Woodsmith shop

[Brent Cutshall]

Ok, I just watched my first episode of Woodsmith shop, and good grief. Them people have power tools for everything, and what's bad about it is that they have a whole heap of hand tools hanging on the wall behind them. They're doing dados and rabbets with a table saw and behind them sits a set of shoulder planes. I wish I had some of those planes. It's a nice show for power workers, and I liked it(little brother was bored) but come on, they cut tenons with a table saw and they had a TENON saw behind them. I guess I've been to long in a shop that I built with hand tools, working with hand tools, and not using power tools. They had me scratching my head. I wish they showed The Woodwrights Shop on dish.

[steven c newman]

pbs.org......full episodes of The Woodwright's Shop. Usually have at least three years worth of episodes on the sight to watch..

Never could get into the woodsmith bunch......most of their stuff I could do faster with the handtooling I have....almost like watching the Router Workshop.....

[lowell holmes]

They do use hand tools occasionally, but they are power tool guys. I still like to watch them. They organize their projects well.

Of course, full disclosure requires that I have a nice power tool shop as well as an extensive collection of hand tools. I'm making a handle for my D12 Disston and I have no interest in cutting the shape with my coping saw. I will use brace and bit and hand crank drill though.

[Stewie Simpson]

Brent; its quite likely the episodes of the Woodsmith Shop are designed to cater for the vast majority of we woodworkers who do rely on a combination of hand and power tools to complete their work. A far cry from what's being offered by Roy within his series of the Woodright Shop. I have heard many comments on this forum praising the work of Chris Schwarz in promoting the use of hand tools. But. You're rarely offered the opportunity to view what Chris chooses to use when the camera is turned OFF. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3LkC8JpO1g

Stewie;

[glenn bradley]

The Woodsmith folks are power-tool-centric. Expecting their show to be different is a bit off target, no? Although the mag and website give some attention to hand tools that is not their focus. For an alternate view I often watch Roy (who I really enjoy) tackle things better done with a bit of powered assistance IMHO but, that's part of the joy of the craft. We all do this for different reasons and in different ways. As in many things leaning to one extreme or the other is rarely the best for everyone.

[Derek Cohen]

I read a Chris Schwarz blog on a related topic recently. It was titled, "Why I adhore my machines". He expressed my own views very well in this quote, below ...

Stupid: Making a jig to cut a compound angle on the table saw.
Not stupid: Knifing a line and cutting the compound angle with a carcase saw.
Stupid: Processing 200 board feet of rough lumber with a jack plane.
Not stupid: Using an electric jointer and planer to do the work in an afternoon.

Further to this, I have watched videos of woodworkers building tables with machines where they went to inordinate lengths to create jigs to cut curves or angles. What was really a simple project turned into a complex and lengthy procedure. I wanted to scream out, "just pick up a carcase saw and saw to the line. Then finish with a spokeshave". That would have been too simple.

Another time, I was demonstrating mortice-and-tenon joint making with chisels and tenon saw at my woodworking club. I passed the pieces around to members to look at. One came up to me later to ask how the parts were sanded to obtain the finish I got. Of course they were planed in 2 minutes - I just took for granted the finish (that would require probably several grits of sandpaper, not to mention the dust and rounded corners).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Frederick Skelly]

I read a Chris Schwarz blog on a related topic recently. It was titled, "Why I adhore my machines". He expressed my own views very well in this quote, below ...

Stupid: Making a jig to cut a compound angle on the table saw.
Not stupid: Knifing a line and cutting the compound angle with a carcase saw.
Stupid: Processing 200 board feet of rough lumber with a jack plane.
Not stupid: Using an electric jointer and planer to do the work in an afternoon.

Further to this, I have watched videos of woodworkers building tables with machines where they went to inordinate lengths to create jigs to cut curves or angles. What was really a simple project turned into a complex and lengthy procedure. I wanted to scream out, "just pick up a carcase saw and saw to the line. Then finish with a spokeshave". That would have been too simple.

Another time, I was demonstrating mortice-and-tenon joint making with chisels and tenon saw at my woodworking club. I passed the pieces around to members to look at. One came up to me later to ask how the parts were sanded to obtain the finish I got. Of course they were planed in 2 minutes - I just took for granted the finish (that would require probably several grits of sandpaper, not to mention the dust and rounded corners).

Regards from Perth

Derek

+1. I love my hand tools and since you folks taught me about planes, I almost never use sand paper. Heck, sometimes I go plane a board or sharpen a tool just for the feel of it. But what Derek and Lowell describe is my "normal" approach. I use machines for heavy work and hand tools for fine work.

But like Glenn said, that's just the way I like to work. I have nothing but respect for people like Warren Mickley who do it all by hand.

[Brent Cutshall]

Yeah, it's a good show, but every time they did a scene with those hand tools in the background I never heard what they said,(weird? maybe). They are ,without a doubt, modernistic woodworkers and they are good at what they do. But they spent about fifteen minutes talking about lumber selection and why to or not to get certain things. I mean come on, you haven't sweated lumber selection until you've went out, spotted a tree, crosscut or hewed it down, length it,(took a break for lunch), hand ripped out the boards, jointed the boards, and then you make the what you want to make. I like it when someone asks me."How did you do this?", I can reply, "By hand". Call me stubborn, you just might be right. Know what I'm talking about?

[george wilson]

I haven't seen that show. But it irritates me that everyone has the word "SMITH" applied to their name. A SMITH is someone who HAMMERS his work into shape. You've got "bike smiths",and all kinds of smiths popping up everywhere. I would not like to have my BIKE(If I HAD one) hammered on by a SMITH!!!

So,if I see a show labeled "SMITH"it is a signal that the show will be a bunch of amateurs who can't even come up with a correct name for their show.

[Rob Luter]

I haven't seen that show. But it irritates me that everyone has the word "SMITH" applied to their name. A SMITH is someone who HAMMERS his work into shape......

Like Breadsmith? Hammering together grains and yeast to make artisanal baked goods?

Seriously though, I've seen the show and it's not too bad. The target audience seems to be the beginning guy/gal with limited time who wants to have woodworking as a hobby. Most of the projects are pretty simple and take advantage of power tools where it makes sense. The level of complexity is akin to high school woodshop. There's no shame in using electrons to do some of the work for you. If I'm short on time I do the same

[Art Mann]

Obviously, the show is dedicated to power tool woodworkers. There are far more of those in the wild than there are hand tool woodworkers. The hand tools in the background are just for show. There are plenty of other shows that focus on hand tools. Why not just watch them?

[Simon MacGowen]

Paul Sellers teaches traditional woodworking and uses machines to prepare stock for his classes. He uses the cordless drills a lot, too. Woodsmith has always been a power-tool program/publication but in recent years -- in response to the increasing interest in traditional tools -- has added some coverage of hand tools. They are by no means experts in the use of hand tools. That's fine and I see a similar move at Wood magazine.

I know of no one personally who is 100% hand-tool. Some may have ditched their tablesaws but insist to keep their bandsaws and drill presses. I like to joke to go totally unplugged, start with oil lamps and turn off the lights.

Something is better done with hand tools while others with power tools. As for sanding, who says it is a bad thing? Sand papers are abundant in my shop and so are handplanes and card scrapers.

Simon

[john zulu]

I started with hand tools. After a few projects solely on hand tools. I doubt I want to ripe through hardwood using a handsaw. It is possible but so much energy is wasted.
Local hard wood is like chengal or resak in Malaysia.

I keep my LN 102 plane at my side for all projects.

[Blake M Williams]

I enjoy learning about and using hand tools. I still keep my power tools around though, mostly for cutting down large stock into smaller easier to manage pieces. It may be a long time before I go all out and go chop down a tree and hand cut or split my own lumber lol. Have you guys watched anyone split logs into lumber? What's it called, riving? Then they hand plane it smooth. They make it look like splitting it is faster than setting up and cutting on a mill.

[steven c newman]

Not everybody splits their logs..
saw mill.jpg
Some will fire up the old Farmall tractor, hook a web belt onto it's PTO, and run it through a mill. Before the Farmall came along, it was a Steam powered tractor.

Takes a bit of maintainence, though..
bearing trouble.jpg
Not sure if this saw could crosscut all that big of a log..
crosscut saw.jpg
But...not all power tools needed a cord....