• Hand-Cut Dovetails
• Advanced Hand-Cut Dovetails

Both are by Rob Cosman, a Canadian who calls himself, “Your Hand Tool Coach.” As I watched these videos, I can see why.

He explains when and why you’d want to use hand-cut dovetails vs. those cut using a router. He shows some cool tricks for laying out the dovetails that only involve a couple of dividers and no measuring tools. Then he shows how to mark layout lines to help you guide your saw.

Rob cuts the tails first and uses the tail board to mark the pins. (He shows a couple of tricks for doing that, too.) And when he’s all done, he applies glue to the long-grain edges of the tails and pins and knocks the joint together. No test-fitting, no paring of the pins or tails with a chisel…just a perfect fit the first time. He says (and I agree) that once you test-fit, the joint will never look right the second time you put it together.

The trick is in making clearly-defined layout lines and “cutting to the line” with the saw. Rob used a Lie-Nielsen back saw, but the principles apply if you’re using a Japanese-style saw.

The videos are available from Rob’s web site (where you can view previews) and also from Lie-Nielsen.  They’re worth a look.

So…I’m out in the shop, working on repairing some shelving for my wife. I let my 13-year old use the table saw for the first time. I could tell he was nervous, but he did fine. But the noise bothered him. Same with the router. He just doesn’t like the noise.

Anyway, I move on to cutting and attaching some drawer fronts to my drill press cabinet. He’s bored, so he pulls out some hand planes and works on making a toy dagger out of some scraps. (The kids were so impressed with a toy sword I made — complete with a leather-covered handle — that they’ve been begging for more “weapons.”) He decides to add a “scabbard” crosspiece to the blade. So he carefully marks the joint on both pieces. What he’s really after, but doesn’t know it yet, is his first half-lap joint.

Now, remember, I’m minding my own business and not paying attention to what he’s doing. But I pop my head up from behind the bench and he asks very innocently, “How do I do this without making noise?”  I bust out laughing.

After I caught my breath, I pointed him to my little joinery hand saws and showed him how to use them. So he made several saw kerfs halfway through the thickness of the “scabbard” and “blade” pieces for his dagger. Then I pulled out my Stanley chisels and showed him how to pare away the waste (while keeping the fingers BEHIND the cutting edge). “Wow, this is sharp!,” he said. Finally, he cleaned up the joint with a shoulder plane. He thought that was cool.

Now, for his first hand-cut joint, it didn’t turn out bad at all. It was a little loose, so we made some walnut wedges to fill in the gaps before he glued everything together.

He needs to keep that dagger and always remember the first time he made a hand-cut joint in Dad’s shop. Without noise. And dust. It only gets better from there.

“I have a few old woodworking tools and there was this box at the end (of the auction) with a lot of old woodworking tools. I bought it sight-unseen for 10 bucks and I picked it up yesterday on the way home from work and started unpacking it and in the bottom of it I found the mortar.

“It was a fairly big box and it was hidden right in the bottom of the box where no-one could see it … and it was a little bit scary to find something like that.

“It was like ‘oh $#!+ {expletive deleted}!’ and it was like ‘oh we’ve got to ring the cops quick’, so all we did was left it where it was and they came around and we were told we should not stay in the house overnight and we went to our in-laws to stay the night.”

You can click here to read the rest of the story. You just never know what goodies you’ll find at an auction.

They’re looking for woodworkers willing to join a class held in late March at Conover’s facility in Cleveland. As Conover explains on his website, “…the class, “Joinery at its Best,” stresses the use of hand work where it stands out quality-wise or offers a cheaper, easier alternative.”

Interested in being a star? Get more details on the class, dates, costs, and lodging information at Ernie’s website.

Here’s what Kevin said about the construction of the plane:
Software was used to design the lettering and then output to a
Bridgeport CNC Milling machine with an engraving tool. The sides and sole were machined to fit. The brass sides were milled to size and the steel sole is just around .002 larger to allow for a tight pressed fit. The connector bolts have brass spacers inserted to maintain proper thickness. They were simply easier to use than bothering with rivets. The brass wedge was drawn up in AutoCAD and then exported to the CNC Milling maching with an end-mill. After assembly, 320 silicone emery paper gave the shoulder plane
the final “spit and polish.”

I told Kevin that it looked awesome, but how did it work?

Here’s what he had to say: “I broke out the Tormek and sharpened the iron up tonight and got to use the plane. Paper-thin shavings with only a little bit of fussing. This baby is going to get years of love and use!”

You can read more here on the WoodNet Hand Tools forum.

Here’s what Phil Huber, Associate Editor of Woodsmith had to say about Phil’s presentation:

“First, it was amazing just how much he did with just a small assortment of tools — quite the opposite of what you see pitched in catalogs and, unfortunately, in woodworking magazines. When he did the shaping of the (rough cut) legs with just a rasp, file, and card scraper, it was inspiring. The big lesson here is picking the right set of tools for the types of projects you build. After seeing him work, I think a small router plane would come in really handy!

“Another quality of Phil’s work that made an impression was his methodical and efficient working habits. He’s made a well-practiced routine of some basic steps. Applying those skills to a variety of projects saves time and a lot of head scratching. When I spend time in my shop, I’d like to put in some ‘practice time’ with my hand saw, chisels, and smoothing plane and build those basic skills. Besides, building that set of skills is part of what makes woodworking enjoyable to me.

“Along with that, Phil showed a level of confidence that I’d like to have in my woodworking. For example, when the table saw wasn’t cutting up to snuff, he just calmly crosscut a part at the band saw and squared it up with a plane in a short time. The same with making the dovetail sockets for the legs. No one-time-use router jig, just nuts and bolts saw and chisel work. (The photo shows a small joinery saw made by Wenzloff and Sons.)  I spend too much time worrying about getting something perfect or not trying a technique because I’m not sure how it will turn out. The fact is, I just need to do it.”

“I don’t know if I can sum it up in a couple of paragraphs… most of what I gleaned were random tidbits of information. In general, Phil seems like a very knowledgeable, down-to-earth woodworker. He impressed me as a no-nonsense New England Yankee, who approaches every task at hand in a practical and methodical way. I was as impressed with the way he worked as much as the end result of his efforts.

“I found the slide show to be very inspiring, particularly the photos of projects made by his students. It made me realize that even a seemingly intricate and complex piece of furniture is not so difficult if you just break it down into a series of smaller steps. It also made me realize that there is really no substitute to actually doing something. You can read and watch and listen all you want, but you have to actually get some hands-on practice if you want to master a skill. Phil made a comment about learning how to do something. He used carving rosettes as an example. He said that if you carve one rosette, you will prove to yourself how it is done, and that it can be done. But if you carve 10 rosettes, you will start to get good at it and learn how to do it better and faster.

“I was impressed by how Phil synthesized the use of power tools and hand tools in a way that made complete sense and yielded top-notch results in his work. Again, a lot of this had to do with his no-nonsense approach. He seemed to pick the tool that would give him the best results in the quickest amount of time. Since he does this for a living, I imagine time is money for him, and he isn’t about to waste valuable time setting up a jig or power tool when a hand tool can do the job faster. Conversely, if he has a lot of repetitious work to do, he will invest the time to make a jig for a power tool.”

I’m fortunate to live in central Iowa and have a membership to Living History Farms. It’s recognized as one of the most authentic historical sites in the nation and the world. You can read more about its history here. There’s something there for everyone in the family to see and take part in the activities. Every time I go, I’m automatically drawn to the authentic 1870′s cabinetmaker’s shop. I can spend hours just hanging around watching the cabinetmakers and chatting about woodworking. On Saturday, March 10, they’re having a class on “Woodworking Hand Plane Restoration.” You can go to this page to see a complete list of adult education courses, including blacksmith courses at the blacksmith shop.

So, if your travels ever take you to “Ioway,” be sure to stop by for a visit.

We think you’ll be proud to hang this in your shop. And it’s handsome enough to hang in your office or kitchen. So tell all your woodworking buddies about this cool download.

Phil Lowe has been involved with woodworking since 1968 and is the author of many articles in Fine Woodworking Magazine. He is featured in the Time Life series on woodworking and in videos with The Taunton Press on Carve a Ball and Claw Foot, Making a Sheraton Bed and most recently, Measuring Furniture for Reproduction. His teaching experience includes ten years (1975 -1985) as an instructor at Boston’s North Bennett Street School, where he was positioned as department head for the latter five.

Since 1985 Phil has operated a furniture making and restoration shop in Beverly, MA, producing work for the private sector and museums throughout North America. In 1997 Phil started The Furniture Institute of Massachusetts which offers hands-on classes in all facets of traditional furniture making. Phil has been a visiting instructor and demonstrator at various schools and woodworking organizations throughout the United States and Canada.

The presentation on Friday, February 23rd is from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Phil will use a slide show to introduce you to his experience and philosophy of building and restoring fine furniture in his Boston workshop. The Friday evening presentation is FREE and open to the public.

The presentation on Saturday, February 24th is from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Phil will demonstrate how to plan a piece of furniture, design appropriate joinery, and construct the piece using a combination of power and hand tools. Tickets are required in advance for the Saturday presentation. A catered Lunch is included. There is limited ticket availability.

The cost for Saturday’s seminar is $50 for members of the Des Moines Woodworkers Association and $60 for non-members. You can download an application here.

The other day I needed to take the bathroom door out of its opening to move it into the shop for some planing, scraping, fixing and painting.It turned out that my cordless drill had run down its battery (from lack of use – but if you say that to my wife I will deny everything).

I threw my hands up, jammed the battery into the charger, and sat down to watch the Eagles’ B team throw the final switch on Mora’s job at Atlanta.

My wife passed by as I was sitting on the couch and asked what I was doing.

When I explained my predicament she asked me, “What did you do before you had a cordless drill?”

You know, women are sorta like cats – they’re cute when they’re young but spend the rest of their lives making annoying noises and coughing up furballs on the carpet.  OK, the carpet thing was a little over the top.

She was right, though – again.

I went down to the shop and got out my old Yankee 131-A and sucked the screws out of them hinges in about half a heart beat. It gets better.

The other part of the bathroom job was to run a bit of trim and my old Paslode Trimpulse (the original model, unfortunately) had a battery that would not take a charge.

Knowing that my wife would ask me the same question again, I looked into the box and pulled out my slightly rusty Yankee push drill.

This, along with my Plumb 20 oz. curved claw that I drove for thirty years would handle the trim  (I know that you think that a 20 oz. hammer is more meat than a man should use for trim but if you talk to old finish carpenters, of which I am one, they will tell you that 13 oz. trim hammers are for amateurs… – and just plain don’t have enough smack).

Let it suffice to say that I was done my chores in less time than it took for the batteries to charge and I made new friends with old friends.

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/

You can read the complete thread with responses to Tom’s original post here.  To read more about Yankee-type screwdrivers, pick up a copy of ShopNotes No. 91.

While I spent over twelve hours in the shop on Saturday, I learned some new things and reconfirmed some things I already knew about myself.

The first thing I realized is that there is a place for both power tools and hand tools in the shop.  Now most of you won’t consider that notion any great revelation.  But since I’ve been idle in my shop over the last year or so, I’ve somehow had this daydream that whenever I got started on actually building something again, it would be with mostly hand tools.  The reality set in quickly when I found the need to rout an edge profile on some boards.  I don’t have a complete set of molding planes at my disposal, so I dug through one of my moving boxes and found the router bits I needed.  My poor old Porter-Cable router hadn’t seen the light of day for probably a couple of years.  It felt good to see the finished product.

Another thing I learned confirmed what I already know — I hate miter joints.  No matter how I cut them or how careful I am, they never turn out right.  But that leads to my third lesson.

A small block plane is indespensable no matter what size the project.  I found myself reaching for a low-angle block plane to “tweak” the fit of the miter joints. (I really like the Veritas® low-angle Apron Plane.)  And when it came time to fit a the edge of a board tight against another, I scribed the joint and fine-tuned the fit with the block plane.  In years past, I’d have tried this with a belt sander or some other uncontrollable electrical device.  But there’s something about taking shavings off in controlled amounts that make woodworking enjoyable.

There’s one other thing I reconfirmed in myself during this project:  I really dislike finishing.  No… I pretty much hate it.  This particular project required the use of a Sherwin-Williams oil-based stain to match existing woodwork.  But I wanted to add some protection with some sort of polyurethane varnish.  Since I’ve never had good results in years past with brush-on polyurethane, I decided to give General Finishes Arm-R-Seal wipe-on polyurethane a try.  Wouldn’t you know it…even after reading and following the instructions on the can, it lifted some of the stain.  Not just on the first coat, either.  Every coat I applied kept pulling up some stain.  Until the fourth coat.  Nevertheless, the wood tone was not as dark as when I started.  Now, I fault the stain more than the varnish.  I’ve heard of many folks being perfectly happy with the results they get using Arm-R-Seal.

Now, all my finishing problems might have something to do with the fact that instead of sanding my project (I despise sanding), I hand planed each board then used a card scraper.  The surface of the red oak was glass-smooth before I applied the stain.  I think that most finish manufacturers count on a sanded surface in their formulations.

In any case, the project is complete and I’m ready to start on the next one.  Now what did I do with that “Honey-Do” list?

But Bridge City Tool Works and founder John Economaki have built a strong following made up of both users and collectors. You don’t stay in business for over 25 years without a loyal customer base. And as John says, “We make a world-class product …but, there’s more to our tools than just making sawdust. I believe the combination of form and function is inspiring and adds immensely to the physical process of woodworking.”

So when I was asked last week to take a look at the new HP-7 Shoulder Plane, I was eager to get my hands on it. And I have to say, it is an impressive new tool. Its body is made from solid brass. That gives if plenty of heft, which is what you want in a shoulder plane. And the iron is almost a full ¼” thick. That’ll make it easier to hone to a sharp edge.

But what’s really unique about this plane is the mechanism used to secure the iron in place. The ergonomically-designed stainless steel handle on the back of the plane is really a lever that locks a cap iron into place. It works kind of like a toggle clamp. It’s an ingenious design and functions very well. (There’s also a set screw in the cap iron that allows you to adjust the amount of pressure for locking down the iron.)

The shoulder plane also has two adjusting wheels. The one at the front controls an adjustable “shoe” to set the mouth opening. To set the opening, simply loosen the shoe using a finely knurled adjustment wheel. Then you manually position the shoe for the mouth opening you desire and retighten the wheel. It would by nice if there were an adjustment knob of some sort, but it’s not a terrible inconvenience to position it manually. And I like that you can slide the shoe out of the way to remove the iron.

And speaking of the iron, it’s held in place by a pin on the depth adjustment mechanism. The depth adjustment is controlled by a second knurled wheel at the back of the plane. The backlash was minimal at only about ¼ to ½ turn of the wheel.

I took a few swipes on the end grain of some cherry with the prototype we tested and it did a great job of slicing through the wood fibers. And that was right out of the box without honing the iron. I do have one small complaint though. I have smaller hands and the “horn” of the lever mechanism on the prototype stuck up a little too high and curved backward too sharply to fit the web of my hand. Plus, I felt the finger indentations in the brass body were too far away for my stubby fingers to reach. But, when we mentioned this to the folks at Bridge City, we were told that the indents were moved closer to the rear on the production models to address this issue. There was no indication that the design of the lever would be changed, though.

I’m sure a fair amount of John’s tools are purchased by collectors and are never removed from their box. At the same time there are some fine woodworkers who want nothing but the best tools in their shop. The machining, polish, overall appearance and function of the HP-7 Shoulder Plane is impeccable and this new tool is sure to be appreciated by fine tool users and collectors alike. 

A Visit to Paul Hamler’s Shop

Looking for a circular saw? Acccording to some WoodNetters, the Makita Hypoid circ saw is hard to beat:

Makita Hypoid Saw

I’m not sure which is funnier – the Craig’s List item for sale – or the forum thread itself:

Craigs List – Chuckle

Even considering repeat posters, over 1000 people took advantage of this “Day After Thanksgiving” Sale:

Official HDT Black Friday List

As you know, I bought the log from the forestry division of the Amana Shops. I drove up yesterday morning and with the help of Larry Gnewikow and Tim Krauss, I had a tree cut down and dragged to a clearing by 11:00 am. Then for the next two hours or so, I tried to put the lessons I’d learned last spring while attending a ladderback chair class at the John C. Campbell Folk School to good use.

I’ve never tried to split a tree of this size before. In fact, except for chopping firewood, I’ve never really tried to split a tree at all. I brought with me the tool box containing all my tools that I used to build the chair last spring. I also brought along a couple of sledge hammers, two 4-lb. steel wedges, four plastic wedges, and two hard maple splitting wedges that I’d made myself.

The first step in splitting a tree this size (approx. 20″-24″ diameter) is to score a line. Well, actually the first step is to find any splits that happen naturally from the stress of being cut down. As you can see in the photo at left, I neglected to do that and had to redo my score marks after I discovered this stress crack. Trying to fight that crack is next to impossible, so it’s best to take the path of least resistance.

Once I’d completed the scoring I switched to my 12-lb. sledge and started in on the steel wedges. It’s kind of hard to see here, but once the wedges start to take a bite, the tree will split perfectly along the scored line. At least you hope it will! This tree wasn’t perfect, but it is pretty close to veneer grade. This means the bark runs straight up and down, there are no visible knots or branches, and the growth rings should be concentric and start in the exact middle of the trunk.

The split veered off just a bit at the bottom edge (photo above), but that had more to do with my crooked scoring than anything. Once I’d gotten the tree to split across its width, I started to concentrate on splitting it across its length. After about a half hour, I’d managed to get the log split in two.

Eventually, I managed to get one half split into quarters. I used an axe to split the fibrous splinters holding the two sections together. Like I mentioned, it only took me about a half hour to make the first split. The second and third splits took considerably longer! But, all in all, I’m happy with the results of my hard days work. I’ll keep you posted on how the chairs are coming along. -Joel

One of the things that I like about woodworking is that there are so many different ways to work wood. So if you’re adventurous, you can use hand tools to do almost all the work. Or even take it a step further and go back to the way they worked wood in the 19th century, and use old hand tools!

I spent most of the day in woods outside Middle Amana, Iowa today splitting a six-foot section of veneer-grade white Oak. Man, was that a lot of work. You may remember that last spring, I took a ladderback chair building class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. During the class, we started out with a small quarter section of a red Oak tree and rived it into chair parts. All of the work of felling the tree and splitting it into quarter sections was done by the instructor for the class, Lyle Wheeler. Lyle is a big, burly guy and now I know how he got that way!

Anyway, I contacted Larry Gnewikow, forester for Amana Society Forestry. Larry manages the largest privately-owned hardwood forest in the state of Iowa and one of the largest in the midwest and he agreed to sell me a 5-6 foot section of white Oak. Larry and forester Tim Krauss were waiting for me at a clearing where they had been logging white Oak for a veneer factory in northeast Iowa. Normally, the factory takes 8-12 foot long logs, but Larry explained that occasionally they’ll find trees with only 5 or 6 feet of veneer-grade trunk that the factory won’t accept. Since that’s all I needed, I took the good stuff and the rest will most likely be sold for pallets. Note the knot about 6 feet up in the photo at left. That’s all it takes to get rejected.

Tim started by surveying the best location to fell the tree. Then he cut a notch on that side of the tree. Next, he removed the taper at the bottom of the trunk so that it wouldn’t roll around when I got ready to split it. Tim knows his work and it took less than 10 minutes (with chips flying everywhere!) for him to drop the tree and have it ready for the skid to pull it out to the clearing.

I’ll tell you how I split it tomorrow. -Joel

Once I was on the Colonial Williamsburg web site, I got lost.  There are all sorts of links to information about the tools and trades.  I intend to read them all but, of course, I was most interested in the cabinetmaking trade. 

I hope you get as much enjoyment reading these articles as I do.

I had always wondered why a “coffin” smoothing plane was made in the characteristic shape of a coffin. I thought it had something to do with ergonomics and how you handle the plane when using it.  Nope.  Uh-uh.  It has everything to do with how the wood moves, grain direction, and keeping everything square.

For some reason, I ended up on the Clark and Williams web site this morning. Lo and behold, they have an article, “Design and Tuning Considerations for Bench Planes,” on wood selection in the making of traditional hand planes. Here’s an excerpt:

There’s another thing happening with bench planes. The body of a bench plane is divided into three sections. The toe and heel sections are solid wood and the escapement has only air and thin sides or cheeks that have a triangular shape. These thin cheeks absorb or lose moisture faster than the solid thick sections. As they expand and contract more than the adjacent solid sides, they force the planes of the soles of the heel and toe out of alignment. This is taken care of on the traditional smooth plane by the coffin shape which exposes the end grain of the sides. The sides of the heel and toe thus are able to maintain a similar moisture content as the cheeks. We prefer the 18th Century style longer planes because the height of their bodies is less and it limits this effect.

The toe and heel sections, on a coffin shaped smoothing plane, are kept as short as possible. The heel, bed, breast and toe are all end grain and moisture moves relatively freely to and from them. The center of the mass of the heel and toe sections, because of the angled breast and bed, will be low and relatively close to the sole. The moisture carrying capability of the rays comes into play here and helps keep the center areas of these sections in equilibrium.

Bethcha’ didn’t know that. I sure didn’t.

Last spring, I bought one of two brand new hand planes, both from Lee Valley. One was the Veritas® medium shoulder plane. The other was their low-angle smooth plane. Most of my planes are restored derelicts purchased on Ebay or from yard sales. So the decision to get this plane didn’t come without a lot of thought. And the only new plane I’ve purchased up until then was a cheap little trimming plane from the BORG.

Now, you can read all sorts of lengthy reviews of this plane all over the web. But I want to talk about why I decided on this plane.

Quality of Design. I can honestly say I’ve never used a Lie-Nielsen smoother. I never had any acquaintances that owned one, and I couldn’t justify the expense of buying one. And I’ve already got a bunch of old Stanley smoothers. My thoughts (besides cost) were that if the Lie-Nielsens were basically Stanley designs, what advantages do they have?

It’s pretty obvious from looking at the Veritas planes that the designers went back to the drawing board. I’m sure they looked at the physics of planing, ergonomics, economics of manufacturing, and overall usability. After using the low angle smoother for a while, I’d say they pretty much hit them all dead on.

I like the adjustable mouth. A lot of my planing is for that glass-smooth surface, so I set it for a fine mouth and make whisper-thin shavings.

The adjustment mechanism is simple, but highly effective and operates smoothly. I have no problems adjust the depth of cut or lateral position of the iron.

The cap iron is even well-designed with a broad clamping foot that spreads the clamping pressure on the iron, keeping it in place. I can get secure clamping on the iron without overtightening and still be able to adjust the iron.

Cost Effective. For a mass-produced plane, I consider the Veritas planes middle-of-the-road in terms of price. They’re more expensive than the poorer quality Stanleys but not quite as expensive as the Lie-Nielsens.

Versatile. I chose the smoother over the Veritas bevel-up smoother because of its sides being machined square to the sole. One of my next projects is to build a shooting board, so I wanted a low-angle plane with machined sides.

Another thing I like about the low-angle plane is that I can change the bevel angle simply by switching out irons. That’s something you can’t do on traditional bench (bevel-down) planes unless you want to get into the complexities of back bevels. Lee Valley has irons available for this and other planes that are ground at various bevels.

I’ve found myself using this plane for the majority of my smoothing needs. There have only been a few exceptions where a change in grain direction has caused problems with the low cutting angle. I’d get tearout, but it was easily cleaned up with one of my traditional bench smoothers with its higher cutting angle.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the Veritas Low-Angle smoother and would recommend it to any woodworker that values great engineering and quality manufacturing.

I spent the better part of the weekend in a cramped 36″x36″ space, with very little light, working on my hands and knees. And for anyone that knows me, I filled up most of that space…and I can’t see very well as it is…and I’ve got bad knees! So I’m not a happy camper. But my wife is, and that’s what counts.

I did get back in the shop last evening though and I started working on a simple project that I’ve had laying around in a box for three or four years. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) When our company moved its warehouse into the new space at the Woodsmith Store, they held a sale of older or slow-moving merchandise. I’m a sucker for sales and so I took home a couple of boxes full of mis-matched hardware, parts for jigs, and even several parts for a joiner’s mallet that used to be sold at the store as a ready-to-assemble hand tool kit. (Note: the mallet was originally published as a project in ShopNotes No. 2: Joiner’s Mallet.) I think I ended up with enough parts to make a half dozen mallets and my intent was to assemble them all, then sell them at a garage sale.

Anyway, they’re easy to build since the parts are already pre-cut. The mallet is made up of two core pieces, two sides, a handle and some wedges to hold the handle in place. The first step was to glue the core pieces to one of the sides. The core pieces have pockets drilled into them for some lead weights. According to the instructions, you should add epoxy to keep the lead shot from rattling. I don’t see much need for it, and besides it’s messy!

After filling the pockets with lead, I glued on the other side piece. At first I used a couple of quick clamps. They’re easy to use, but they only apply pressure in one spot. I noticed that there were some gaps in the laminated pieces, so I switched to a couple of screw clamps. This puts even pressure all along the glue joint.

Finally, I used a micro-rasp to shape the handle. As you can see in the picture, I used another screw clamp to hold the handle while I shaped it. If you don’t own a few of these old-fashioned clamps, I highly recommend getting some. They come in handy in a lot of ways around the shop.

Well, this was a nice hour in the shop and much better than working on the shower stall. I’ll finish the mallet tomorrow or Friday. I guess I’ll have to finish my Honey-do list over the weekend!

Here’s a long-running thread on WoodNet that debates the issue and points out the benefits of each.

The article doesn’t have a dateline, so I’m not sure how old it is. It mentions a book that Jack wrote called Ohio Toolmakers and Their Tools. I contacted the newspaper and a few days later got an email from Mr. Devitt. Here’s what he says:

To receive a copy of Ohio Toolmakers and Their Tools, send $30.00 which includes postage and handling to Jack Devitt, P.O. Box 116, Ottoville, OH 45876 with your name and address. Also indicate if you want the book signed and if you want it signed to a specific person. We’ll get it in the mail the same day usually.

I used the existing holes to mark the location. Then I just held the lid in place and used the holes to guide the bit. Over at the drill press I decided to use a screw clamp to hold the workpiece. It’s important that it’s held plumb and square so that the lid and hinge will operate smoothly. I drilled the hole about 3/4″ deep on both ends, then take it over to the workbench and reinsert the hinge pins. I used a tack hammer to drive them home. The pins are just short pieces of brass wire. You could fill the hole with a small plug made from a dowel, but I didn’t bother. I like the brass accent.

A couple of coats of oil will restore the finish (I’ll add it later!), and it’s good as new.

Not long after I gave it to her, one of our cats knocked the box onto the floor. The lid was open and it snapped the lid hinge in two. It’s been sitting on the dresser — broken, but usuable — for at least two years.

Once I got it downstairs and into the shop, I figured it would be an easy job to remove the busted hinge with a chisel. But as you can see, the glue joint was holding pretty good and when I started gouging the underside of the lid, I decided to reach for my block plane.

It did a nice job of removing the bulk of the hinge. I had to sand it down with some 150-grit sandpaper, which means I’ll have to do a little re-finishing.

Here’s a tip: Use a sanding disk from your random orbit sander to pad the workpiece when you clamp it in a bench vise. The sandpaper side keeps it from sliding around and the padded, velcro side is nice and soft, so it won’t mar your workpiece.
With the old hinge was removed, I had to make a new one. Luckily, I had a nice, small piece of 1/2″ cherry in my scrap bin. This was a small enough job that I left the router and a roundover bit in the cabinet and decided to shape it by hand.

Again, a block plane and a spokeshave made the job easy.

Finally, I trimmed the hinge workpiece to size according to the original plan and glued it back into position on the base.

I’ll let it dry overnight, give it a final sanding, and drill the pilot holes for the wire hinges tomorrow. A little cherry stain to even things out and an oil finish and the box is good as new! I’m beginning to like this one hour per day thing. – Joel

Why You Need Hand Planes in Your Shop

Even if you have a shop full of power tools, I’ll show you how hand planes can add a level of craftsmanship to your projects you never thought possible.  We’ll look at how to level an uneven joint, get perfectly flush edge-banding on plywood, smooth a glued-up panel, and much more.

Join us for an information-packed and fun evening!

Sponsored in part by:

Now that there are only a few shopping weeks left until Christmas, you can print this list and buy some gifts for that special handy-person around the house.

Norm’s Tool List:

1. A set of chisels
2. Adjustable wrench
3. Sliding T-bevel
4. Try square
5. Brace
6. Hand drill
7. Monkey wrench
8. Ripsaw
9. Yankee screwdriver
10. 3-foot level
11. Folding ruler
12. Clapboard gauge
13. Straight-claw hammer
14. Curved-claw hammer
15. Hacksaw
16. Spokeshave
17. 1-foot level
18. Plumb bob
19. Whetstone
20. Router plane
21. Scribe
22. Classic wooden toolbox

When I was taking some mechanical engineering courses in college, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the metal shop.  Using these big milling machines to cut metal was fascinating to me.

Now, you can buy milling machines, metal lathes, and other metalworking tools for your home shop.  I know you can buy them from Grizzly, Harbor Freight, Enco, and others.  I’ve toyed around with getting a small milling machine for my own shop.

Ian Dalziel lives in the U.K. and has a CNC (computerized numerical control) mill in his shop.  And he’s using it to make hand planes like you see in the photo.  Like Ian, I enjoy making my own tools.  Someday, I hope to be half the artisan he is.

The kit comes with pre-cut front and back wood pieces, two predrilled brass side pieces, a Hock iron and cap iron, and the cap screw and washer used to assemble the iron into the finished plane.

The brass sides need some work before you can fasten them to the wood pieces. The holes need countersunk for the small brass screws. I used a countersink in my drill press, being careful not to drill too deep. You want the head of the screws to be just a little proud of the surface so you can file them flush later. Then following the detailed instructions included in the kit, I marked and predrilled pilot holes for the screws in the wood pieces. The most critical dimension here is the width of the mouth opening. You want a tight opening to be able to take fine shavings without tearout. The nice thing is, if the mouth ends up being too tight, you can file a little to open it up. But if it’s too big…well…let’s just say that it involves quite a bit more work.

I took a file to the brass sides to file the screw heads flush to the sides. Then I used sandpaper face-up on my bench to smooth the sides and make them flat. I started with 150-grit and worked my way up to 400-grit. That leaves a nice “brushed” finish. Then I rubbed the sides with a fine 3M Scotch-Brite pad. Then I went to work to form the radius on the back and front like you see in the photo. I used a rasp and sandpaper to do this while the plane was clamped in the tail vise of my workbench.

The next thing I did was flatten the sole. I followed the instructions and used sandpaper face-up on my table saw. I used the rip fence as a reference to keep the sole 90° to the sides. On my plane, the sole on the back piece was thicker than that on the front piece, so it took quite a bit of sanding to get the entire sole flat.

Finally, I was ready to fit the iron into the plane. The mouth was a little tight, so I ended up filing about 1/32″ from the front of the mouth. It’s important to keep the mouth square when filing. A little honing of the iron and I was ready to put it all together and give it a try.

I set the plane to take a very thin shaving and took a few swipes on the edge of some oak I had lying around the shop. I was able to get a full-width, “whisper thin” shaving the full length of the board. I was impressed. This is a comfortable, sweet little plane. The only downside that I could see is that the sole is wood. As comfortable and nice as this plane is to use, it’ll get a lot of use in my shop, but that means a lot of wear on the sole. Now, because it is wood, that means that I can flatten the sole anytime I need to with a few swipes across some sandpaper. But that also means risking widening of the mouth. But I suspect it’ll be quite some time before I need to worry about any of that.

A coat of boiled linseed oil and a couple coats of Briwax clear paste wax added the final “spit polish.” Then I couldn’t resist…I had to take a few more shavings.  Like I said — what a sweet little plane.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was the plane iron. Both planes use a 3/16″-thick x 1-1/2″-wide plane iron from Hock Tools. They’re branded “Woodsmith by Hock Tools.” These are quality irons that are almost worth the price of the kit. The hand plane kit also includes a nice cap iron.

The chisel plane was pretty simple to put together and finish. The wood sole and “cap” are pre-cut and pre-drilled. There’s a brass threaded insert that you need to press into the sole piece. Then all you need to do is form the radius on the back end to make the plane more comfortable to use. I put the two pieces together with the iron and clamped the assembly in my tail vise on my workbench. Then I used a rasp and sandpaper to form the radius. It went fairly quickly. The instructions also suggest making a “finger notch” in the cap to make the plane more comfortable to use. I used a round rasp to start this notch then finished up with a half-round rasp. I also took the time to lightly round over any sharp edges where my hands might come in contact with the body of the plane. I finished up the wood pieces with a coat of boiled linseed oil and a couple coats of Briwax clear paste wax. 

Then I turned my attention to the iron. A light honing and a couple of swipes to flatten the back on 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper were all it took to get a sharp edge. I assembled the iron into the plane (bevel down) using the included cap screw and washer. I then tried to adjust the depth of cut and realized there was a problem. The bevel of the blade matches the bed angle of the sole, meaning that the flat of the bevel was parallel to the sole of the plane! So the flat of the bevel just slid across the workpiece. I tried to shim the under the upper end of the iron with an old business card, but it didn’t seem to help angle the iron so its cutting edge would contact the workpiece. The only other solution I could think of was to slightly change the angle of the bed. I used 150-grit sandpaper face-up on my table saw for a flat surface. Then I went to work sanding the bed, concentrating the pressure on the “mouth” end of the bed. After quite a bit of sanding, I tried fitting the iron. It was a little better, but I ended up shimming the upper end anyway to get the plane to cut. Once everything was assembled, I gave it a try on some scrap lumber. It was a little tricky to get the exact depth of cut, but once that was done, it worked great. It’s good enough that I’ll keep it on my shelf of “users” for future projects. It’ll be great for getting into those corners to remove glue squeeze-out and general cleanup of a joint.

While Hartville will stock some planes, you can still order planes from Knight Toolworks. 

Here’s a little of Steve’s philosophy on hand planes from his web site:

“The hand plane is an ancient tool, and its design has changed little over time. I do not see myself changing it. I do, however, borrow ideas from different cultures and traditions, combining the best of them into a new and better plane. I use Western, Japanese, and Chinese traditions. By taking the best of all worlds, I can combine features into a single tool that can be used, enjoyed, and cherished indefinitely.

“Most importantly, all of my products are backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I will do whatever it takes to make you happy with your Knight-Toolworks product. It’s my personal promise!”

Now personally, I don’t really like the looks of Steve’s planes.  To me, they always looked too “boxy” or clunky.  But, I’m always on the lookout for a good smoothing plane, so I ordered one of his coffin smoothers.  Compared to other new hand planes, the price is pretty competitive.  And, after all, looks aren’t everything, are they?

As is Steve’s trademark, the plane arrived with a test shaving and a wood block over the mouth to protect the edge on the 1/4″-thick iron.  Call me obsessive-compulsive, but I removed the iron and honed it just a little.  The bevel is wide enough that you can hone it by hand without a honing guide.  And Steve already did a good job of flattening the back of the iron, so I didn’t need to worry about that.

If you’ve never used a traditional wood-body plane, it takes some time to get the hang of setting the blade depth and tightening the wedge.  Some strategically-placed taps with a soft-faced mallet will get everything right.  And this plane has an adjustable mouth that helps eliminate tearout.  Once I got the blade seated properly, I was able to take full-width, whisper-thin shavings off of mahogany.  One of the guys in the shop saw what I was doing and seemed intrigued, so I offered to let him take a few swipes.  We both agreed that the plane may not be the most beautiful thing to behold, but it sure does a nice job of smoothing.  It’s purpleheart body and ipe (Brazilian walnut) sole add plenty of heft, which is what you want in a smoother.  It helps carry the momentum of the stroke as you’re planing.  And in spite of it’s boxy look, it was comfortable to use.

This plane has a set screw on both sides of the plane to help align the iron and keep it in position.  Veritas® has the same feature on their planes.  I wonder who thought of it first and if Steve will get a letter from a Veritas attorney? 

My only other comment on the Knight smoother pertains to the adjustment screw for the mouth.  It would have been nice to have some sort of thumbscrew or knob to make the adjustment.  Steve uses an allen screw which forces me to hunt around the shop for an allen wrench when I need to adjust the mouth opening.  I guess I just need to keep my shop more organized!

Overall, I was pleased with the performance of the Knight smoother.  Pleased enough that I plan on keeping it within easy reach next to my other planes.  I plan to use it on my next project.  Nice plane, Steve!

Sam Maloof has made a name for himself with his unique furniture design and craftsmanship. This article in the Billings, Montana Gazette sheds a little light into the character and makeup of this true craftsman.

Visit the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for the Arts and Crafts web site here:

We’d stand in line and usually strike up a conversation with the other early birds.  It always amazed me how us woodworkers are generally a friendly bunch.  When the doors opened, we’d spend hours just walking around looking at products and listening to the sales pitches from vendors touting their new gadgets.  We’d walk out with our sack of goodies and armload of literature and call it a day.

Have you been to one of The Woodworking Shows recently?  If so, tell us about your experience.  Did you see any new products that you hadn’t seen before?  Did you take advantage of any special deals from any of the vendors?  Did you attend any of the classes?  What was your favorite part of the show?

If you haven’t been to a show yet, check out The Woodworking Shows web site for a calendar.

If you live in the Des Moines, Iowa area, the show is coming October 13-15 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

As my three older boys were growing up, I was traveling alot and didn’t spend much time in the shop. Consequently, they didn’t spend much time in the shop. But yesterday, I was out in my shop just fiddling around with nothing in particular to do. I just needed to “piddle” around. (Does anybody else do that, or am I the only one?)

Anyway, I picked up one of my “eBay special” derelict hand planes and decided to see if I could get it to make some shavings. In walks my 13-year old.  “Whatcha’ doin’, Dad?” ”Oh, just seein’ if I can get this old hand plane to work.” It was an old Stanley Handyman. Not worth much and not really a very good plane, but I enjoy the challenge of getting some use out of it. 

Then a light bulb came on. I handed it to my son and asked him if he wanted to restore it. He lit up. ”Sure!,” he said. So I basically left him alone, knowing that he really couldn’t do any damage to it.

He spent the next several hours polishing and cleaning and sharpening the blade. I helped him get it back together and we tried it out on some mahogany. Well, I’d like to say that it took a wispy thin shaving, but it just chattered across the board. I switched out the thin Stanley blade for one of my Hock replacement blades. Boy, did that make the difference! It’s still not what I would call an everyday user plane, but my son learned some things. Now he’s asking me if I have any other planes he can work on. I think he’s headed down the dangerous slope…

Now I enjoy working with my hand tools but I’m not shy about using a power tool when I need to. But I’ve found that there are a lot of power tool users that have never experienced or don’t understand how hand tools can make their woodworking better. Hand tools (especially planes) can add a level of craftsmanship you often can’t get from power tools alone.

So, I started a couple of threads on WoodNet. One is for the power tool user. The other is for mostly hand tool users.  I want to know your thoughts for a seminar I’m giving in October. The title is, “Why You Need Hand Planes in Your Workshop.”  Click here for details on the seminar titles and calendar.

Please chime in with your thoughts. If you’re mostly a power tool user, chime in here on the Power Tools forum.

Hand tool user?  Chime in with your opinions here on the Hand Tools forum.

I would appreciate your thoughts so that I can make the seminar fun and educational.

It never ceases to amaze me how creative some woodworkers can be. This article highlights the skill of Pat Acton:

Sioux City Journal: This Matchstick Museum marvels

Pat is making a name for himself by creating projects from matchsticks. Thousands of matchsticks. The detail he can achieve is incredible and fascinating.

Pat displays his work at the Matchstick Marvels Museum in Iowa. It’s interesting to read about his childhood and his techniques for working with matchsticks.

Got a story to share? Know of a woodworker with special talents? Post your comments by clicking the “Leave a Comment” link below.

Have you had a similar experience with hand planes? See this thread and get lots of experienced help from the woodworking community: WoodNet Forums: Planing Techniques

For example, several weeks ago, I posted a link to an article about Western Back Saws that was originally published in Woodsmith. The two back saws that were profiled are top-of-the-line saws designed for those seeking a hand tool that will last a lifetime. Several good points were made for why these types of saws may be worth the extra expense.

But then, a few days after that post, I got an email from Paul Sellers, who started his professional woodworking career in 1965. Paul is now the director of woodworking at the Homestead Heritage School of Woodworking in Waco, Texas. He’s also written several woodworking articles for Woodwork magazine, among others.

Paul was worried the article might lead a beginner to think it’s necessary to buy a $125 saw with a machined back just to cut joinery. In his experience, there are perfectly good saws that are inexpensive and do every bit as good a job as an expensive saw. I’ll let his comments do his talking for him. And I’d like to hear your feelings on this as well.

Paul brings up some good points. I would like to mention that Lie-Nielsen is very good about providing “Use & Care Instructions” for all of their products. In the sharpening instructions, they make no mention of special or proprietary tools needed to sharpen their saws. They suggest beginners use a 4″ extra slim taper file to sharpen their saws, along with fairly detailed instructions on how to do it, although some pictures or illustrations would be helpful. As Paul mentioned, they do provide professional sharpening services for only $15 plus shipping to Maine.

As for Adria, they also provide simple instructions for sharpening their saws, but explain that their saws should require very infrequent sharpening since the blade is made out of the best steel available. An address for a professional sharpening service is provided on their website, but no cost for the sharpening is mentioned.

(Note: Paul mentioned in a follow up email that Adria’s sharpening statement bears questioning, simply because saws demand sharpening according to levels of use regardless of steel quality. If the steel is too hard then they will be difficult to sharpen with a regular saw file. So the steel needs to be of sufficient hardness to hold a good edge and yet sufficiently soft enough to facilitate sharpening using hand methods.)

So, which camp do you belong in? Are you the type who refuses to cut dovetails unless you’re using a top-of-the-line dovetail saw? Or are you perfectly happy with a less-expensive saw from the hobby store? The difference could mean around $100 or more in your pocket.

John Schwartzkopf of Cedar Falls, Iowa has found a niche making tables and sculptures…and sometimes a combination of both. He describes his work as half functional and half sculptural. He combines power tools with hand techniques for his one-of-a-kind pieces. You can read more about John’s work here.

Another skill I’ve always admired among woodworkers was that of building doors and windows. It’s just something I never took the time to develop. But Troy Wood in Canada has managed to make a successful business out of custom doors and windows. His business is only three years old, but he’s been woodworking since he was a young boy. And he’s already been hired to do some restoration work on buildings, rebuilding windows and doors using traditional materials and methods. You can read more of Troy’s story here.

I’d love to hear your story. Are you a hobbyist who just enjoys spending time in the shop? Or does a substantial part of your income come from woodworking? Tell me why you enjoy woodworking.

Did you know a Unisaw is a table saw, but a table saw isn’t necessarily a Uni..? (Submitted mostly for the pictures of Keith’s A100 Unisaw, presumably the very first one produced/sold by Delta.)
What is a Unisaw?

There are some true artists out there, and it seems like the Woodnet forums gets their fare share of them who build beautiful hand planes.
Damascus and Ivory Plane

The last time I had tried to use a hand plane was when I was a young boy. I’d go down to my Dad’s basement shop and spend hours “building” things. But trying to use his hand plane was so frustrating, I gave up. It wouldn’t cut and it kept tearing out the wood.

So I took these two planes he had given me and researched online to figure out how to “fettle,” or “tune” them so that I could use them. I wasn’t interested in them as collectibles — I wanted to use them.

I learned how to disassemble them, clean them, lap the soles flat, and sharpen the irons. And on the 4-1/2 smoother, I had read that replacing the original iron with a thicker one would improve performance. So I ordered a replacement iron from Ron Hock. I Finally got the planes put back together and set them for a fine cut and tried them out on a scrap piece of oak. When I saw that thin, continuous shaving curl up, I was literally awestruck. “So, this is how it’s supposed to work!,” I thought to myself. I was hooked. I spent the next several minutes taking shavings from almost every kind of scrap wood I had lying around.

Over the following years, I started collecting planes to refurbish and use in my shop. I’ve bought planes from online auctions, yard sales, and from tool dealers. I get a great deal of pleasure from “rust hunting” and bringing an old tool back to life to use in my shop. My kids have even participated in restoring old tools.

I spend a lot of time in the Hand Tools forum on Woodnet and in the Usenet newsgroup rec.woodworking. I get a lot of information from the Old Tools mailing list:

“OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage, value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.”

Of course, the online “bible” of Stanley planes is Patrick Leach’s “The Superior Works: Patrick’s Blood and Gore.” I use this site to read and research all the old Stanley and Bailey hand planes.

As for making my own planes, I’ve not made any yet, but I intend to do so soon. I don’t know why. Part of it is economics. Part of it is being able to make them to suit my needs. For example, I’d like to make a set of molding planes to use instead of a noisy router to make decorative edging.
Having said that, I did save up my pennies and purchase a new Veritas Low Angle Smooth Plane and a Veritas Medium Shoulder Plane. “Why?,” as my wife so eloquently asked. I already have a nice collection of vintage planes. Why would I want to spend so much on a new one?

Well, part of it has to do with technology. The Veritas plane has an adjustable mouth to eliminate tearout. It’s a “bevel-up” plane, meaning that the iron is bedded with the bevel up, instead of down as in a traditional hand plane. This means that the cutting edge is better-supported and eliminates the need for a chip breaker. And it’s a lot easier to adjust the bevel angle to deal with difficult woods. I chose the Veritas plane over a Lie-Nielsen because of the cost and because the Veritas planes incorporate a finely-machined lateral and depth adjustment mechanism for the plane iron.

As for the shoulder plane, I didn’t already have one so I opted for a new one instead of one of the “classics.” The Veritas shoulder plane has a lot design features that make it attractive.

I enjoy working with hand tools in my shop. I enjoy the peace and quiet. I’ll use a power tool when I need to, but the whine of a table saw or the screech of a router doesn’t do much for my peace of mind. To me, there’s nothing like the sound of a thin curl of wood rising out of the mouth of a hand plane.

But I use hand planes for a lot of other things in my shop like smoothing an edge, leveling a joint, or adding chamfers, just to name a few.  I have a nice collection of old Stanley planes, but when I recently built a dining room table, I needed a smoothing plane like a Stanley 4-1/2 that worked better than…well…my Stanley 4-1/2.

So I recently ordered a Veritas Low Angle Smooth Plane from Lee Valley.  I looked at Lie-Nielsen’s Low Angle Smoothing Plane, but decided that I liked the design and price of the Veritas plane better.  I haven’t received my plane yet, so I’ve yet to see how well it performs.  I’ll post an update after I’ve had a chance to use it in my shop.

I’m real interested in hearing your opinions about the use of hand planes (and hand tools in general) in the shop.  Do you use them at all?  For what?  Do you hate them?  Want to learn more about them?  Can’t see the reason to use them?  Let me know your thoughts! 

Creating Customer Trust

Ryobi Radial Arm Saw Recall

Porter-Cable Cordless Nailer Recall

Super Shop

Randy will be posting his thoughts soon as a regular contributing editor to WoodworkingONLINE.com

The store, located Hickman Road at 104th in Clive, is going to try something a little different this summer to help reduce this season’s excess inventory. They’re going to have an Inventory Reduction Tool and Garden Auction on Saturday, July 22nd. The sales starts promptly at 11:00am and will end at 2:00pm. Conducting the auction will be Daugherty Auction Services of Adel.

Pictures of several items up for auction are on the Daugherty Auction web page, of course many items aren’t shown. Some of the stuff woodworkers will find included in the auction are floor models of new woodworking tools, as well as books, woodworking plans, hardware and project kits. Even some store fixtures and a fork lift will be included.

Gardeners can expect to find some great items too. Pallet lots of trees, shrubs, perennials, and landscaping supplies will be on auction from the Garden Center.

This is a one-time only event to clear out inventory to make room for the new 2007 products. The auction will be held at the Woodsmith Store which is located on Hickman Road at 104th Street in Clive, Iowa, just east of Living History Farms. Take exit #125 off I35/80 and go east one mile.

For some reason, a lot of woodworkers are only interested in completing a project as quickly as they possibly can. I know I was that way at one time. Then I’d jump right into the next project without taking any time to enjoy what I was doing.

But since then I’ve taken some classes and gotten a lot more comfortable using hand tools. Now I like to slow down the process and enjoy the simple act of cutting a chamfer with a hand plane or sawing a taper on a table leg with a rip saw. I asked Paul about his feelings on this subject.

Joel: What is more important for the home hobbyist/woodworker — experiencing the journey or reaching the destination?

Paul: The question presupposes an either/or answer, when in reality one is as important as the other. You see, work in and of itself should be as enjoyable and rewarding an aspect of life as anything else we do, especially as it takes such a large segment of it.

When you feel that your work is essential to your life, there is a heightened sense of consciousness that undergirds the whole of your endeavor to establish true and substantive skill, regardless of whether you are an amateur or a professional.

Regardless of whether your work supports your family with finances or you build things for the needs of your family and friends, the actual doing of the work should always have a sense of rest in that even though you look forward to a project’s completion there is also the sense that you don’t want to, in any way, short-circuit the journey and lose the sense of fulfillment in each of the steps that bring completion.

In years past, woodworkers worked with wood because it was essential in support of their daily life and so it gave meaning and fulfillment to them. Modern definitions of words like hobby, pastime, amateur, and novice, may convey negative connotations when the probability is that these terms are the result of an innate desire to experience meaning through our work. Our culture has in many ways dumbed things down to make trivial what was once acceptably noble.

I know many highly skilled amateurs who make the most exquisite furniture, musical instruments, and so on, yet they are considered amateurs because they didn’t have some type of official training or certification, or they don’t do it for a living.

They do it for the joy of participating in the craft. For me the issue is a unique blending of all aspects of my life’s call to be a craftsman. It seems increasingly difficult to find people who experience true contentment in their work. Those I have found mainly work quietly with their hands and see work as a privilege.

Sometimes the posts on the WoodNet forums are shameless attempts by woodworkers to elicit a compliment or two on recently completed projects. This guys waste bin though is a good example of when the compliments are well deserved.

Finally, this is the hottest item on the Tools Swap n’ Sell that I’ve seen in a long time! Get yours now, before they’re all gone.

Paul is also a published woodworking author and is working on a book about hand tools and how to use them. He builds custom furniture for sale and some of his most distinctive pieces, like this Rocking Chair, sell for thousands of dollars.

Paul trained as an apprentice in England as a young man. He gained valuable experience using a combination of hand tools and power machinery, that he feels is sorely lacking today. In fact, Paul feels so strongly about the lack of educational opportunities for young people, especially in the woodworking field, that he thinks it has had an adverse effect on our lives. As he says, “… we’ve reached a crisis point in woodworking for children that sometimes I think it is irreversible.”

I used hand tools exclusively during my class at the John C. Campbell Folk School, and firmly believe that without the week-long hand tool foundational class that I took a few years ago at Homestead Heritage, I would not have gotten nearly as much from the chairmaking class as I did.

Paul and I were trading emails recently and got to talking about how most woodworking schools are all about power tools. I asked him why he felt that laying a foundation for learning to use hand tools was so important? He has strong feelings about hand tools that go beyond his desire to teach their usage, or his ability to attract students to his woodworking school. The following is his thoughtful response to my question:

Joel,

Hand Tools Versus Machines

First, let me say that I was trained in a well-balanced apprenticing workplace for five years using hand tools and power machines. I’d never seen an all-power woodworking facility until I came to the US.

Here I discovered that almost all of the woodworkers I came into contact with worked with machines only, albeit scaled-down versions of industrial models. I was shocked when I saw the mental and physical contortions woodworkers went through to develop and use jigs and guides to perform even the simplest woodworking tasks, like recessing a door hinge or cutting a dovetail, and when I considered the hazardous effects commonly associated with long term exposure to machine use; personal injury, wood-related diseases caused by machine dust and the physical discomfort of wearing protective equipment for ear, eye, nose, throat and lung protection, and also hours of wasted shop time.

I found this type of woodworking to be the norm rather than the exception, yet I’ve met thousands of fellow woodworkers who, had they had the opportunity to apprentice in some way, would have developed more substantive skills of craftsmanship working with hand tools. With no one to teach them the basic fundamentals of using hand tools the only remaining option was to embrace machine woodworking. Most woodworkers that I have met, whether amateur, semi-professional or professional, love working with wood, no matter what skill level they have attained. I then saw that, in the years that changed the face and the dynamic of woodworking, each successive generation knew less about true hand craftsmanship and more about the industrialized methods.

Even in public schools machine-only methods took over, and so the latter then lost all connection with the former. Incremental changes over several successive decades, so-called advances in technology, led to a complete disconnect, severing those unique relationships intrinsic to mentoring craftsmanship. With no context to engender the kind of care it takes to produce accurate and fine handwork, many of the methods craftsmen once relied on to create masterpieces must now be relearned and even rediscovered.

Most of those interested in woodworking today would naturally believe that all of the traditional methods, skills and techniques were improved on by better engineering and therefore that the machine replaced those methods with something better, but that’s not the case. Hand tool methods were never abandoned because they didn’t work; they work extremely well. They were abandoned because they didn’t keep pace with the whole process of mass-market technology industrializing a society. In that process there was no place for developing the creative, intuitive aspects of true and substantive craftsmanship.

Hand tool woodworking demands a relational, experiential approach to gain the essential knowledge a person needs to work with wood successfully. I find that inspiration comes through personal discovery. Yet, in the wake of this industrial “evolution,” such forgotten knowledge now lies buried under successive layers of so-called industrial progress. Yet for the main part, at least ninety-five percent of the over two thousand woodworkers I have personally taught, who I believe represent a good cross-section of the woodworking populous, had never successfully sharpened a chisel or used a hand plane until they learned it here at Homestead Heritage. Once they did, it was like a fresh awakening, and a whole new and expansive world of woodworking possibilities opened up before them.

Children and Machines

An unfortunate byproduct of this whole development, one of the things we fail to balance in the equation, is the reality that woodworking has now become an adult craft. Children must now wait until they are more mature physically and mentally to cope with the industrial substitute and its mass of related equipment. No one can responsibly put a child between the ages of 6 and 16 on most modern-day woodworking machines. No matter how many safety guards you place and procedures you enforce, children do not belong in an industrial shop, even if it’s now disguised in a domestic situation like the garage or home shop.

Leaving children out of the shop until they attain the necessary maturity is to the miss the narrow window of opportunity that for most of them may only come once. The best years to learn any craft are between the ages of 10 and 20 years. That’s when all of the synapses come together. That’s when the senses are the most acutely aware and children are the most receptive. It’s through this type of exposure that vocational calling becomes a reality. Vocation, from the word vocal or voice, originally meant to answer a calling. Few young people today will find such a calling in woodworking, and to me it’s no wonder since most children today will never work with wood in any real way.

Simple skills and hand tools once commonly used in home and school workshops are all but gone. Yet the very methods that I’m talking about, the pre-machine era methods, were ideal for training young people to strengthen their character and work with their hands.

Touching the Senses—Communication

Unlike machine woodworking, hand tool woodworking methods touch all of the five senses. They demand your complete attention but in the most positive sense of the word. By its very nature, woodworking with hand tools by necessity requires that you fully engage in the whole process because you now supply all of the power, give direction to the course of the tool and, by what you see, feel and hear, determine all the necessary micro-adjustments to use the tool to its optimal level according to those senses. That’s what the senses are for. The machine, on the other hand, also needs focused attention, but it’s a different kind of attention in that now your main focus is on personal safety and concern for your material. One slip and a finger or even a whole limb can be lost or at best your board may be kicked across the shop by one of those 3hp motors.

Power equipment relies on two things: speed and force. High revolutions to drive the teeth or cutting edge of the blade and the fact that you are always pushing directly in towards those cutting edges mean that there is the constant risk of injury. Two dangers exist that accompany machine use. One, when you do it long enough, admittedly you gain confidence, but then you also run the risk of becoming complacent. Two, all too often new woodworkers are self-taught when it comes to using woodworking machinery, they have no experience and no relational working knowledge of the inherent dangers associated with machines to relate to. I’ve learned a hundred times more from the minor injuries and near misses I’ve had than I ever did from someone telling me of the possible dangers or simply reading about them.

When a man works with machines, much of his thought time revolves around personal safety on every level. On the other hand, when he works primarily with hand tools, he rarely thinks about it.

As I said earlier, unfortunately it’s the young people of this present-day culture that have lost the valuable links to the past. Dust masks, ear and eye protection, sensors, guards and fences, dust extraction and so the list goes on are now the norm and of course all are necessary by-products of industrialism. They are essential to the personal and public safety of others and the well-being of modern-day woodworkers the world over, regardless of age. For me though, because I’ve mastered certain basic hand skills, wearing such safety equipment is only necessary for a few hours per week. But the machine-dominated woodworker must wear such equipment throughout most of his working day if he wants to minimize potential health risks and hazards that may well be long-term and even irreversible.

In the final analysis, you see it’s not simply a question of efficiency and economy, but more a matter of fulfillment and quality of life. I want to encourage others to preserve the best of the past and combine it with the good things of today, so that they complement one another. I have found that hand-tool skill is so intrinsic to fine woodworking that much of the finest woodworking ever accomplished was done so without the use of any machine. Stradivarius violins and cellos are still considered the finest ever made, and timbered intereriors of massive cathedral roofs with dozens of yards of finely crafted decoration to the most exacting of standards were carved centuries ago.

Another key issue with machine woodworking is the reality that all too often machine woodworkers never fully experience the personal relational knowledge only possible through using hand tool methods. Not only are all species of woods different, but so too the grains within the species vary from one board to the next, and even within each board. By working so closely with the grain and fiber of the wood, a certain understanding of the wood begins to develop that cannot be gained any other way. Working the wood with hand tools gives the most direct contact, and by working the wood this way, feeling the response of the tool to the wood through the tool as an extension of your hand, you gain the knowledge and understanding I am talking about.

As you work the wood fibers with hand tools, you find yourself in a constant state of awareness, yet at the same time unconsciously micro-adjusting the course and direction of the tool’s cutting edge in a minute-by-minute symbiosis only possible by the discipline of using hand tools.

Conclusion

Having said all of this, many might say that I advocate hand tool woodworking only and that machines should be abandoned for the old ways. That’s far from true. In my shop I use power equipment, particularly for dimensioning the wood, ripping, surface-planing and so on. Yet, most of the actual crafting of a piece of furniture is done by hand, and because I can use hand tools, planes, scrapers and so on, I no longer need to sand with coarse-grit papers, which then reduces my sanding by about 80%.

Furthermore, because I hand planed and scraped my surfaces to be free from machine saw and planer marks, I can hand sand without using any mechanical sander. I no longer have to wear a dust mask, ear protection, eye protection and so on. If you never learn to master sharpening and using a handful of tools, you have only one option. I am thankful that I can make the choice most woodworkers don’t have.

Paul

As the name implies, each stick tells the cabinetmaker a story, providing an easy way to avoid errors in reading a tape measure or dimensions from a plan.

Chairmakers use a story stick as well. The one I made in North Carolina during the Ladderback Chairmaking class has all the dimensions I’ll need to build another one of Lyle Wheeler’s No. 203 chairs.

With the stick I’ll never have to put a rule or tape measure on another post or rung billet. It also shows where to taper the bottom of the posts and where to add the notch at the top of the back posts where the finial begins. A note on the stick even tells the chairmaker how many rungs, posts, and slats are needed — three back slats, two back rungs, three front rungs, and six side rungs (3 on each side), two front posts and two back posts.