Why Paul Sellers is setting a good example for beginning woodworkers

[Simon MacGowen]

The woodworking world has become more a world of consumerism as makers and inventors flood the market with tools (power or hand) that are fancier and sometimes even necessary. I am not suggesting good tools are no good but some products just border being insane in their asking prices such as a $90 saw handle and lately a $40 bamboo polisher (for burnishing).

Of course no one is forced to buy and those with money can spend whatever and however they want. My point is that more and more woodworkers pay more and more attention to getting new products than getting more skills or getting projects done. And we can tell, judging from the steady stream of new products flooding the market in the past five years, the makers are more than happy to respond to such attention.

I don't agree with everything Paul Sellers advocates, but his "poor-man" (or "poor-woman") approach is refreshing in this time of consumerism.

Simon

[David Weaver]

The thing I don't advocate that sellers does is wasting a bunch of money traveling all over the place to learn remedial skills. There's quite a lot of that pushed.

A couple of remedial videos (and any of the free information that's available) and spending that "class" money on materials and slightly better tools is advised.

It's nice for a beginner to have one premium plane, even if they're on a budget, because it will work right away. They can sell it later. It's nice to have decent joinery tools (like a decent router plane, some decent chisels, etc). Some of the stuff, like cutting tenons with panel saws and trying to make an old hags tooth out of a chisel and a 2x4 is a waste of time, even for beginners. Maybe it's just supposed to be sideshow stuff.

I agree more in his direction than I do most of the other stuff where it's advocated that you both 1) spend a bunch of money to travel to classes about very mundane types of things, and 2) spend a whole bunch of money buying premium tools

The blogroll will tell you several times a month about a tool that was never common in woodworking history, but that you just have to have.

[Cory Waldrop]

Simon,

I agree. I like Mr. Sellers and think that fine projects can be made with inexpensive tools that get the job done. That being said, woodworking to me is about enjoyment and I truly enjoy using nice quality tools. I respect the craftsmanship and in some cases ingenuity and innovation. I will try to support these traits if I can. I am glad that Paul is around and have thoroughly enjoyed his seminars and videos. I wish I could have taken some classes with him when he was teaching in Texas but I was a few years too late. Luckily his teachings are still alive at the school he used to teach at and I have been able to enjoy them under the mastery of other great craftsmen.

[Cory Waldrop]

David,

I think Seller's goal is to educate as many as he can that woodworking can be done by anyone with minimal investment. You don't "need" a router plane if you have a chisel and a board laying around, etc..... The classes he advocates are a bit spendy for the skills learned, but in my mind it is about more than what you learn while being there. There were several people in the classes I have taken that probably wouldn't have tried any serious woodworking if they didn't have the opportunity to come to a class environment with someone there to help out. It just wasn't in their comfort zone. But it is pretty cool when you see someone with a huge smile on their face because they cut their first dovetail. That is what the classes are about in my opinion... pure enjoyment. I can see why Paul advocates his classes. People leave the class with a new sense of passion and cant wait to get home to apply some of the skills they learned during the week. I know I did. Plus the guy has to make a living and I dont mind supporting him when he is offering something so valuable to others. Just my .02

[Tony Zaffuto]

I like Seller's methods, and say thing after receiving (and viewing) his DVD set several years ago. Much of it, I already knew, but what was very useful were various shortcuts/tricks he instilled in the videos that were not mentioned, but learned by watching (some by me, such as mortising, several times). The book that came with the DVD's is worth purchasing on its own.

As Cory has stated, Sellers does show passion and enjoyment for the hobby, and it is a breath of fresh air to not have him recommend every gadget sent to him for reviews (as some, particularly in the mags, seem to do). This hobby has a ton of boutique makers, with prices reflecting one-off manufacturing. In many cases, the items bought are far less serviceable than many already in the mainstream (particularly in saws - spending $300 on that 6 month leadtime backsaw does not make the saw better than many $100 saws readily available).

With virtually all educational methods, beauty, though, is in the eye of the beholder. What impresses me, may not do the same for Joe next door.

[David Weaver]

What impresses me, may not do the same for Joe next door.

Agree with that major big time.

There are some semi factory things out there that are a good deal. I think the LN dovetail saw is pretty inexpensive for what it is (I don't have one), and the veritas saws are a good deal for what they are.

The chance of a beginner going out and finding a good vintage panel saw in sharp condition are pretty slim, but the refurbished cost of a lot of saws being marketed for $300 is goofy, too. If I sold half of my till and sharpened the saws and listed the same saws just lightly cleaned and sharpened, I'd bet I'd fight people to pay $75 for a decent D8 with 90% of its life left, and on a no-name orphan (which are something that I kind of like), I'd struggle to get someone to pay $30 for one of the saws that I've paid more for unsharpened.

Anyway, the trouble is a beginner doesn't know what will work well and what won't.

the old hags tooth made of a 2x4 may work well for SPF, but it will not work if someone wants to make their bench out of maple. At any rate, being a conservator of money sometimes (and sometimes not, but in this case it's one of the sometimes) and a realist on knowledge (if you learn something on your own, you own the knowledge a lot more than if someone tells it to you, even though there are sometimes things you won't get on your own), I just don't agree with spending gobs of money on going to classes if you're going to skimp on the tools. The tools have residual value. The classes have zero residual value if you could've learned the class material on your own.

I think the hogan method (find the method through doing) is more practical than trying to remember a whole bunch of rules that mean something to someone else. In woodworking, you basically have three things - you have to design it, lay it out/ mark it and then execute it. If you can mark it, you can pretty much do it. Most things are severely lacking in the first two if anything. It's awfully hard to get someone to teach you those things in a way where you have a mental toolkit to do more than just make practice joints or specific pieces in a book, but those are the things that need to be cultivated so that when you do know what tools you need in a couple of years, you have the competence to make things with them that are not offensive.

They are elusive compared to a specific set of rules (that may work the same as any of 10 other sets of rules to make the same joint), which can be easily marketed.

So as tony says, it goes back to what you think is important. To me, functional quality tools that don't limit you are worth the trouble and expense (that doesn't mean draw knife sharpening gadgets from LN or $1200 sharpening tables or expensive one-off chisels and infill planes, etc, or even a shelf full of premium tools).

If you can't learn (and learn from) most of what you are going to do on your own, though, this is a tough hobby.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Great post David.

I'm reminded often of my father, dead now a decade. He was a life long carpenter and though at the end of his career he ran commercial/industrial jobs, he began as a house builder after WWII. I have his fold-out carpenter chest that was typical of those in that trade in that era. He was highly amused at some of the stuff I bought as well as some of the stuff I had learned. He was not afraid of taking any tool, and altering it to do the job at hand. Tools were just that: tools for doing a job. Many of those same tools are still available with some requiring time to find them, but they're still out there. Maybe in our own heads, we have to come to terms with exactly what it is we want to do?

[Brian Holcombe]

I agree with David's sentiment. My choice to purchase reliable tools is two part, one being that they are reliable on function well right out of the box, the other being that I enjoy supporting small high quality manufacturers in the way I can.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Tony has hit the nail on the head quite squarely in my opinion. All forms of education are good if the material presented is accurate and doesn't contain misinformation. Each of us learns differently and hence gravitates toward what is most effective for us. Some can learn just by reading, some by hearing and seeing an explanation, and others by actually doing(modeling). In reality we all learn something from each of these methods, but we have one or two which are predominate and give the most effective results. After learning it then becomes time to practice and reinforce whatever has been learned before much of it is forgotten.

It took me a while before I got away from the "I have to have everything" mode. Horror of horrors, I've actually been selling off some of what consider to be excess.

[David Weaver]

Great post David.

I'm reminded often of my father, dead now a decade. He was a life long carpenter and though at the end of his career he ran commercial/industrial jobs, he began as a house builder after WWII. I have his fold-out carpenter chest that was typical of those in that trade in that era. He was highly amused at some of the stuff I bought as well as some of the stuff I had learned. He was not afraid of taking any tool, and altering it to do the job at hand. Tools were just that: tools for doing a job. Many of those same tools are still available with some requiring time to find them, but they're still out there. Maybe in our own heads, we have to come to terms with exactly what it is we want to do?

Your father and my grandfater were probably a lot alike, though my grandfather was a farmer and machine builder. Nothing was safe from the wrath of the welder if it wasn't designed right, and no tools were kept for pretty or purchased without need. We are the first or second generation, probably in history, where a large segment of the population has been able to buy things they don't need without undue concern, and my grandfather grew up without that and never adopted it - found happiness elsewhere. For most of my parents' life they went without it, and my dad still lives that way - there has to be a very significant need before he'll open his wallet (as opposed to me, I will buy anything that I have a curious itch for - stockmans anyone? - and sometimes dump it later).

Anyway, we are also probably the first generation so detached from skills of doing things that we believe that there is an easy trick or 6 to learn to do something professionally well within a week. Some of the most reasonable older fellows I've met have emphasized that - that you can't expect to do something at their professional level with a half dozen tries. Klausz said something about that, too..I can't remember his exact word, but it had to do with people thinking they'd dabble at everything and then being disappointed when they were no good at it.

(I guess what I'm getting at in a not very direct way, is that we're all differing in opinion about what money we should spend on something that we don't need to spend any money on in the first place. Something no ancestors of mine would've done. My own father would spend money on a bat and glove to play recreational softball, but you could hardly get a nickel out of him otherwise. And for my grandfather, I can't think of a single thing he had in the house that was designed to stimulate his non-income-producing curiosities - it makes the blogging suggestions of what someone must or most not do or buy even more ridiculous - there's no necessity for any of us to do any of it, and certainly no moral or ethical obligation to support makers making extremely expensive tools with no more - or less - utilility than something very pedestrian. One of my daughter's favorite things is to haul magazines out of the basket and bring them to me when I look bored. Last night she brought an issue of PWW to me - from before my subscription ran out. There was an article in praise of krenov planes that almost cost $1000. It is one of the few times that I've actually been outright disgusted as opposed to just rolling eyes. But if someone loves to spend that kind of money on something like that, we don't need to even do this hobby anyway, so any dollar is luxury spending anyway)

[David Weaver]

It took me a while before I got away from the "I have to have everything" mode.

You and me, and lots of others on here. If we all made our decisions after sweating for a day in the shop, we'd probably buy less. I often find the time that I'm least interested in getting anything is after I've been able to wear out the woodworking itch over a weekend day. Separation from the woodworking for a while leads to substitution of thinking/planning/buying instead of doing.

[Robert Culver]

Im kinda on the fence about this because first I Know how costly it can be for a small business to make tools and resell them. I also know that there is no posable way we can compete with things that are made in china . I also know that the quality of tools made in America is by far more superior to anything coming out of most other places. I have to say straight up I have a close to 90 dollar hand saw handle and while yes it was costly and I about choked at the price I have to remind myself I supported a small business still making things in America .... We have become a consumer type society I tend to agree somewhat with that but I still enjoy having Quality tools... That's just my 2 pennys.

[Chris Griggs]

Separation from the woodworking for a while leads to substitution of thinking/planning/buying instead of doing.

This is me...when I'm between projects I find myself thinking I need/want all sorts of things...when I'm in the midst of a project its rare I find myself thinking I need anything else, and when I do it usually a very targeted thing that will a make a job easier, but isn't necessarily the most exciting thing to spend money on. I spend way more money when I don't have something to work on that keeps my thoughts about my actual needs grounded.

[James Taglienti]

It's the nature of men's hobbies. Look at Harley Davidson, now a lifestyle brand.
Cabelas, where one can spend $20k on hunting gear in a few hours- I'm talking about scent blocking chewing gun, HD trail cameras, camouflage screws to build a hunting blind with etc. I have a friend who sits in a shipping container smoking Winstons and bags deer all season.
Hunters can go to any of hundreds of ranches and shoot a deer that wil just as soon eat out of your hand (buying a LN sharpening station?)
There are guys that buy $200k offshore boats and use them twice a year. There are guys that sit by the side of a ditch with a cane pole and catch 5 catfish for dinner.
I have my own opinion, and it leans toward simplification and actually producing.

Bottom line, woodworking is a predominantly male hobby, which is a market awash in unnecessary spending across the board, and any new product touted as better or even necessary will be snatched up with enthusiasm.

I don't think these guys selling all this superfluous stuff are trying to take advantage of anyone. They're probably just as enchanted with accessories as the rest of us.

[steven c newman]

I have used a few of paul's videos for an idea, or two. Like raised panels, using just a #4 Stanley plane. Ok, ok, so i also used a #5 on the longer sides. made the beveled area a little bit more even along the length. Used some of his ideas for a shooting board. And.....a few of his ideas on sharpening irons. I watch just to get a few good ideas out of each video I see. I try them out, IF they work for me, I'll keep them. If not, DELETED. Too many ideas is like not enough. have to keep a clean plate, somedays, you know...