Does being neander change how you see things?

[Matt Lau]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a woodworker.
However, I'd like to think that dabbling in neandering has helped me see the world very differently (sorta like learning to cook).

For me, it's a dislike of MDF, "floating" desks, and vaporware electronics (which is ironic, since I used to be a computer nerd).
Also, it's challenged me to get better, and better as a dentist.
I'd like my dentistry to last as long as some people's furniture!

How has being neander changed how you see things?

-Matt

[Patrick Chase]

I find that the prominent brow ridges limit my abiliity to see upwards. Also, every problem looks like a suitable application for a wooden club and/or a large rock.

Other than that, not really.

[lowell holmes]

I went through your phase, but as I age, I have nothing to prove, so I am comfortable with
using both power and hand tools.

I would never cut plywood with a hand saw and I will probably make multiple identical cuts with a chop saw.

However, I don't think I can complete a project without being able to use hand tools. I take pride in my possession
of both skills. I think it is being a complete woodworker.

I am also an old dog that doesn't have time to dilly dally.

I own three Lie Nielsen handsaws and I use them. I have 20"X 4" tenon saw that I made from a Ron Bontz kit.
The handle is curly maple that I designed and made.

[Mike Henderson]

I am also an old dog that doesn't have time to dilly dally.

I understand. I'm old enough that I quit buying green bananas.

Mike

[steven c newman]

It tends to help me keep what little skills I have working. Wake up in the mornings, to the sound of Rice Kripies..( Snap, crackle POP) as I try to walk around. Always a good day, went you can look down at the tops of the grass..( inside of up at the roots?)

Went from huge Pole barn shop full of power tools, to that little basement shop....was "forced" into the Hand Tool Realm.

[lowell holmes]

It tends to help me keep what little skills I have working. Wake up in the mornings, to the sound of Rice Kripies..( Snap, crackle POP) as I try to walk around. Always a good day, went you can look down at the tops of the grass..( inside of up at the roots?)

Went from huge Pole barn shop full of power tools, to that little basement shop....was "forced" into the Hand Tool Realm.

I walk 1 to 1 1/2 miles every morning. I do every day unless it is raining. We live on a street that is 3/8 mile, end to end of paving. I do it so I can keep on walking.
It keeps me going.

[Rick Malakoff]

Me being a carpenter for 40 sum years and knowing the tricks to ''get the job done" in a timely manner, whereas now I tell myself to slow down and do it right as there is no customer and I only have to please my self.
The most amazing part about using mainly hand tools is that there is so much more to learn and how much I didn't know!
Rick

[Nathan Johnson]

I find that the prominent brow ridges limit my abiliity to see upwards. Also, every problem looks like a suitable application for a wooden club and/or a large rock.

Other than that, not really.

This is a good post.
*tips cap*

[Doug Hepler]

How has being neander changed how you see things?

First, my disclaimer. I use whatever I think is the right tool for the job, both hand and power tools, so maybe I'm not a real Neanderthal. There is no way I am going to rip a 48" long piece of oak with a hand saw. On the other hand I'm as independent as a hog on ice so maybe that will bring me back closer to the neander camp. At least to galoot status.

When I started I mainly used power tools. Back then, my method of work was what I would call industrial. I set up the machine and let it do its thing. For example, if I wanted a 4" rip cut I measured 4" from the TS fence to the blade and let 'er rip. If I wanted to flatten a board, I ran it across my jointer. That's how the guy on TV did it.

As I started using hand tools more and more, my basic approach changed. Now I almost always mark the work pretty much as if I were going to do the operation by hand. I may cut box joints with a router, but I mark them out as if I were going to cut them by hand. Once, I set up my machinery to be "perfect" and then assumed it was. For example, I adjusted my TS miter gauge to "exactly" square and that was that. Now that I no longer have a TS I check every board for square, square it up with a shooting board, and establish a reference edge (just like Robert Wearing says I should). I don't have a jointer anymore, but I do have a thickness planer and hand planes. So I get creative with the planer, and I sweat more with the hand planes. (And yes, Patrick, they are very sharp because I don't like to sweat that much.) When you do that, you find out that 1" S4S is not necessarily 3/4" thick and not necessarily square or straight or smooth. (Who knew?) You also get careful about reading the grain direction. In other words, I have become much more engaged in the work since I started using handwork methods.

Marking the work instead of adjusting the machine, and all the rest of it, may not sound like much, but it has fundamentally changed how I work and how I think about woodworking. In the process, I have become skeptical about the tool business, a bit anti-consumerist in fact. Commercial interests, who sponsor our woodworking media, push products at us with the explicit or implicit promise that they will make us better woodworkers. Many articles convey the same message. Adopt innovation or fall behind. My favorite example is the card scraper vs the ROS. The card scraper is obscure -- practically a symbol of Neanderthal work. Hardly any commercial interest pushes it at us. On the other hand, "everybody" has, or wants, an electric sander. (There are many more examples.)

So, another change is that I tend to take people like Megan and Chris and Roy and . . . more seriously than I did before. They really do have an important message about traditional methods amid the commercial din.

I am not for a second claiming any sort of superiority, although I do mean my comments to welcome people to learn more about handwork methods. Everybody gets to make their own way and I am still on my journey. The question was, how Neanderthal methods have changed how I see things. As you can see, I think that's an important question for all of us.

All the best

Doug

[Derek Cohen]

Good post, Doug.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Stanley Covington]

Patrick sees the trees and the forest.

As I sit in front of my cave of an evening, listening to the distant calls of sabertooth squirrel and woolly mamoth in the gloaming, I ponder how best to strop my stone adze, and if powered deer antler is a better polishing compound than sharkskin grass. Chert or flint, that is the driving question of our time.

[Joe Tilson]

I now see rust in a different light, It is beautiful when underneath there is the tool you've been looking for and you got it at a really good price.
After working with motorized tools and equipment in construction for many years, the lower noise levels are great.
Being able to fine tune anything you are working on.
Being able to take your time to do what's right, as you see it, not what the book says or what is SOP, necessarily. Rules are good, but sometimes new ways need to be found.
Getting close to your work and watching it come to life, so to speak.

[Mark Stutz]

Patrick sees the trees and the forest.

As I sit in front of my cave of an evening, listening to the distant calls of sabertooth squirrel and woolly mamoth in the gloaming, I ponder how best to strop my stone adze, and if powered deer antler is a better polishing compound than sharkskin grass. Chert or flint, that is the driving question of our time.

I knew this would turn into a sharpening thread sooner or later!

[Jason Dean]

I started down the neander path when I realized that my desire for a large industrial planer and the electrical service that I have had available were at cross purposes. Halfway through my slab Roubo build, I am beginning to rethink as the siren song of Powermatic beckons me toward its steely grey cast iron shores.

The biggest paradigm shift for me with woodworking generally and hand tool work specifically is the concept of hiding your mistakes when they don't matter and realizing when they do. In the case of antique handmade furniture that manifests in rough surfaces with really coarse tool marks in places no one would see. I was astonished to discover these on really fine pieces.

That realization "allowed" me to let go somewhat and to increase my productivity and my own opinion of my work.

[Karl Andersson]

Disclaimer; what works for you is great - electrons are yours to burn as you see fit.

Neandering for me reflects my desire to choose the quality and cost of things in my life. I do woodworking mostly for my family and friends, not to sell/ high production, so instead of buying all the power tools available, I pick up hand tools and learn the older methods (when they exist). I can't make silicon chips, but not spending my money on expensive ww machines or paying for someone else's work helps me afford better versions of the stuff I do need to buy.

I don't keep expensive power tools that get used only once in a while - the tools I have (powered or not) get used regularly. I don't see the benefit TO ME in the small amounts of time saved using some power tools vs the cost of buying them/ retooling around that machine and then often becoming completely reliant on that machine to function. For instance, using a framing nailer means buying/ renting the nailer, compressor, compressor lines, special nails that only work in the nailer and cost more, keeping the damnable compressor running, learning/ remembering the safety rules for compressed air and nailers, and more. The time saved or effort saved using the nailer mean something to tradespeople and others who can see the long-term cost recovery value in it for numerous projects - or to those who don't want the physical effort of hammering. To me, though, the costs saved, annoyance avoided, and skills learned by using effective but simpler methods and tools are what I value, as well as knowing the level of quality is where I want it. A framing nailer is cool, but a framing hammer and loose nails is just fine for my needs - and I've built a 24'x24' addition to my house, large studio shed and other big projects with just those - and I never had to stop because the hammer's o-ring blew out. Yes, I could perform the right maintenance, keep ready spare parts, have a variety of nails and all that, but I don't need another program to run in my life.

Knowing the methods of tool use and also the factors in construction (grain direction, wood movement, etc.) helps me avoid absolute crap when buying furniture and tools- or helping one of my daughters buy something for their use.

I'm no survivalist extremist, but non-powered hand tools and their methods also mean self-sufficiency to me and if needed, I can provide reasonable shelter and furnishings without relying on gas or electrical power.

I also think preserving the traditional knowledge and passing it on is a benefit to our societies - I don't want us to end up like the future people in the movies Wall-E or Idiocracy, although sometimes it seems inevitable for most.

my thoughts, developed to convince my wife that rusty tools from the flea market have great value above the dollars spent.
Karl