes because the wood would not fit my power tools.
Now I can buy what ever size lumber I want and it will not be too big to plane.

Several planes and too many saws later I put all of my power stuff in the corner and started building by hand.

I have to learn some stuff about hand tools but it is fun and relaxing.

[David Weaver]

Distaste for tool setup, and distaste for learning the quirks of inexpensive tools.

There are two types of tools I like to use - extremely expensive machine tools (because they precisely do exactly what you expect them to) and pretty much any hand tool that functions the way it's supposed to (fortunately that doesn't mean extremely expensive).

Using inferior power tools is a nuisance, and it corners you into building what you can build with the tools rather than building what you want to build.

In 3 years, I've turned a router on exactly two times. I felt with power tools like I was spending 90% of my time doing something I didn't want to do just to get it done, and 10% of the time enjoying some part of it.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Space, money, less space, and less money. Those are my four top reasons Having found a couple of Grampa's tools got me curious. Finding that distant relatives (Baldwin planes) were toolmakers got me even more curious. I spend my work day in a shop, which is noisy (ever test a 60kW generator?). I'm sure in my small neighborhood my neighbors wouldn't appreciate firing up any powertools at 5 am. I am hooked on antiques as well, I enjoy searching for old tools, rehabbing them and putting them to use. I have learned as much about history by researching tools than I ever learned in school.

[Mike Holbrook]

I had not finished putting together a power tool shop when I started realizing I did not like the tools and in the case of the table saw and router was scared of them every time I turned them on. I got a Festool saw and stopped using the table saw, a part way step. Now I am working on a set of hand planes to replace the router. Six months ago I was thinking about buying a good router table & new table router. Once I got the wet up I wanted priced out I had to ask myself how many hand tools I could get for the same money. The table saw, router and power sanding equipment made such a mess I just did not want to use them. Like David said I want to spend more time doing the hand work that I enjoy.

[Archie England]

terrible, aweful, really bad results in sanding! Arrgh, I hate sanding because of all my terrible, really no good, bad results. So, sanding!

Now, the other reason is childhood memories of my granddad using handplanes, braces, and hand drills, along with axes, hatchets, etc., for making all manner of building and repair projects on the family farm. I use to play with his tools. Gosh, I wonder what happened to those old Millers Falls and Stanley tools we had. Only later in life did my dad realize that I had grown up using his tool chest, which he had built as a class project in school.

[Tony Zaffuto]

A quest for the best and fastest tool for the job. Many times it is a table saw, many times it is a handsaw. Can't see any job completed without tweaks from a handplane, no matter how much sanding you do. I have a complete series of Fray/Spofford, each set up with a center bit, one with a countersink and one with a straight screwdriver bit. Got a crapload of pushdrills, each with a different size bit. But sometimes, I still need to grab a powered drill or use the drill press. Cut a bunch of rabbets the other day with a handplane, quicker than I could have set up a dado blade in the table saw or set up a router table.

I've been messing with this stuff since the early seventies (not counting earlier years in my Dad's basement shop), and will be messing until I'm planted. It's a matter of efficiency!

[Dave Lehnert]

For years I used a belt sander to get my glue up panels flat. It took me forever, the panels were never flat, Sanding belts were expensive. etc..... I picked up a used hand plane at the flea market. took a glued up panel and made a few swipes. I thought "You got to be kidding me how easy this is" Unbelievable.
Also living 20 min from the Popular Woodworking shop with Chris Schwarz had a hand in it too. (Stealth gloat).IMG_0734_1.jpgIMG_0736_3.jpgIMG_0737_4.jpg

[matt swiderski]

I still use a lot of power tools. I like to use hand tools because sometimes its just quicker to bring out the hand planes then it is to get the power tools out. Plus I really like the look of the all the shavings an the floor and bench.
Matt

[Jim Matthews]

I read Anthony Guidice's book, which brought my revulsion of Norm Abram's expensive shop into focus.

I didn't make sense to spend $50,000 to build end tables. That text showed me how I could get started without the dedicated shop. Hand tools trade time for expense.
It actually works out to LESS time, as I would need to work several years to afford all the motorized stuff.

With hand tools, I'm building now.

[Bill White]

Roy Underhill, but don't tell him that I still use power as well.
Bill

[Robert Joseph]

My grandfather left me a wide variety of hand tools when he died and got me off the power tool bandwagon. Funny, but by the time I was born, he had given up woodworking and just kept everything in his attic. Didn't even know he had worked in that field until after he died. Would have been nice to learn from him.