Tools vs skill

[Mike Holbrook]

Curt, I wonder if a large number if not the majority of posters are like me, somewhere between the hobbyist and the professional. I am not claiming to have "professional" skills, which may or may not as someone else mentioned be superior skills. I do justify a large amount of my investment in tools, materials and the time I spend with them in money and time saved vs paying a professional to fix, build something. My venture into woodworking has branched out into carpentry, construction even wiring and plumbing. In addition to a tool skill set I think one develops a certain confidence in ones ability to make, fix and problem solve things in general. Then again maybe if I had spent all my time in more traditional wood working...

An interesting video for me is the free 51 video series on Curtis Buchanan's Windsor Chair maker site, particularly the first few. The very strange and weird thing for me was noticing that other than a little brief work with a chain saw there is very little traditional sawing going on, which gave me pause regarding the relative importance of sawing. Curtis starts with a couple 12' logs. Most of the pieces of wood he uses are split from logs with wedges and froes. Until I saw it I would never have though it possible to split a single log into as many usable pieces as Curtis and other Windsor Chair makers do. How much wood do we save if there is no kerf for any of the pieces we make from a log? The other thing is splitting might even be faster! Before watching Cutis's video I assumed that splitting pieces was painstakingly slow and wasted lots of wood. I think the skill set required to choose and split trees to get the most usable material is a great skill/knowledge set to have no matter what sort of wood one uses. Chris Schwarz wrote an article entitled "10 Books that Changed the Way I Think" in the article he mentions Drew Lagsner's book "Green Woodworking"...

"Green Woodowrking" by Drew Lagsner. This book is like visiting a foreign country, a delightful foreign country. Even if yo have been woodworking for decades, this book offers surprises and insights on every page. It will make you more intimate with your material."

For me Curtis's videos did the same thing.

http://www.curtisbuchananchairmaker.com/videos.html

[Brian Holcombe]

I would venture a guess that many professionals building furniture of the quality that would find its way to boutiques are using a combination of hand and machine tools.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

If you purchase the dodad that I am selling, then that is all you need for perfect wood working :-) Otherwise, you need tremendous skill and lots of other tools!

More seriously, I attempt to choose projects that do not require tools that I do not own or cannot easily purchase. I do not own a bandsaw, so, I try to avoid things where I would need one. I am frequently able to compensate for my lack of tools by finding some other means, but, it is typically more time consuming.

If I am poor at planing wood, I may need to purchase already flat dimensioned wood. If I cannot cut dovetails, I use a different joint.

[Stew Hagerty]

Now, understand that my take on this is going to be very different than most of you. I used to be a general contractor. As such, I did plenty of trim work and some built-ins. However, I always wanted to be able to do some real woodworking. I kept making sure I had some space for it wherever I lived, but I just never found the time.

Then, in March of '08 I contracted a viral respiratory infection that nearly took my life. After 8-9 months, I was finally out of the woods and more than ready to start my recovery. However, during my physical therapy sessions, I began experiencing a weird kind of dizziness. I call it "spatial disorientation". I also found my leg losing sensitivity and awkward to move. As my neurologist performed test after test, my condition continued to worsen. Eventually I lost all feeling and function in my right leg and a reduction of fine motor control in my right arm and the "spatial disorientation" reared it's head whenever I was stressed or tired. Now in a wheelchair, I went to IU Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, John's Hopkins, and finally to Mayo Clinic. It turns out I have something called Transverse Myelitis. It is a Immuno-Neurological disease in the same family as MS. There is no cure, and no one knows what causes it, however a large percentage of people have had a viral respiratory infection not too long before contracting the disease.

At first I was in intese pain that they tried to control with oral medications (the hard stuff!). They helped to a point, but the pretty much just knocked me out. Eventually I had an infusion pump implanted. It pumps a continuous flow of a drug cocktail directly to the point in my spine where the lesions are. It cancels out most of the pain (I live with about a 3 out of 10) without knocking me out. Finally after more than a year, I was able to be up and around, albeit in my power wheelchair.

So, now I finally had time for woodworking (I really needed to do something, because Id been going nuts from just laying around). So I spent several months building my wheelchair accessible workshop. Having been a contractor (and after watching Norm since episode 1 season 1), I set up my shop around the power tools I already had and the more woodworking specific ones that I didn't have, such as a drill press, full size router table, Band Saw, and Oscillating Spindle Sander. I also have a big traditional woodworking bench that I had inherited from my father-in-law. I planned on working primarily with power tools.

Time passes...

The more woodworking I did, the more hand tools I began incorporating into my repertoire. Now, I use my power tools for more of the prep work such as breaking down sheet goods, cutting stock to rough dimension, most jointing and thickness planing, and most of the sanding. Then I use my hand tools for bringing stock to final dimensions and removing machine marks with hand planes and, of course, joinery (except dadoes). I have a full set of vintage Stanley planes from 3-8, a wide variety of handsaws and chisels, a "Wall of Red" (Woodpeckers Tools), mallets, etc. etc.

What I have found is that working with hand tools makes me feel closer to my work; somehow more directly involved. That is how woodworking and the necessary tools required works for me, with my level of skills and capabilities. Every person is unique. Each has his or her own types of projects, physical capabilities, skill level, etc. Those are the things that make woodworking such a personalized hobby/profession. Each Maker is unique. What tools and techniques they use to achieve their goals is up to them. It is the end result and the personal satisfaction that matters.

Oh... And just for the record, I have four router planes. I have one very old Hag's Tooth made by an obviously very skilled but anonymous Maker that simply sits on a shelf, A modern ECE Hag's Tooth that I rarely use anymore, a Veritas Router Plane that basically replaced the ECE, and a Veritas Miniature Router Plane that I have found very useful for small hinge mortices.

My Shop:Shop - 02 Overview Updated 800X.jpgStew in the Workshop.jpg

[Keith Mathewson]

An aside: The recent FWW mag has a dovetail article that suggests that one saw away from the line and them pare to it - what is your reaction to this?
Derek

Complete waste of time. A dovetail joint is a sawn, not a pared joint. With the exception of one pin which had to be dressed with a float these drawers were sawn, waste removed and then glued and assembled. No test fitting or dry fitting.

[Brian Holcombe]

Pared to fit:

[Sean Hughto]

Are your sawn joints better than Beckksvoort's pared ones? How so? And who made the rule about DTs are a "sawn joint"? Where can I look up the sawn" versus "pared" joints list? ;-)

[Keith Mathewson]

Are your sawn joints better than Beckksvoort's pared ones? How so? And who made the rule about DTs are a "sawn joint"? Where can I look up the sawn" versus "pared" joints list? ;-)

I've never seen his work so I couldn't say, I guess you'll have to be the judge. There isn't a rule about any approach that I'm aware of and I've no idea if you can look it up. My opinion comes from cutting hundreds of dovetails, I don't understand why someone would want to use a less efficient approach. If the paring approach or any other approach works better for you then that should be your approach. To reiterate I mark, cut, chop out the waste, apply glue and ensemble. I don't know how to be more efficient than that.

[george wilson]

I just saw the dovetails,as seen in the harpsichord making film.

[Jim Koepke]

Oh... And just for the record

Thanks for posting this Stew.

Nice shop, much neater than mine.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump:

individual is as individual does.

jtk

[Sean Hughto]

Chris Becksvoort is the author of the article Derek referred to: http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-t...ns-part-2.aspx

So you can look too if you like. He is a well known woodworker with a website too, fwiw.
http://www.chbecksvoort.com/

Sure, if people have good teachers and a chance to learn sawing to the point that they split the line and saw square every time, as well as how to mark well in the first place, and the time to practice sawing and develop that muscle memory and skill before making dovetails, definitely. Oh, they also have to practice how to deal with woods of different hardness - having pine or poplar DTs go together right off the saw is somewhat less demanding than having maple or oak ones do so, for example. And most importantly they have to wait to make any furniture with dovetails until they've got all this down pat, rather than diving in and getting some drawers and carcasses done with some paring where necessary.

[Pat Barry]

I just saw the dovetails,as seen in the harpsichord making film.

Where did you see them George? Were they in a harpsicord making film? I don't understand.

[David Weaver]

George made them in a colonial williamsburg film. Look up Colonial Violin and Harpsichord Making on youtube (you may have seen it here already, it's been posted a million times).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48FezBoPWg

[David Weaver]

As far as the dovetails, by FAR the best thing to do with them is not worry too much about them being perfect and cover them up with something that's actually attractive.

One of the worst things the cosmans of the world has flung onto us is a world of sharp cornered furniture with rows and rows of dovetails and wedged through tenons, and no sense of anything that actually draws the eye and moves it along and massages it as it follows what we're looking at. It's like living inside of a watch and looking around at all of the gears all the time.

[Pat Barry]

George made them in a colonial williamsburg film. Look up Colonial Violin and Harpsichord Making on youtube (you may have seen it here already, it's been posted a million times).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48FezBoPWg

Ahh, thanks David. Now I see where he saw them being cut. Mr Wilson demonstrates this at about the 3:50 point of the video.