TheTiddles
Established Member
Maybe I've spent too much time working this weekend (gardening, cleaning etc) and not enough time playing (anything in the garage) that my mind has turned to the evolution of tool usage throughout life, well, mine at least, all 25 years of it...
So it begins over twenty years ago and the first things you play with are tools, totally blunted, I think that saw still exists in my parent's house, it was probably an old dovetail saw, pistol griped, maybe I should find it and renovate it. The rest of the toolbox is tacks, offcuts of ply and a hammer and that's pretty much it, still it's fun and probably cheaper than a teenage mutant hero tellytubbie or whatever garbage kids are abused with these days, and we wonder why they are getting more stupid?
Forward on a few years to when you get to play with sharp(er) tools, like a drill and a saw that also still exists in that house, and still needs sharpening. This is when you start to see the power tool, it cuts, sands, drills and that's about it in the late 80's. The light blue Elu lathe sits in the corner, unused, not any more, it's now in my garage and does get used, but I digress...
By the time we get to teenage years the power tools have evolved a bit and their use is regular at the weekends and the way forwards is obvious, naff old hand tools are obsolete, to do a decent job you need decent tools, with AC leads!
When you first get some money it's time to get some decent power tools, a Black and Decker drill and sander, Trend router and so on, the work progresses, gets a little better and certainly a lot quicker, especially as you don't have to keep nicking your Dad's stuff, so this is it, next stop machinery, the pinnacle of power tools.
Hmm, somewhere in the interim period things have gone astray, and what makes me think this, is what I did this evening. Despite possibly having more tools than my Dad and most definitely better ones (LN chisels instead of his old Marples) a table saw, dust extractor, variable speed router, planer/thicknesser... I still borrowed his Stanley No50 combination plane. I need to do some fluting and I don't want to buy a router cutter for a small job. After a quick clean and a lot of sharpening, a few beads and a wonder round the garden inspecting yesterday's work it was decided, the tool I most need is... not a machine, but a multi-plane.
The thing is, as one gets better at these things, becomes more critical and verging on the obssesive, a machined finish is not good enough, 14 degree dovetails are bordering on the offensive and don't get me started on the radiused internal corner left by profiling rails and stiles after they are assembled! What do we do with a machined finish? Plane it by hand, it's just what you do. Like the quirked edges to a rail, the routed profile just isn't as pleasing as the smooth, uninterrupted scraped finish provided by the plane.
So we've come full circle, power tools do not hold all the answers, the quiet few minutes without the screaming of a brushed motor provides a cheaper and better profile than £50 worth of router cutters, without the set-up time, risk to fingers of trialing the cut on small off-cuts and leaves one feeling rather calmed and thoughtful.
So, which combination plane? LN don't make one, grrrrr. Clifton? I have a wedding to pay for. The new Veritas is just for rabbets it seems. There are loads of Stanley and Record on e-bay but they are old, dirty and often missing bits. Does Philly have this as an impending project? I'm not hugely keen on wooden planes but some of the metal ones are more like space-ships than tools.
Those are my thoughs as the heat eases on this sunny day and we woodworkers emerge from our dens to return to the family burrows, I wonder what other hand tools my Dad would not notice the disappearance of?
Aidan
So it begins over twenty years ago and the first things you play with are tools, totally blunted, I think that saw still exists in my parent's house, it was probably an old dovetail saw, pistol griped, maybe I should find it and renovate it. The rest of the toolbox is tacks, offcuts of ply and a hammer and that's pretty much it, still it's fun and probably cheaper than a teenage mutant hero tellytubbie or whatever garbage kids are abused with these days, and we wonder why they are getting more stupid?
Forward on a few years to when you get to play with sharp(er) tools, like a drill and a saw that also still exists in that house, and still needs sharpening. This is when you start to see the power tool, it cuts, sands, drills and that's about it in the late 80's. The light blue Elu lathe sits in the corner, unused, not any more, it's now in my garage and does get used, but I digress...
By the time we get to teenage years the power tools have evolved a bit and their use is regular at the weekends and the way forwards is obvious, naff old hand tools are obsolete, to do a decent job you need decent tools, with AC leads!
When you first get some money it's time to get some decent power tools, a Black and Decker drill and sander, Trend router and so on, the work progresses, gets a little better and certainly a lot quicker, especially as you don't have to keep nicking your Dad's stuff, so this is it, next stop machinery, the pinnacle of power tools.
Hmm, somewhere in the interim period things have gone astray, and what makes me think this, is what I did this evening. Despite possibly having more tools than my Dad and most definitely better ones (LN chisels instead of his old Marples) a table saw, dust extractor, variable speed router, planer/thicknesser... I still borrowed his Stanley No50 combination plane. I need to do some fluting and I don't want to buy a router cutter for a small job. After a quick clean and a lot of sharpening, a few beads and a wonder round the garden inspecting yesterday's work it was decided, the tool I most need is... not a machine, but a multi-plane.
The thing is, as one gets better at these things, becomes more critical and verging on the obssesive, a machined finish is not good enough, 14 degree dovetails are bordering on the offensive and don't get me started on the radiused internal corner left by profiling rails and stiles after they are assembled! What do we do with a machined finish? Plane it by hand, it's just what you do. Like the quirked edges to a rail, the routed profile just isn't as pleasing as the smooth, uninterrupted scraped finish provided by the plane.
So we've come full circle, power tools do not hold all the answers, the quiet few minutes without the screaming of a brushed motor provides a cheaper and better profile than £50 worth of router cutters, without the set-up time, risk to fingers of trialing the cut on small off-cuts and leaves one feeling rather calmed and thoughtful.
So, which combination plane? LN don't make one, grrrrr. Clifton? I have a wedding to pay for. The new Veritas is just for rabbets it seems. There are loads of Stanley and Record on e-bay but they are old, dirty and often missing bits. Does Philly have this as an impending project? I'm not hugely keen on wooden planes but some of the metal ones are more like space-ships than tools.
Those are my thoughs as the heat eases on this sunny day and we woodworkers emerge from our dens to return to the family burrows, I wonder what other hand tools my Dad would not notice the disappearance of?
Aidan