Since this web site is as much about lessons learned as it is about displaying our successful efforts, let me share my ongoing experience, namely that I made two incompatible decisions.   Lately I have been interested in trying different woods with which I have not yet worked.  My choice was Hickory.  I have also wanted to develop more confidence using hand tools instead of relying solely on machines.  I decided to make a project for my wife, using hand tools as much as possible.  I guess that was a third decision to add to the incompatibility morass.  Part of the project involved chopping out mortises using a good set of Marples chisels and my dead blow mallet.  I'll leave it at that, except to say that the lesson learned was that if the desire is to practice/develop hand tool expertise, don't start with on of the hardest, densest, heaviest woods available.  Oh well, nothing several kits of epoxy can't fix. 

Tom I'm at an age where I don't even want to learn how hard it was on those early folks having to work with those hand tools. I do have lots of those old things but they are for looks only.. 

I  enjoy my power tools..

Same here, Jesse. The horse and buggy days are gone. I like my car. Just sayin.

47 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

Tom I'm at an age where I don't even want to learn how hard it was on those early folks having to work with those hand tools. I do have lots of those old things but they are for looks only.. 

I  enjoy my power tools..

I recall a conversation o another forum years back about using hand tools like the old-timers did. I replied that if the old-times had the power tools we have today, they would have used them extensively, chuckling all day long. 

5 hours ago, PostalTom said:

don't start with on of the hardest, densest, heaviest woods available.

That's right Tom. There is a reason why in our country, the most popular wood species to work with hand tools is Cherry, Walnut, Maple to start, and it's the reason why many of the old furnishings you see still around today are made from those species, oh and lets not leave out Mahogany, another wonderful wood to hand tool.

 

Using hand tools has opened up my eyes more and more to the choice of wood we use. Since my own dive into hand tools, I find myself investigating the wood more closely before I use it, I inspect for grain direction, grain straightness, knots are a no no, and wild grain should be avoided. Even planing out a project using hand tools takes on a whole new meaning and level of attention and awareness regarding how and when you are going to use a specific piece, or part of a board. You have to plan how you are going to orient those boards because you want to avoid as much as possible reversing grain within two boards that you have to plane together after glue up. The list goes on and on how acutely aware you must be as you plan your projects, and how you are going to use the tools in those projects.

 

With a machine, you can pretty much use anything in any orientation, just set up on the table saw and rip away, secure the boards together with your preferred method, and put them through the planer, sand them, reversing grain or not, just sand it all out.

 

With hand tools you have to think about those things more carefully. Thus the reason that when you do use hand tools, the wood truly is speaking to you. Not to get all Zen with ya Tom, but there is a deep satisfaction in using hand tools, it just depends where folks are at in their woodworking, one way is not superior to the other, machined or hand tools, it just the journey that you want to take yourself on that is important.

 

I'll go back to this quote that I know Gene has seen before, and I absolutely love.

 

Quote

The things I make may be for others, but how I make them is for me. ~ Tony Konovaloff

 

And that truly is the bottom line Tom, it's all about you and the journey into making that project that counts, the outside noise is just that, noise, don't let folks dissuade you.

 

Speaking of noise, I find it very nice and wonderful that the noise level has been cut down significantly in my own shop, and you know what? My clean up has been reduced significantly. After each project I use to break out the compressor and air hose and blow the shop out, I have not fired up that compressor in a long time, most of my mess is just swept away now, shavings that just drop to the ground, or rest on the bench, and my lungs are thanking me as well.

 

Hang in there Tom, I'd love it if you kept at it, because I am in the beginning stages myself in transitioning to hand tools, completely if I have my way and my patience allows it, for now I am in the hybrid state of my conversion, but slowly but surely I am turning to the scraper instead of a sander, a hand saw instead of power, a hand plane instead of 400 grit, and much more is happening in my shop with hand work.

Welcome to the fold Tom, I hope I have a hand tool member here we can exchange ideas and methods and learn together.

Love that quote, too. Just the other day, I used a chisel...to open a paint can.  

You guys always keep me grounded.

2 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

Love that quote, too. Just the other day, I used a chisel...to open a paint can.  

To pry off the top cover? Or to mortise a pouring hole?

2 hours ago, John Morris said:

You guys always keep me grounded.

Sorry John, we covered grounding on the other thread.  

Don't worry guys.  I have not mothballed my machines, I just want to learn alternate methods when it makes sense to use them.  Also, there is a certain satisfaction in having a project reflect my efforts instead of those who designed my machines.  Still, though, it will be a long time before I thickness plane or smooth a board with a hand plane instead of my planer and ROS.  And as long as I'm not making $75 pieces of firewood, I'm having fun.

4 minutes ago, PostalTom said:

I'm having fun

And that is all that counts Tom, bravo! Also, for projects reflecting efforts, those efforts include imperfect results, that show a human made it, and that is a good thing.

Just now, John Morris said:

And that is all that counts Tom, bravo! Also, for projects reflecting efforts, those efforts include imperfect results, that show a human made it, and that is a good thing.

I do kinda wish that my efforts weren’t quite so humanlike LOL.  

Just now, Artie said:

I do kinda wish that my efforts weren’t quite so humanlike LOL.  

Well, there are boundaries Artie.

1 minute ago, John Morris said:

imperfect results, that show a human made it, and that is a good thing.

Yeah, I keep telling myself that!  

4 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

I used a chisel...to open a paint can.

I broke off some concrete slag with one yesterday.

6 hours ago, John Morris said:

 

With hand tools you have to think about those things more carefully. Thus the reason that when you do use hand tools, the wood truly is speaking to you. Not to get all Zen with ya Tom, but there is a deep satisfaction in using hand tools, it just depends where folks are at in their woodworking, one way is not superior to the other, machined or hand tools, it just the journey that you want to take yourself on that is important.

 

 

I understand your perspective but that's not how I do it. I use all my machines after I have carefully laid out the wood, looking for its best appearance, and listening to it speak to me as I move along. When I built my dining table, it took me 3 days of looking and listening to decide how to arrange the pieces for the top. I do the same when I make jewelry boxes. The wood will direct me where to cut and how to match pieces; the tool does not matter.   

4 minutes ago, hatuffej said:

the tool does not matter

With machines as your tools, the tools would not matter that much Hatuffej, you are dead on.

15 minutes ago, hatuffej said:

listening to it speak to me

Mine mostly curses at me, in different languages sometimes. 

This was a Hickory project we finished back in January. I can tell no hand tools were used. 

 

We ran the slabs through the dual drum sander to flatten. There was a point I thought about using a hand plane, but that thought passed pretty quick!

 

 

 

But it I do love the look of some beautiful Hickory!

On 5/25/2019 at 4:43 PM, John Morris said:

You guys always keep me grounded.

Isn't that an electrician's quote?

Edited May 27, 20196 yr by Thad