I was asked today by a friend and fellow carpenter why I prefered to use mostly hand tools in my work. I began to answer and then suddenly stopped. I was going to tell him that some of the most recognized and beautiful pieces of furniture were made before Ben Franklin flew a kite. But I know that just as many incredible pieces have been made by people who are "power tool workers". Some of the modern woodworkers who I admire most use lots of power tools in their shops. Heck, I own a ton of routers, saws, nail guns, drills, and sanders (yes, I own electric sanders). So I told him off-handedly that I would get back to him on that and to get back to work (slacker).

I love the way my saws sing as they cut and the way my planes hiss as they shave. I think that a planned surface beats a sanded surface 9 times out of 10. I think tenonning jigs are silly. I have never met someone who lost a finger to a hand saw (maybe a bad slice). To me, nothing is better than a finely tuned iron or chisel that takes clean, crisp shavings with almost no effort. It is very satisfying to feel tool marks on the under side of a table. It lets me know that it wasnt mass produced and that someone put some serious work into making a one-of-a-kind piece. I would rather turn my brace than pull a trigger or flip a switch anyday. 

How many reasons do I need?

When I get to the site tomorrow, maybe I will tell him why and maybe I wont. I dont feel that I have to justify my style of woodworking to anybody, as long as people keep buying what I build.

I know that I am probably alone, but if there is anyone else reading this who has an opinion on traditional woodworking, lets hear it.

Until then, I am back out to the shop to plane down my legs (for my bench) by hand. Then cut the huge tenons by hand. Then drill the enormous mortises by hand. Then... well, you get the idea. 

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Adam Welker
Red Car Construction and Fine Woodworking

I agree with all you said, Adam. I'd also add that certain things can still only be achieved with hand tools and that hand tools help you be more precise when fitting joints. If you need to trim 1/64" off the end of a board, that'd be pretty difficult to do with a power tool. However, you can lay the board on a shooting board and remove 1/1000" at a time with a handplane.  You can also make your own scraper profiles and cut moulding on boards and in places that would be difficult or impossible with power tools.

 

Probably the most important thing is, hand tools are simply our preference. 

More good points to my arguement. Not that I am arguing.

Kari Hultman said:

I agree with all you said, Adam. I'd also add that certain things can still only be achieved with hand tools and that hand tools help you be more precise when fitting joints. If you need to trim 1/64" off the end of a board, that'd be pretty difficult to do with a power tool. However, you can lay the board on a shooting board and remove 1/1000" at a time with a handplane.  You can also make your own scraper profiles and cut moulding on boards and in places that would be difficult or impossible with power tools.

 

Probably the most important thing is, hand tools are simply our preference. 

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Adam Welker
Red Car Construction and Fine Woodworking

Alot of people start with the power tools and it's changed the learning curve.

 

Where once you learned to read the wood, now it almost doesn't matter except for grain direction.

 

And plywood makes just about all handtools obsolete.

 

It's not about speed, or horsepower.  It's about the wood.

 

At an early age, i liked wood, i studied it, played with it, and learned it's character and properties.

 

Learned what I could and couldn't do with it.

 

And in the process, learned how to pick, buy, select, cut, edge, plane, rout, shape and bend the best wood to what I wanted to make.

 

And that, my freinds, is the definition of woodworking.

 

Sure you can manufacture stuff out of wood but even then you need to read grain, look for knots, splits and such.

 

Albeit not as much as when you use hand tools.

 

So when they ask why you use hand tools, tell them "I like my stuff to be at a higher level".

Right on!
dragon1 said:

Alot of people start with the power tools and it's changed the learning curve.

 

Where once you learned to read the wood, now it almost doesn't matter except for grain direction.

 

And plywood makes just about all handtools obsolete.

 

It's not about speed, or horsepower.  It's about the wood.

 

At an early age, i liked wood, i studied it, played with it, and learned it's character and properties.

 

Learned what I could and couldn't do with it.

 

And in the process, learned how to pick, buy, select, cut, edge, plane, rout, shape and bend the best wood to what I wanted to make.

 

And that, my freinds, is the definition of woodworking.

 

Sure you can manufacture stuff out of wood but even then you need to read grain, look for knots, splits and such.

 

Albeit not as much as when you use hand tools.

 

So when they ask why you use hand tools, tell them "I like my stuff to be at a higher level".

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Adam Welker
Red Car Construction and Fine Woodworking

I think hand tools got a bad rep in the 50s when a lot of people started to become DIYers. Manufacturers posited hand tools as old school, slow, and a pain in the rear to use. Thank heavens things have changed and we have hand tool makers who churn out such high quality work.

I talked with a fellow who went to school with Wendell Castle. He said they were taught in the sixties to not use hand tools. Machines were much more precise. This man became a high school shop teacher and is just an excellent woodworker. He has made many of his own planes. They are wonderful and work very very nice.

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Bob Kloes
www.bobkloes.com

I use power tools. A lot. But I do find when I making something very special for someone that making it with hands tools is much more satisfying to me. I don't own a lot of them, but love the ones I own. I was going to add about doing chip carving which is very fun and relaxing. But ow they make computerized router systems to do that.

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

Wayne,

I agree completely. I use my table saw and band saw more than anything. I love my router and use it more than I use my plow plane. When I build something by hand, is it is a special thing for me ( and hopefully who I build it for). I love my hand tools. I love my power tools.

Wayne Mahler said:

I use power tools. A lot. But I do find when I making something very special for someone that making it with hands tools is much more satisfying to me. I don't own a lot of them, but love the ones I own. I was going to add about doing chip carving which is very fun and relaxing. But ow they make computerized router systems to do that.

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Wayne Mahler

God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

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Adam Welker
Red Car Construction and Fine Woodworking

For me, it is all about control.

 

It is like driving a car, you can get to where you are going a lot faster if you do 150 mph, but the carnage is also more severe if you do something wrong and you crash and burn. So it is with power tools. You can do a lot more faster, but if the machine is not set up right, then you can easily ruin whatever it is you are working on, necessitating that you redo the part.

 

With hand tools, you rarely do so much damage that it can not be corrected in mid-cut, or cleaned up with chisel or plane, or possibly even sandpaper, because the act of using the hand tool requires you to pay attention and not rely on the accuracy of carriage play, run-out, back-lash and worn out stops and detents.

 

Don't get me wrong, I use power tools a lot, but now I just use them to make the cut close, hog off material and then gather up my hand tools to bring everything within tight tolerances. I think since making this shift, my projects have improved immensely.

I think part of that Kari, is also folks are just wanting to slow down in life as well. Old things are coming back. Walks in the park, family drives to the lake, walking to the corner Walgreens for an ice cream. The roaring 2000's are gone, spending is down, the mcmansions are gone, and fancy SUV's with big rims are a thing of the past.

Craftsman bungalows are in, buying and restoring an old truck is in, sewing a patch into a pair of your kids jeans are in, small birthday parties are in, no more jumpers for the kids, reading a book over going to movies is in, all the things we did daily up until life became fast, seems to be coming back in style. I know it is in our home. And I see it in homes around us. And I think that lifestyle is being reflected in the world of woodworking as well. Slow down, take a whisp of wood off with a No. 4 instead of going straight to the jointer. And the end consumer is looking for evidence of hand tooling in woodworking these days as well, it's amazing how it all comes back around.


Kari Hultman said:

I think hand tools got a bad rep in the 50s when a lot of people started to become DIYers. Manufacturers posited hand tools as old school, slow, and a pain in the rear to use. Thank heavens things have changed and we have hand tool makers who churn out such high quality work.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

When I started working with wood, I didn't have too many options as to which tooling I could use.    Our neighbor at that time worked as a Design Engineer for Rockwell.   He also had a basement shop full of Rockwell power tools.   Yet, when I took Industrial Arts in High School,  it was all about hand tools.    One had to pass a test, just to be allowed to use any power tools in their shop.   

 

Fast foward a few years.   Looking to make a few items for around the house.  All I had was a B&D circ saw,  a sabersaw, a Craftsman router, and a corded 3/8" drill.   By shear need, I learned (all over again) about hand tools.   A sabersaw was nice, IF one had the space to use it on the board, and still clamp things up.   A good coping saw worked better, was usually faster, and didn't wake the kid from her nap.

 

A router was nice, IF one had the right bit.   However, if one needed to go all the way to an end, or where two different heights met, something else was needed.  that something else was either a handplane or a chisel.  

So, as I went along, it became a matter of WHAT each tool could do for me, rather than what someone else thought a workshop should be.   Nowadays, I'm about 50%  handtool, and getting "better".