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It’s no secret by now that I enjoy hand planes. I enjoy finding old ones and bringing them back to life. And I finally scraped enough pennies together to buy a new Veritas® Low Angle Smoother and Veritas® Medium Shoulder Plane (more on those another day).

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.

Got tools you want to get rid of?  Got tools you’d like to buy at bargain prices?  Then you need to come to the Woodworkers’ Swap Meet on Saturday, September 9 from 8:00am to 1:00pm sponsored by the Des Moines Woodworkers’ Association.

If you’ve got tools to sell, you need to fill out this form.  You can also see a sampling of tools that will be for sale on page 2 of this form.

Click here for directions to the Woodsmith Store.

For all of you out-of-towners, I know this doesn’t leave a lot of extra time to make it to Des Moines, but if you live within let’s say a 200-mile radius of the Woodsmith Store, you might be interested in the following:

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.

Doug Hicks, executive editor at August Home Publishing, was asked this question recently at one of our woodworking seminars at the Woodsmith Store: If you could have just one tool on a deserted island (assuming it had electricity!), what would it be?

Doug’s answer was a band saw and he gave his reasons why in a seminar later that spring. Here are his reasons: Read the rest of this article »