Can you hand tool woodworkers do everything that a powered tool woodworker can do?

[Stew Hagerty]

I think most of us are hybrid woodworkers. I don't want to do stock preparation by hand - it's physically hard and takes a lot of time. It's real grunt work. So I use a jointer, planer and table saw to prepare the stock.

But a lot of the finer work I do by hand.

Mike

Bingo...
Just like I said earlier, Hybrid Woodworking is really the best of both worlds.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

A number of ancient craftsmen supposedly would include a deliberate flaw in their work to remind people that "only God is perfect." I don't know if you do that. If you don't, I'm going to say that is way too nice for any sane person to use it.

[Tony Wilkins]

Not a hybrid thing about my woodworking. Totally by hand - and bad.

[Brian Holcombe]

A number of ancient craftsmen supposedly would include a deliberate flaw in their work to remind people that "only God is perfect." I don't know if you do that. If you don't, I'm going to say that is way too nice for any sane person to use it.

They were classically trained in cover stories as well

[Tom Vanzant]

Why would I deliberately add another flaw?

[Pat Barry]

Why would I deliberately add another flaw?

Once you put in that first flaw it takes the pressure off you for the rest of the project.

[Chris Hachet]

I am 100% a power tool woodworker - - well almost. I once took a tour of Williamsburg, VA and inspected some of the exquisite furniture there that had been built there centuries ago. Based on that experience, I would say that just about anything that can be done with wood can be done with nothing but hand tools. I just don't have the patience or skill and have no desire to learn.

And there is nothing wrong with that at all. Different strokes for different folks.

[Allan Speers]

One thing powered-tool users can do, much better than me, is cough.

- They get a lot more practice, what with all that fine sawdust floating about.

[Jeff Heath]

The answer to the original question, for me, is yes. However, I don't want to. There are quite a few functions that power tools cannot duplicate with the same level of success, or with the same result.

When my career as a woodworker first started out 32 years ago (geesh, that makes me feel old) I didn't have any money for power tools.

Now, I balance my desire for speed with my desire for peace in the workshop. I use my power tools to provide flat and level stock, and pretty much take it from there with hand tools. Except cabinet work with plywood.....that falls under the category of "get er' dunn", and as fast as possible. That's when my Festool track saw, table saw, and Omnijig dovetail jig come out for speed. Hand cutting dovetails on 40 drawers for a big cabinet job is a waste of effort and time.

When I was 20, I certainly had the energy to resaw larger planks with a rip saw. Now, I let my woodmizer do the heavy lifting for me for logs, and I've got a big bandsaw for dry wood.

My .02.

[Darrell LaRue]

The thing that comes to mind is a router and router table.
How do hand tool woodworkers do fancy edge work for say a nice art frame?

Easily! Here is a picture frame I did for my SIL for Xmas a few years ago. This was made from butternut, finished with shellac. I bought a crummy frame from some discount shop for the glass & matt, and built a new frame around them.

Bead2.JPGAstragal.JPGGouge.JPGDetail.JPG

Darrell

[Brian Ashton]

Sorry, but I am a CNC router user and you are not very knowledgeable about the capabilities of CNC machines. If you were to buy a fine quality highboy at an upscale furniture store, the finely sculptured wooden pieces would almost certainly have been carved using a multi axis CNC machine. It just isn't financially feasible to hire craftsmen to spend weeks or months carving such a piece. Individuals can obviously do just as well (see my first post) but only in a custom build one off environment.

You might be right there, but if the furniture is being sold as high end, the parts would be finalized by a human to give them a much higher look of quality that a machine simply isn't capable of. Yes run of the mill furniture is often sold with machined parts on them and it shows! Machines just don't have that level of quality. TBH, I'd suspect that, considering high quality furniture isn't done in high numbered production runs (lets face it no many people wanting highboys), that many of the parts would most likely be made in some third world country - by hand. When all your job is, is to produce a cabriole leg with a acanthus leaf knee and ball and claw foot day in and day out you can produce them at phenomenal speed, and do a not so bad job, and! better than a machine.

[Art Mann]

There are videos on Youtube of CNC machines carving all sorts of intricately designed furniture parts such as you describe. They take minutes rather than hours to produce. They look as good as what a fine craftsman would produce. I just don't think you are aware of how far along the technology has come. I am sure there are custom carved pieces that couldn't be duplicated by a machine but you are not going to see this sort of thing in a furniture store.

[Jim Koepke]

There are videos on Youtube of CNC machines carving all sorts of intricately designed furniture parts such as you describe. They take minutes rather than hours to produce. They look as good as what a fine craftsman would produce. I just don't think you are aware of how far along the technology has come. I am sure there are custom carved pieces that couldn't be duplicated by a machine but you are not going to see this sort of thing in a furniture store.

Surely machines have advanced to the point of replacing humans in many endeavors. In my own shop I would rather listen to music instead of machines.

The local PBS station on Saturday afternoon has two programs The Woodwright's Shop and The Woodshop. One is mostly hand tools and the other is almost all power tools. They are just different ways of doing things.

Fast forward a century or so. There may be a bit of awe around the dining room hutch when a young bride tells her friends and family that her mother gave that to her as a wedding gift and it was hand made by her mother's grandmother (or grandfather).

I am sure it will be more awe inspiring than the story about how it was made on a CNC machine where her mother's grandfather (or grandmother) was a machine operator.

Here is a practice piece I made:

lovetails.jpg

These were done by hand. Using a router and some skill it is possible to do some rather fancy designs in joinery a hand tool might not be able to do.

What matters more is the satisfaction of doing it the way I do.

jtk

[William Adams]

My big problem w/ machine routing of complex 3D shapes is that it won’t consider wood grain and features as a human carver will, nor adjust the design for some fragile bit breaking off.

The pieces also tend towards a boring sameness where every part is identical, w/o any expressive variation.

[Ray Selinger]

Custom rifles are a bit of a joke, most have fiberglass stocks from the same mold. Even the beautiful wood stocked ones are not fitted. But only hand tools can get you a rifle stock that truly fits .