Why are you a Neander?

[george wilson]

The older I get,the nicer it is to run a board through a machine. I love my machines,but they can only do so much. The carving,filing of variable bevels on curves and other finer finishing touches can only be done with hand tools. I cannot make a good saw handle with machines. Their varied amounts of curvature require hand rasping and filing. Machines can't get that subtlety,at least not any that I have. Beyond bandsawing them out,I use hand tools. I cannot make a violin neck with machines,can't carve a lion's head,or put in violin purfling with a machine.

[JohnPeter Lee]

Why I Neander.

The tools are infinitely more beautiful. Less IS more.
The tools are quiet.
The processes are elemental - mark the line, cut to the line...

I spend 10 hours a day in front of a computer. Time at the bench with my good friends is precious.

JPL

[Jim Koepke]

My first real project was an adirondack chair for the back yard. I had a saw, hammer and sand paper. The wood came from old pallets. That project got me hooked.

After that I bought a few power tools, saber saw and circular saw. I still have them, but they are seldom used.

There really wasn't enough space for power equipment in our small garage. Also, my schedule had me working on wood late at night, noise was not an option.

Since I do not like noise, that is fine by me.

So now I tell people who ask why hand tools instead of power, my "wise crack" answer is because mistakes are made slower.

For real though, for me it seems easier to maintain the hand tools than the power tools.

One of my coworkers used to always rib me about using hand tools instead of power. Then when his planer blades got nicked, he was out of business until he could afford to replace them. He also wanted me to sharpen his jointer blades for him. I offered to teach him how to sharpen, but he wanted someone else to do the "non-woodworking stuff" for him.

Sharpening saws, chisels and plane irons is "woodworking stuff."

jtk

[Chuck Tringo]

Far less noise (I hate earplugs/ear muffs)
Less Dust (my entire family has allergies of some sort)
Less space/weight (The Army only allots me so much weight and moves me often)
Their puriter
Some tasks are far simpler (angled tenon...most power tool users will spend hours figuring out and making a jig, neader marks to the line and cuts)
I screw stuff up much slower than with power tools

[harry strasil]

I started out neandering or galooting during my blacksmith apprenticeship in my father and uncles blacksmith shop rebuilding wooden wagon wheels, replacing wooden axles, reach poles etc for farm wagons, with my grandfathers tools and I just kept at it till I got married and had a house of my own (rented) with an almost full basement with a walk out door. I got my first router a small Stanley in the early 70's as well as a cheap circular saw, a saber saw, and belt sander. Then I made myself a table saw which I still use and got an import bandsaw and an old small camel back drill press. I spread the work between power tools and hand tools which ever is better for the task at hand, I use a lunch box planer for thicknessing most of the time.
I actually have 2 woodworking shops, one in my basement and another totally hand tool shop in a 6 by 10 Cargo trailer, which I use for live mid 1800 demos at living history and steam shows.

The power goes out, and the weather is nice, I move out to my driveway and work out of my trailer.

[Andrew Gibson]

I have been infatuated with woodworking since a very young age.
My grandpa likes to tell a story about doing a basement remodel when I was about 3 years old. I wanted to help so he gave me a hammer, a box of nails, and a 2x4 scrap. He says I drove every nail on the box into that 2x4.

I built my first piece of furniture at about age 10 or 12. The wood came from an old upright piano that was trashed. The coffee table is sitting in my Grandparents living room.

I hate electric routers, anything I can do to eliminate the need for one I embrace with open arms.

Hand tools add soul to the work that a machine simply cannot.

[Deane Allinson]

I bought my first plane in the 1980's Corian was a pretty new thing then. They recommended using a low angle block plane for touch-ups and planing off excess adhesive. I bought an English made Stanley G12-060 at the hardware store. It worked like a dream. I then picked up a set of Sheffield made Greenlee bench chisels and learned to sharpen on Arkansas stones (lived there most of my life, the stones were common and cheap then. Then like most I built my on maple top, white oak Base work bench. I was making cheap melamine commercial store fixtures and wasn't exactly proud of the end product. I think that my hand made solid wood furniture was just reactionary to the crap that I had to make to earn a living. That was in the 1980's. I have recently started back with hand tools and making furniture again it seems for the same reason. With the current economy and a couple of places that I worked that had to close, I find my self back making crap store fixtures out of melamine again. I am engineering them in stead of making them but it is still the same. It makes me feel that at least I can please myself with what I perceive as quality and good design. I enjoy the challenge of hand, eye, body and brain required to do hand wood work. It's kind of like shooting snooker but you have something left over when its over.

[Tristan Williams]

For me its simple: My shop is my balcony. I live on the 8th floor of an apartment building, and there are strong restrictions on noise. One upside - the view from my "shop" is pretty damn hard to beat!

I must say though, I love working with hand tools. They're so quiet and peaceful, almost meditative. I feel a real connection with the material as I work it quietly and patiently. That said, I do wish I had a bandsaw for rough stock prep..

[john brenton]

I became a neander in the trades. Not only were hand dies, saws, mitre boxes and brace drills more affordable and portable, but they allowed me another option in certain spots where a power tool wouldn't work or there was no power. I still used the pipe threader and hole hawg on commercial jobs, but kept my neander on the truck just in case, and eventually all my work in homes was done with hand tools.

For me, not only are hand tools more enjoyable, but doing things the hard way makes you better at everything. My first plumbing guru made me pipe a McMansion with a hand die because I went back to the threading machine to recut pipe too many times. That taught me a valuable lesson.

[Brian Atkinson]

My reason is pretty simple. My 7 year old son (almost 8! if you ask him) has really liked watching me work around the house and fix and build things and wanted to help me with projects and be shown how to do things. I looked around and realized there was no way I was letting him touch the table saw, router, chop saw, etc. I didn't want to wait until he was older and maybe have him lose interest so we started with some small projects using hand tools (a bird feeder was his first project). He's had a great time, I found I really enjoy (maybe love?) working with the hand tools too.

Embarrassingly, when I first picked up a handsaw I realized I didn't even know the best way to secure the work piece or even the best way to get a straight cut. For the past 6 months or so I've embarked on my own journey of learning how to use hand tools and I've loved every minute of it.

I haven't forsaken my power tools. When Ibuilt a patio cover in the back yard recently I did most of the work with my powertools, but I've found myself more and more drawn to the hand tools, especially for the smaller projects. My next projects are a couple of side gates for the house and I may tackle these as a pure hand tool project.

[Matt Radtke]

I made a simple project, I can't even remember what I was now. . . maybe a mirror or something. Anyway, the wood I got, from Menards, was pretty flat and straight, but not good enough. I forged on anyway. After that experience, I started looking for a jointer and planer, but I quickly realized I don't really have the space for them (really, really don't now that I put up enough basement walls to enclose my shop area) and SWMBO would KILL me with the kind of dust those make.

So I ask, "How did they do it before jointers and planers." SMC was actually one of the top hits of my googling. Then ebay. Then the antique store just down the road. I needed a jointer and fore. . . and its only got worse (just picked up 3 bell system braces for less than $15 a brace)

After that, it's something of a reaction of how I grew up. Dad is a degree-carrying professional engineer (with the stamp) and tried to start his own company once long ago. His shop had a vertical mill, lathe, 2x drill presses, and a metal band saw not including his woodworking tools, and absolute SH** hand tools. He comes over to help me on the house and he's amazed what I can do without burning electrons. He's (finally) consented to let me sharpen his chisels.

[Pat Barry]

The name Neanderthal doesn't do a lot for me. I'm thinking the name should go away. Maybe change it to Woodwrights' Corner in honor of Roy Underhill.

[Robert Culver]

other than the main reasons which are kinda to persnal to post I can tell you I enjoy the peace and quite. I love the way a handplane feels as you plow it through some nice hard wood. its good exersise to scrubing down a board just gets the blood flowing. I have a hard time working slow but had tools force you to slow down a bit. I feel like I have more control to of the cut and the tool. I have some power tools and pla to buy more so I cant say Im 100 % hand but I can say I do 90 % of my work now by hand

[Leigh Betsch]

I'm not really a neander. I just like to make things, including neander tools. I use every available form of tool I can afford. I like to use neander tools when I can but I am totally happy using anything that does the job. Sometime hand tools, sometimes a big ol electron burner. I built a few boxes as Christmas gifts, I used a router but I would really have liked to use a molding plane, I just didn't have one. I'd love to build a CNC router, but I'd also love to build a set of hollows and rounds. Gosh so much fun, and so littel time.........

[Bob Jones]

I got into hand tools by accident. I decided to buy a bunch of power tools on on bit of a whim because I wanted to build my own furniture. I was not an informed consumer. Anyway, on my second of third project I realized that my power tools were not big enough for the projects I was choosing. I finally talked to someone who knew something, Scott Banbury. He is a local ww.
I asked him how to work a large board and he handed me a handplane. I had never seem one before. I now have a few and I have since sold my jointer, and am trying to sell
My tablesaw. I love handtools because they are more fun. FYI I still use my bandsaw for ripping.