Hand-Tool Phobia

[heimlaga]

My woodworking is part hobby part side income. I started out learning machine work in vocational school. Then it just became a hobby and for almost 10 years I was almost entirely using hand tools because of their versatility and my very tight budget. In the last few years I have started using machinery more as the hobby grew into a side income.

My oppinion is that when trying to get things done machinery and hand tools have separate niches to fill. Hand tools cut complicated joinery and make one off jobs and do everything else a machine cannot do efficiently. My monstrous combination machine provides fast stock preparation and also some help with joinery in case of longer runs. Loosing either method would make woodworking very awkward and improductive.

I have seen that hand tool phobia many times. Often it prevents people from getting things done. One of the most memorable was a man who just could not get a scarph right with an electric hand plane. There ware always one centimeter wide gaps and the board just got shorter. He asked for help so I cut it flat with my axe and smoothed it with a few stroked of my smooth plane and it fitted perfectly. I told him that it is easy. He walked away without a word.......
Another time there was a potential customer who tried to convince me that it is imposible for me to shift out a log in a log house wall. I do not own any such machines he said. I told him that I use a chain saw and a chisel and two axes and a broad axe and that it is a routine job for me. He walked away cinvinced that I was a fool so I did not get that job..........

 

[LBCarpentry]

I tend to use hand tools more on site than I do in the workshop. In the workshop the power tools are all out. Saw set up, planer in the corner, router always to hand with bits left, right and centre. I believe that joinery in the workshop should be as perfect as possible, as quick as possible and with as little physical effort as possible. I have no intention of burning myself out before I reach 30. This is joinery obviously for paying customers and they want it to look like its fresh off the 'manufactured shelf' and as shiny and new as possible (unless we're talking old cottage work).

It's when i'm on site doing 2nd fix stuff that I will use a hand plane to bevel, rebates by hand, chisels to quickly fettle or a handsaw in a small bedroom.

But i'm a firm believer that if you don't have the KNOWLEDGE (not necessarily practised skill) of how to produce things by hand, then you shouldn't be doing it at all.

 

[bugbear]

Surely in the context of a hobby, the "best" way is that which gets you the results you desire that you enjoy the most? For professional work of course you can calculate the "best" way by considering up-front investment in learning techniques, cost of buying and maintaining tools, time to do an operation and define its quality by tolerances. In the context of a hobbyist, I don't think most of that applies.

+1

I've made hatchet handles (from timber which cost roughly the same as ready made handles from a hardware store) for the sheer pleasure of messing around with bowsaws, drawknives and spokeshaves.

BugBear