woodbloke Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:55 am Post subject: Tool storage
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Marc W - a very gloatworthy cabinet and collection of LN kit, but I wonder, do you use all of the planes on a regular basis? For example I can see a LN No 8 and 7 in the rack and the only difference between them is a wider blade and 50mm of cast iron...and about £60. If you do use them all, more power to your elbow, if not, then that's a very pretty, very expensive collection of cast iron and bronze not doing allot. I went down this road of tool collecting when I started doing cabinet work many years ago and its very, very easy to get sucked into the maelstrom of trying to buy every conceivable tool that might be required, and in my view, its cash that can be spent better elsewhere...I ended up not using three quarters of what I bought. If you look at the hand tools of folk like Alan Peters they have just the minimum of kit needed to do the job..Krenov is different in that he makes all his planes, apart from, I recollect, a Stanley block plane that's in one of his books. I once knew a old maker who had as his hand tool kit a beaten up Record No4, a Stanley knife, and old 25mm chisel,a 300mm steel rule, a Norton oil stone and a flexible tape measure...thats it...mind you, what he could do with machinery was another story.
I now, in my wisdom, keep the minimum of hand tools and buy kit specifically for each job as it comes along which saves a lot of the folding in the long run. If a tool doesn't earn its keep its taking up space and cash in a crowded workshop that could be used for other stuff. This is only a personal view and will probably provoke a storm of indignant protest from folks who like collecting toys, so I'm going to post this now, back away from the screen in case it explodes and disappear into the workshop for a couple of hours - Rob