First my apologies for this being so long AND many thanks to those few who will read it all
So I've decided to ease into the neander world, primarily for cost/learning reasons. I've got a decently appointed shop of power tools and can handle the tasks that need to be done with them. But a few things are pushing me toward the elbow power instead of outlet power.
1. I grew up watching Roy Underhill, the ole' fashion way is engrained in me.
2. With a son on the way it seems much safer to pass on wood working with a hand saw and chisel as opposed to 5 hp cabinet saw and jointer. Plus we could have a conversation about what we are doing instead of having to wait for all the tools to spin down to talk.
3. Much better dust control
4. There is something magical about working wood by hand that I can't put my finger on
5. Too many pod casts by Shannon Rogers over the Thanksgiving break
I liked the free intro to Shannon’s Hand Tool School class and am thinking of signing up for it down the road. Mainly I liked his apprentice tool kit idea. A clear list of the tools needed to complete the first semester’s project. Here are the tools in his list:
1. Scrub plane
2. Jointer Plane
3. Smoothing Plane
4. Router plane
5. Chisels - 1/8, ¼, 3/8, ½, 1-1/2
6. Dovetail saw
7. Carcass saw
8. Tenon saw
9. Rip Saw
10. Crosscut saw
11. Combination square
12. Dividers x2
13. Bevel gauge
14. Marking knife
15. Awl
16. Marking gauge
17. Brace & bits
18. Sharpening setup
19. Wooden mallet
20. A good work bench
I have been trying to read quite a bit and have come up with a staged approach to my neander adventure. Here are my guidelines in their order of importance
1. By good tools, don’t skimp and rebuy later
2. Do not pay a premium for tools just to have a premium name
3. Get tools first that I don’t really have a power tool replacement for
4. Get tools next that make wood working better in either dust control, noise control or better results
5. Buy as much as my better half allows or doesn’t know about
Based on rule one and two of to buy good quality tools I focused my initial price list by shopping at Lee Valley and Lie Neilson. LV was in general less expensive but the total to get all of this at once came to around $2300 to buy brand new of medium to top quality tools from LV. I know that can be reduced quite a bit, especially buying older high quality planes and saws. Or buy just buying used high quality stuff. I simply wanted a base line for over all prices. Even assuming I could find everything at 50% off that comes to $1150 give or take. With a wee boy on the way that total isn’t going to fly with the wife or my own conscience right now. Therefore I’m going to sneak up on neanderthalling it. My plan is to buy strategically and patiently over the next year to get a good starter level of tools.
I already have a nice #4 plane (thanks Zack!) and planes in general are some of the more expensive items on the list. Given that I’ve moved them lower in priority but am not opposed to jumping on great deals if they happen to pop up. Again this is based around the fact I have a good cabinet, planer, jointer and router table for dimensioning and shaping as needed. For now here is my general priority list for tools and training
Training
1. Sharpening
2. Scraping
3. Dovetails
4. Mortise and Tenon work
Purchases
1. Priority 1
a. Build a good bench, leaning toward Roubo style2. Priority 2
b. Chisels – LV bench chisels
c. Setup to sharpen chisels/planes/scrapers
i. 400, 800, 4000 and 8000 grit stonesd. One or two saws
ii. Flattening stone
iii. Veritas MK II honing/sharpening guide
i. Dovetail saw – Veritas dovetail or maybe a japenese dovetail saw. I’ve tried both and like ite. Scraper setup – LV scraper set
ii. Tenon Saw – Pax 12” tenon saw?
i. Scrapersf. Lots of wood to practice on
ii. Scraper holder
iii. File/burnishing jig (not sure on this terminology)
g. Marking gauges – LV Imperial graduated micro adjustable gauge
a. Everything else as I can find/afford/justify it.
I plan to start with joinery such as mortise and tenon joints, dovetails and finish prep (scraping instead of sanding first. Then move on to adding the rest of the tools listed.
So after that long post, here are my questions for the hand tool experts at SMC.
Does my general plan seem logical, both in my reasoning and choice of tools to go after first?
In general LV seems less expensive than LN, do you lose much quality?
For marking knives, will my good ole dependable Stanley utility knife do well enough in place of a $20 LV/LN marking knife?
Any advice is welcome even if it is just a link to a thread to read. I have search/read quite a bit the last few weeks. But with so many options and tools out there it has been hard to narrow in and dig deep into any one topic. I keep being afraid I’ll spend a lot of time chasing one topic that I should postpone til later in my hand tool adventure.