4 ms·

You don't need power tools for most of woodworking anyway. That's a ridiculous excuse to avoid it. I've built furniture and framed buildings almost entirely wit

You don't need power tools for most of woodworking anyway. That's a ridiculous excuse to avoid it. I've built furniture and framed buildings almost entirely with hand tools.

gerdesj 1y ago
Quite right until you discover a router ...
- MarkMarine 1y ago
  Router is a very dangerous tool, and it will steal from you the joy of creating profiles by hand with moulding planes, one of the most rewarding things in woodworking. This book is a great guide: https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice?srsltid=AfmBOor2bkkSNlMPy969Hl9ZCg7ymM7kMxDJVUZUHY0_18zAvarm3ckk https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice?srsl... You can get by quite well with a rabbit plane and 3/8" hollow + round and 5/8" hollow + round places. I prefer the HNT Gordon Planes, beautiful hand made planes from australia: https://www.heartwoodtools.com/hntgordon/hollow-and-round-plane https://www.heartwoodtools.com/hntgordon/hollow-and-round-pl...
  - IAmBroom 1y ago
    Yet you still probably wear clothing made by industrial looms, using machine-spun thread, instead of retting your own flax in a pond... A bit half-assed, wouldn't you say?
    - ted_dunning 1y ago
      Treasuring the sensation of making art by hand does not imply somebody is a Luddite in all respects. I enjoy hand-crafting small circuits but am glad to use my cell phone to take a picture of the result. I love riding a bicycle but use a car to go 30 miles when needed. There is no contradiction to be had here. Just different purposes. Sometimes simple joy is the priority.
  - gerdesj 1y ago
    I own spoke shaves, multiple jack planes, and the rest. My garage is quite literally a torture chamber of devices that a medieval sociopath would dribble over. I'm perhaps not quite so distracted by a well rounded fillet in a cast iron or steel body as you appear to be! I love all materials and the ingenious ways we have found to fashion those materials. I only recently bought a router because I had to cut a wide and deep rebate in a door to fit a finger handle. Doing that with chisels is possible but a bloody nightmare. An over enthusiastic wack or allowing the grain to take over too much would have needed a potentially ugly repair. I speak en_GB so when I say router (spinning power tool) and router (IP packet shuffler) they sound different. I've just taken a look at that page you linked and may have to dump my browser cache and try and forget where I saw the link ... 8)
    - MarkMarine 1y ago
      I have the opposite experience with a router. I use mine when I need to, but I find using the correct hand tool far easier to control. If I had to do what you were describing I’d chisel the vertical cuts with a hand chisel so I had nice clean edges and I would hog out the material with a router plane. This one is my favorite: https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/1-71-ct-large-router-planes?path=joinery-planes&node=4169 https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/1-71-ct-large-router-pl... The moulding plane book I linked really opened my eyes to creating profiles. I’ve had to match multiple non standard profiles cut into different mouldings, window sashes, mutton bars, etc in the old house I live in, and that would be impossible without cutting a custom profile for a shaper. Seems like a huge waste of effort to cut a tool steel profile for a one off when I can just grab a couple hollows and rounds and make literally anything. Check out the maker of HNT Gordon using his planes. https://youtu.be/fHsEjiXv0c4?si=jyXdUilNnCtH7Xci https://youtu.be/fHsEjiXv0c4?si=jyXdUilNnCtH7Xci He actually has a different technique than the one in the moulding plane book I linked, and I like the book technique a lot more. It’s foolproof
JKCalhoun 1y ago
I started with power tools. Moved to hand tools for a year or so when I moved houses and still had my table saw, etc. in storage. Now that I my power tools are back in the garage — I can't quit the power tools — right back relying on them. I just couldn't plane quite as nice as my joiner (and certainly not in one pass). And sharpening the hand tools... I earnestly want to do more hand-tool woodworking. I keep thinking that, as I get older, I'll eventually full in on hand tools. But at 61 years old ... not yet.

You don't need power tools for most of woodworking anyway. That's a ridiculous excuse to avoid it. I've built furniture and framed buildings almost entirely with hand tools.

gerdesj 1y ago

Quite right until you discover a router ...

MarkMarine 1y ago
Router is a very dangerous tool, and it will steal from you the joy of creating profiles by hand with moulding planes, one of the most rewarding things in woodworking. This book is a great guide: https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice?srsltid=AfmBOor2bkkSNlMPy969Hl9ZCg7ymM7kMxDJVUZUHY0_18zAvarm3ckk https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice?srsl... You can get by quite well with a rabbit plane and 3/8" hollow + round and 5/8" hollow + round places. I prefer the HNT Gordon Planes, beautiful hand made planes from australia: https://www.heartwoodtools.com/hntgordon/hollow-and-round-plane https://www.heartwoodtools.com/hntgordon/hollow-and-round-pl...
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  Yet you still probably wear clothing made by industrial looms, using machine-spun thread, instead of retting your own flax in a pond... A bit half-assed, wouldn't you say?
  - ted_dunning 1y ago
    Treasuring the sensation of making art by hand does not imply somebody is a Luddite in all respects. I enjoy hand-crafting small circuits but am glad to use my cell phone to take a picture of the result. I love riding a bicycle but use a car to go 30 miles when needed. There is no contradiction to be had here. Just different purposes. Sometimes simple joy is the priority.
- gerdesj 1y ago
  I own spoke shaves, multiple jack planes, and the rest. My garage is quite literally a torture chamber of devices that a medieval sociopath would dribble over. I'm perhaps not quite so distracted by a well rounded fillet in a cast iron or steel body as you appear to be! I love all materials and the ingenious ways we have found to fashion those materials. I only recently bought a router because I had to cut a wide and deep rebate in a door to fit a finger handle. Doing that with chisels is possible but a bloody nightmare. An over enthusiastic wack or allowing the grain to take over too much would have needed a potentially ugly repair. I speak en_GB so when I say router (spinning power tool) and router (IP packet shuffler) they sound different. I've just taken a look at that page you linked and may have to dump my browser cache and try and forget where I saw the link ... 8)
  - MarkMarine 1y ago
    I have the opposite experience with a router. I use mine when I need to, but I find using the correct hand tool far easier to control. If I had to do what you were describing I’d chisel the vertical cuts with a hand chisel so I had nice clean edges and I would hog out the material with a router plane. This one is my favorite: https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/1-71-ct-large-router-planes?path=joinery-planes&node=4169 https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/1-71-ct-large-router-pl... The moulding plane book I linked really opened my eyes to creating profiles. I’ve had to match multiple non standard profiles cut into different mouldings, window sashes, mutton bars, etc in the old house I live in, and that would be impossible without cutting a custom profile for a shaper. Seems like a huge waste of effort to cut a tool steel profile for a one off when I can just grab a couple hollows and rounds and make literally anything. Check out the maker of HNT Gordon using his planes. https://youtu.be/fHsEjiXv0c4?si=jyXdUilNnCtH7Xci https://youtu.be/fHsEjiXv0c4?si=jyXdUilNnCtH7Xci He actually has a different technique than the one in the moulding plane book I linked, and I like the book technique a lot more. It’s foolproof

JKCalhoun 1y ago

I started with power tools. Moved to hand tools for a year or so when I moved houses and still had my table saw, etc. in storage. Now that I my power tools are back in the garage — I can't quit the power tools — right back relying on them. I just couldn't plane quite as nice as my joiner (and certainly not in one pass). And sharpening the hand tools... I earnestly want to do more hand-tool woodworking. I keep thinking that, as I get older, I'll eventually full in on hand tools. But at 61 years old ... not yet.