Hi All
I kinda muddied the waters in the Saw Bench thread with some of my comments. What I should have done was to simply applaud Harry for his efforts and be done with it. Instead I took a swipe at very expensive tools - and by extension, those who use or covet them.
I would like to apologise if I offended anyone.
The great thing about Harry's initiative is that he is serving to remind us that you can get a lot of useful stuff done with simple tools. I think it's obvious from the number of responses he's got that there's a lot of interest in his approach. I don't particularly need any sawhorses (benches, trestles -depending where you're from) but I'm thinking of building some just for the fun of it.
As a newcomber to these forums, I'm struck by the amount of "ink" that is dedicated to tool talk. Maybe I'm the one with the problem - I'm prepared to accept that . Harry's straight ahead "use the tools you got" approach is a refreshing break from the "LN LV BU LA" lingo - at least to me it is.
I'm old enough to remember when there was no LV or LN or GW. That doesn't mean that I don't embrace them and the improvements they have made in the selection of what's available out there (I own a Paragon smoother by LV and a LV low angle blockplane, neither of which get used much). But people got things done with hardware store tools.
Crappy tools or poorly tuned tools are a detriment to doing good work - no doubt about it. All the woodworking books I've read always recommended buying the best tools you can afford and I guess that still holds true. The best tools today, though, are so esoteric and highly refined that I think they are better than most of the people who buy them really need.(Myself included)
I think it's important for people to know that they can get by with less than the latest and greatest. You might need to tune it or tweak it a bit, but those are important skills too. If you want to do the highest quality work, you will want the best. If you want to bevel the sides of a sawbench, do as Harry does - pick up the nearest sharp plane and get at it!
End of rant. Please forgive the long post.
IG