Channeling a Hand Tool Voice of Reason

I have a lot of hand tools.  I have a lot of specialized hand tools.  I love their functional beauty and the precision with which they work.  It’s not a hard thing to do, especially when you look at beautiful vintage braces, planes, and saws.  The same goes for modern incarnations.  The shapely Hornbeam handles of a Lie Nielsen chisel or the engineered excellence of  a Bridge City stainless steel shoulder plane could bring a woodworker to tears.  This is a frame of mind however that can quickly lead to tool collector and not woodworker.  Let me first say, thank goodness for tool collectors because they help keep some of these beautiful pieces alive, but I do not want to be a collector.  I yearn to make furniture pieces that will outlive me and be taken apart by anthropologists hundreds of years from now and talked about as examples of how not to build fine furniture.

So many of you know that I am building a virtual hand tool school (if you didn’t, look above this post).  I am really excited about this venture because I think there is a lot to talk about and share, but also because I think all woodworkers can benefit from knowing how to do anything entirely on 1/15th horsepower.  My point as it relates to this post is that I have been working hard to crush the tool collector in me and focus on presenting hand tool techniques using as few tools as possible.  Call it recession proof woodworking, but I find it stunning just how much you can do with a few chisels.  Sure a rabbet plane is nice, but won’t a saw and chisel do just the same thing (and faster)?  I want my school to be about getting into hand tool woodworking as quickly and cleanly as possible so all of my thoughts have been centered on this minimalistic, multi-functional tool kit.

It turns out, I must have tuned into the Adam Cherubini psychic friends network because he has written a couple of posts on “Tools You Don’t Need” and “More Tools You Don’t Need” over at his Arts & Mysteries blog.  Please take a minute to wander over there and read Adam’s thoughts because I believe he is really getting to some fundamental truths about the tool world today.  Specialty tools are great and believe me I will continue to use them and talk about them but having options is the most valuable tool in my arsenal.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the Hand Tool School and suggestions for courses I should be sure to include.  Leave a comment here or on the contact form at the school home page