I am a self-taught, amateur, hand tool woodworker. I was inspired to pursue hand tools 35 years ago by James Krenov's books. My early work (which sounds inappropriately very self-important was limited by the small set of hand tools I had and my ability use them.
My thought for this thread is the possiblity of Learning from previous experience and not having to re-create the wheel/mistakes of previous generations. Over the last 35 years, there are several hand tools that I have really come to appreciate that I wish I would've acquired/ learned how to use much earlier in my woodworking experience. This may just be a function of I'm not very smart: but perhaps there is some value for folks starting down the hand tools slippery slope of learning from those who have already gone that way.
For me, I nominate:
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Dividers - (In my early days I spent hours With the calculator trying to figure out spacing for dovetails,– Dughhhh, dividers much easier!).
Card scrapers: once I learned how to sharpen these appropriately, I found them to be great labor/timesavers for smoothing everything from large, flat planed surfaces;, to especially smaller, curved moldings etc. Much easier/faster than sanding.
One of the biggest evolutions in my woodworking has been incorporating curves (I'm not creative and find these very scary!), Hand stitched rasps have been incredibly helpful for me in forming curves. I never would've thought one could achieve smooth curves/reasonably flat surfaces with a rasp.
Lastly, I am old and fat now, so perhaps that colors my opinion that a rolling bench stool is invaluable in the workshop. In my younger days I spent many hours bent over the benchtop. Probably better, but at my age, a stool that let you do chisel work while sitting down is great for me!
I look forward to hearing the thoughts of my fellow Neanders. As someone who grew up without the huge benefit of learning from the Internet, anything we can offer to the next generation that helps them avoid the many mistakes I know I made, might be helpful.
All the best, Mike