Thinning the herd - your take?

[Rob Luter]

Puttering in the shop last night I was struck by the hand tool specimens in my working collection that rarely if ever do any work. Last year I purged all my duplicates and a few other odds and ends trying to simplify my life. Who really needs 15 block planes and a dozen saws anyway? (I know it's not about need ) There's still a long way to go.

So I'm thinking about doing a deeper dive into minimalist woodworking and divesting myself of everything but the very basics. I'd end up with what Tom Lie-Nielsen calls "core tools".
I need to continue to simplify my life. Any Creekers out there gone through a downsizing like this? Any regrets?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Bill Houghton]

There's a book, "The Minimalist Woodworker." I haven't read it, but it might have some ideas. My library has it; yours might, too (if not, there's always interlibrary loan).

I have thought to myself, at times, that it would be fun to develop as minimal a kit as I could imagine - no backsaw, just a short panel saw, for instance - and make a piece of furniture.

[William Fretwell]

Rob I know exactly how you feel, with me it’s not just cabinet making but cooking.
I had an involuntary downsize during a move when my storage unit was broken into and my bench and most of my tools stolen. They even took the table saw but forgot the motor! It took ages to replace the stuff and it makes you very selective about what you buy. The bigggest problem is going to the tool box even today for ‘that’ chisel or set square and it’s not there. So when you downsize put the stuff away out of sight for a year and see if you miss something.
Overall though it makes you happier just to have the essentials, you look after them, you can find them, life is simple!

[Nicholas Lawrence]

when you downsize put the stuff away out of sight for a year and see if you miss something

I agree with this.

[Rob Luter]

So when you downsize put the stuff away out of sight for a year and see if you miss something.

I sort of did this. I have items that have hung on hooks or sat in drawers for a year or more. I got them “just in case” I might need them. It turns out I probably didn’t.

[Jim Koepke]

So when you downsize put the stuff away out of sight for a year and see if you miss something.

This doesn't work well for me. Some of my tools have set unused for a year. Then all of a sudden they are the center of a project or two. Then just as quickly they set waiting.

There are a lot of extras of many tools in my kit. That is my preference. Then when it come to things like molding planes or blades for combination planes or drill bits there are many sizes that are seldom used.

Don't get me started on chisels and gouges.

jtk

[ken hatch]

I'm lucky to live in the desert, my tools take little ongoing maintenance. The biggest problem is finding storage space. Because of space problems I'm down sizing, nothing drastic but selling or at least trying to sell off some of the never used tools. Some progress was made this past weekend at the local Woodcraft boot sale and I expect more will be made during the Spring tool sale.

BTW, it looks like I will trade a wooden plow plane for a draw knife, kinda a one out one in thing and that's ok.

Good luck on shedding tools, it is not an easy thing to do.

ken

[Clark Magnuson]

I have hoarded tools from garage sales. Every chisel, screwdriver, and wrench I bought for years.
They are mostly in drawers.

I used the Lee Valley modern woodworking bench plans to build a bench in 1984.
It has a bottom shelf I added.
A few tools are on that shelf.
Almost everything I do is with the tools on the bottom shelf, not from drawers across the shop.

[Andrew Seemann]

Thinning the herd? I've just barely been able to stop adding to the herd (at least not as often). Hopefully I have a few more decades before I need to start thinning, voluntarily or not.

I guess if I had pick what to keep as a minimum to not get irritated while woodworking , it would probably be:

• Two sets of chisels (one set of A2 for beating on and one set of carbon steel for sharpness) some specialty chisels like a parer and maybe a mortice, and a few plastic handled beater chisels, wood mallet
• a couple 9 1/2 block planes, one #3 smoother, two #4 smoothers, a jack plane, a #78 rabbet plane, maybe a #6 and #7, card scrapers
• a pair of 6" try squares, a 12" combo square, bevel square, a Starrett 414 12" rule, a 24" rule, 24" framing square, some dividers and calipers, ice pick, awl, layout knife, and a bradawl, 16' Stanley tape measure
• Gent's saw or dovetail saw, coping saw, crosscut panel saw, rip saw
• Some other assorted tools I can't think of off the top of my head.

I didn't include things like hammers, screwdrivers, needle nose pliers, nail sets, drills, yankee screwdriver, etc as they aren't necessarily woodworking specific.

[Chuck Nickerson]

I've been thinning the herd for the past 11 months. When I needed to evacuate in the face of a wildfire the time it took to pack my hobbyist shop was ridiculous.
I don't need a working set of planes in single-iron woodies, double-iron woodies, transitionals, bevel-down metal, and bevel-up metal; but I had them.
I also didn't need two each of all six sweeps of Fray braces. I'm down to one of each.

Take some time. You can care about price, who gets them, or both. Just think it through.

[Bob Glenn]

A benefit that I am realizing, thanks to CS, is that the fewer tools you have, the easier it is to keep them sharp and in good working condition. I prefer to pick up an oft used tool that I know is sharp and am familiar with its idiosycracies. Too many tools and they start to own you, not the other way around.

[Charles Guest]

Puttering in the shop last night I was struck by the hand tool specimens in my working collection that rarely if ever do any work. Last year I purged all my duplicates and a few other odds and ends trying to simplify my life. Who really needs 15 block planes and a dozen saws anyway? (I know it's not about need ) There's still a long way to go.

So I'm thinking about doing a deeper dive into minimalist woodworking and divesting myself of everything but the very basics. I'd end up with what Tom Lie-Nielsen calls "core tools".
I need to continue to simplify my life. Any Creekers out there gone through a downsizing like this? Any regrets?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Do it, and be brutal. You won't be sorry.

[Oskar Sedell]

I agree fully. My shop is small, and I don´t have many doublets, or tools in general. Still I´m trying to sort out saws that don´t get used (mostly because I found other saws that work better), hammers, axes, anything that I don´t really need.

Exceptions are chisels in rare widths (don´t take much space, but awesome to have the right size once in a year or so), planes that I made (couple of doublet smoothers and one-hand planes) and knifes. I enjoy making them and the sloyd knife is maybe my most used tool. Again, I don´t have 3 or more 1/2´´chisels, nor do I buy more block planes when I already have one.

[Jim Koepke]

Another way to look at spare tools that do not take up too much space or time in care is as a savings account. It usually isn't difficult to sell a few tools via various avenues. Buy low and wait.

jtk

[Tom Bender]

Here's how I trim my inventory of clothes (my wife likes to shop and I haven't outgrown anything in decades). It may not work for tools but it could.

All my tee shirts are hung together, clean ones get hung on the left and I take the next one from the right, with the caveat that I can skip one or two to get to a reasonable color. When one gets passed over a few times it gets thrown off the island. Dress shirts, socks etc get the same scrutiny.

Could you do this with planes, screwdrivers, chisels? Maybe.