Chris Schwarz's Handplane Essentials Book

[Trafalgar]

Schwarz has built most of the furniture for his home and office. Seems like some pictures appeared online at some point and to be honest the work was pretty damned stunning if memory serves. I've never been a huge fan of his, but he can work wood a little bit. I couldn't care less if he missed the boat on the cap iron. If my timeline is correct, and I think it is, he had plenty of projects under his belt by the time all that came out. It got done somehow, maybe with the help of power tools. Tisk, tisk.

 

[D_W]

Jeez, I've stayed away from this forum for too long! Forums in the states are now "dumbed down, politically correct" (besides, filled with Schwarz fan-boys) and I miss the down & dirty, truth be told postings.

As far as a publisher, I like a lot of the stuff Lost Arts Press puts out: I have all of the Hayward books, the Wearing book and a few others, including Anarchist Tool Chest (was this to be a parody book, as since Schwarz has moved into his Roy Underhill imitating store front, he also built an "out of sight" power tool room. OK, well, I use power tools along with my hand tools, but then again Schwarz can't admit that, otherwise he wouldn't be getting $3,500 a pop for the work chests he builds. Seems to me, there were a group of employees that came out of Popular Woodworking (some left on their own, others discharged) that have grouped together, to make an industry out of plying their wares to the fan boys. More power to them, but just because they call themselves instructors, doesn't mean they know anything.

For the record, now that DW has ventured into plane building, he can send all his natural stones my way. In fact, I was in his neighborhood this past weekend and I should have knocked on his door to get them! Also, I enjoy my hobby, even if I never progress past what some may consider ham-fisted constructioneering! Make fun of me and I'll take my $4.00 Harbor Freight "lump hammer" to your head!

Jeez - $3500!! I'd make them by hand for that, and without so much pine on them. And without the machine planer lines that are running across the boards on the picture that someone linked on here.

I thought maybe those were for charity or something. I've got a lot of natural stones left, but I'm sure you've got your share, too! Probably more than me.

If you're in pittsburgh, you can bring your "pittsburgh" brand hammer over and i can get some of mine out and we can bang them together really hard until we find out what it takes to break a head free from the handles. Loser gets a hammer in the head!!

 

[D_W]

but then again Schwarz can't admit that..

Reminds me of an old post Chris had years ago when I was anew and read his blog (for about a year or so). He made a stubby little bench out of a solid cherry top and gassed out and cut the ends off with a circular saw.

There's certainly nothing wrong with doing that (most people would probably make a better cut that way, anyway), but there's a simple thing that anyone with significant hand tool experience would do to cut an end off of a bench like that. Use a rip saw.

It's just one of many little things that you could learn that would be useful....if you were reading from someone who was actually experienced more in using hand tools than writing about buying them.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Nice to see you here, Tony! I, too, have stayed out of this thread too long.

As with many of the Internet/Magazine personalities, there is a line of fan boys that develop and stand behind them. You are on a hiding to none if one attempts to debate any with a reasoned argument. It is not only Chris Schwarz but personalities like Paul Sellers - just venture onto their blogs and read the replies and feedback section ... it can turn a strong stomach.

All this makes it harder to state something positive, and there are many positives. I have a love-hate relationship with Paul Sellers. I love that he breaks the work down and brings it within reach of those starting out. This is being a good teacher. But the rest of his self-promoting leaves me dead. Still, he is in business, and he has a good business model.

I view Chris Schwarz in a similar light. He is a good teacher of basic techniques. He is also a responsible writer insofar as he provides the sources of his information. He never states a technique is his invention (unlike Paul whathisname) - it is the fanboys who attribute techniques to Chris, not Chris. As I understand, he is simply providing a more modern and easily readable/accessible vehicle for the old methods. And good for him - he is infinitely more readable than some of the old texts!

The furniture he builds is clean and tidy. I consider Chris to be a good woodworker. The pieces he builds may be divided into three areas: benches and tool chests (which developed out his research at Pop Wood magazine), campaign furniture (he must have read my adventure here and decided this was a good time to pursue this line ) and, thirdly, Welsh Stick chairs. The last area, which appears more dominantly of late, may be misunderstood by many since he has simplified/minimised the construction details. This comes across as dumbed down. It is to some extent, however there is nothing beginner like about curved chair parts and leg joinery. The campaign furniture is equally basic in looks because it does not contain mouldings are carvings. The fact is that he does all these very well. They may not be ornate, and this may appear less than the work of one who specialises in the styles of, say, the 18th century (and I could not say whether Chris could do so), but it does not make his teachings less relevant for many.

Would I want him as a teacher? No, I really doubt he has much to teach anyone with moderately advanced skills. As someone who likes the contemporary style, one modern, contemporary maker/teacher I would like to rather share time with (in the USA) is Garrett Hack. There are many others, all of whom have demonstrated much more advanced work than Chris has demonstrated.

Can I learn from his use of tools? Is his book any help beyond a beginner-intermediate level? I really cannot say much as I have not read it. I very much doubt that it is aimed at the likes of you, David, Charles, or anyone beyond the intermediate level. I also do not expect that the content will be new, but will rather present old information in a fresh way. I know that he came to the chipbreaker late, but that is not the only focus in handplane use, and hand planes are just one of a wide range of tools used in building furniture.

Personally, I would like to see books on blended woodworking. This is more realistic for today. That is, where power- and hand tools may be interchanged or used alongside one another. I believe that the rounded furniture maker needs to learn to use all methods. The extremists (who push extreme methods - all hand tools) bother me since either they are doing this for glory, or they are telling porkies. Chris has not hidden his use of power tools, however he does not state where he uses it and where he uses hand tools. I wish he would since I can imagine those attempting to follow in his footsteps obtaining a skewed version of how woodworking is done.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[patrickjchase]

He makes nice furniture, but not a lot of it. Just enough to draw for classes and write books (but I guess there aren't a lot of folks making a living on furniture - at least not nice furniture, so you do what you have to do). I believe one of his boasts is that he's never had to replace his thickness planer blades. They must be PM V11.

Carbide.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Nice to see you here, Tony! I, too, have stayed out of this thread too long.

As with many of the Internet/Magazine personalities, there is a line of fan boys that develop and stand behind them. You are on a hiding to none if one attempts to debate any with a reasoned argument. It is not only Chris Schwarz but personalities like Paul Sellers - just venture onto their blogs and read the replies and feedback section ... it can turn a strong stomach.

All this makes it harder to state something positive, and there are many positives. I have a love-hate relationship with Paul Sellers. I love that he breaks the work down and brings it within reach of those starting out. This is being a good teacher. But the rest of his self-promoting leaves me dead. Still, he is in business, and he has a good business model.

I view Chris Schwarz in a similar light. He is a good teacher of basic techniques. He is also a responsible writer insofar as he provides the sources of his information. He never states a technique is his invention (unlike Paul whathisname) - it is the fanboys who attribute techniques to Chris, not Chris. As I understand, he is simply providing a more modern and easily readable/accessible vehicle for the old methods. And good for him - he is infinitely more readable than some of the old texts!

The furniture he builds is clean and tidy. I consider Chris to be a good woodworker. The pieces he builds may be divided into three areas: benches and tool chests (which developed out his research at Pop Wood magazine), campaign furniture (he must have read my adventure here and decided this was a good time to pursue this line ) and, thirdly, Welsh Stick chairs. The last area, which appears more dominantly of late, may be misunderstood by many since he has simplified/minimised the construction details. This comes across as dumbed down. It is to some extent, however there is nothing beginner like about curved chair parts and leg joinery. The campaign furniture is equally basic in looks because it does not contain mouldings are carvings. The fact is that he does all these very well. They may not be ornate, and this may appear less than the work of one who specialises in the styles of, say, the 18th century (and I could not say whether Chris could do so), but it does not make his teachings less relevant for many.

Would I want him as a teacher? No, I really doubt he has much to teach anyone with moderately advanced skills. As someone who likes the contemporary style, one modern, contemporary maker/teacher I would like to rather share time with (in the USA) is Garrett Hack. There are many others, all of whom have demonstrated much more advanced work than Chris has demonstrated.

Can I learn from his use of tools? Is his book any help beyond a beginner-intermediate level? I really cannot say much as I have not read it. I very much doubt that it is aimed at the likes of you, David, Charles, or anyone beyond the intermediate level. I also do not expect that the content will be new, but will rather present old information in a fresh way. I know that he came to the chipbreaker late, but that is not the only focus in handplane use, and hand planes are just one of a wide range of tools used in building furniture.

Personally, I would like to see books on blended woodworking. This is more realistic for today. That is, where power- and hand tools may be interchanged or used alongside one another. I believe that the rounded furniture maker needs to learn to use all methods. The extremists (who push extreme methods - all hand tools) bother me since either they are doing this for glory, or they are telling porkies. Chris has not hidden his use of power tools, however he does not state where he uses it and where he uses hand tools. I wish he would since I can imagine those attempting to follow in his footsteps obtaining a skewed version of how woodworking is done.

Regards from Perth

Derek

There are no prizes around here for making a case in a reasonable, balanced and sane way!

I think you've hit it on the head although I would add one thing: he seems to be developing into a woodworking historian cum archaeologist and that looks like it is leading to interesting results in the form of his Mechanick Exercises book which, if the teasers on the LAP blog are anything to go by, could be very interesting.

You're absolutely right in that most of his stuff is invaluable for beginners/intermediate level woodworkers. I gained a lot of knowledge and saved a lot of time from his survey of tools in the Anarchist's Tool Chest (my review of which on here generated a hilariously heated argument with the funniest contributions coming from those who hated it but ... er ... had never read it). His critics seem to want to set him up as being in competition with the likes of Garrett Hack which I'm sure he's not: he's ploughing his own furrow and one does not have to take what is on offer from him, nor does learning from him preclude learning from others. There does at least seem to be agreement that he has provided a highly useful source of knowledge in the form of his LAP publications.

One would have to be a fool to be a "fanboy" of any woodworking guru but it is surely reasonable to be generally approving of e.g. CS or Paul Sellars.

 

[nabs]

I can only echo previous comments about his valuable contribution to sharing important historical works on woodwork, which him and his team are very good at. I enjoyed his 'workbench' book too, but find his journo style a bit off putting and that keeps me away from his blog.

Like Andy I am intrigued by his more recent forays into "woodworking archeology"and I am really interested to see the results of the research he as done on workbenches. Having said that, apparently I'm not so interested as to have actually bought the book!

 

[D_W]

He makes nice furniture, but not a lot of it. Just enough to draw for classes and write books (but I guess there aren't a lot of folks making a living on furniture - at least not nice furniture, so you do what you have to do). I believe one of his boasts is that he's never had to replace his thickness planer blades. They must be PM V11.

Carbide.

They are probably HSS or carbon steel. I'm assuming that he has an older planer with thick blades that are intended to be resharpened.

The old lineshaft square head planers had blades that were intended to be refreshed with a file and reset. A set would've probably lasted a professional worker at least several years.

That combined with doing a lot of teaching and not as much making, but it doesn't appear that "making" makes money, at least not as much as easily. If you can make furniture as nice as Garrett has on his page and not be inundated with commissions, why bother?

 

[D_W]

Nice to see you here, Tony! I, too, have stayed out of this thread too long.

As with many of the Internet/Magazine personalities, there is a line of fan boys that develop and stand behind them. You are on a hiding to none if one attempts to debate any with a reasoned argument. It is not only Chris Schwarz but personalities like Paul Sellers - just venture onto their blogs and read the replies and feedback section ... it can turn a strong stomach.

All this makes it harder to state something positive, and there are many positives. I have a love-hate relationship with Paul Sellers. I love that he breaks the work down and brings it within reach of those starting out. This is being a good teacher. But the rest of his self-promoting leaves me dead. Still, he is in business, and he has a good business model.

I view Chris Schwarz in a similar light. He is a good teacher of basic techniques. He is also a responsible writer insofar as he provides the sources of his information. He never states a technique is his invention (unlike Paul whathisname) - it is the fanboys who attribute techniques to Chris, not Chris. As I understand, he is simply providing a more modern and easily readable/accessible vehicle for the old methods. And good for him - he is infinitely more readable than some of the old texts!

The furniture he builds is clean and tidy. I consider Chris to be a good woodworker. The pieces he builds may be divided into three areas: benches and tool chests (which developed out his research at Pop Wood magazine), campaign furniture (he must have read my adventure here and decided this was a good time to pursue this line ) and, thirdly, Welsh Stick chairs. The last area, which appears more dominantly of late, may be misunderstood by many since he has simplified/minimised the construction details. This comes across as dumbed down. It is to some extent, however there is nothing beginner like about curved chair parts and leg joinery. The campaign furniture is equally basic in looks because it does not contain mouldings are carvings. The fact is that he does all these very well. They may not be ornate, and this may appear less than the work of one who specialises in the styles of, say, the 18th century (and I could not say whether Chris could do so), but it does not make his teachings less relevant for many.

Would I want him as a teacher? No, I really doubt he has much to teach anyone with moderately advanced skills. As someone who likes the contemporary style, one modern, contemporary maker/teacher I would like to rather share time with (in the USA) is Garrett Hack. There are many others, all of whom have demonstrated much more advanced work than Chris has demonstrated.

Can I learn from his use of tools? Is his book any help beyond a beginner-intermediate level? I really cannot say much as I have not read it. I very much doubt that it is aimed at the likes of you, David, Charles, or anyone beyond the intermediate level. I also do not expect that the content will be new, but will rather present old information in a fresh way. I know that he came to the chipbreaker late, but that is not the only focus in handplane use, and hand planes are just one of a wide range of tools used in building furniture.

Personally, I would like to see books on blended woodworking. This is more realistic for today. That is, where power- and hand tools may be interchanged or used alongside one another. I believe that the rounded furniture maker needs to learn to use all methods. The extremists (who push extreme methods - all hand tools) bother me since either they are doing this for glory, or they are telling porkies. Chris has not hidden his use of power tools, however he does not state where he uses it and where he uses hand tools. I wish he would since I can imagine those attempting to follow in his footsteps obtaining a skewed version of how woodworking is done.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I agree pretty much 100% with that. I have less of an issue with Paul, can't say why. Well, I could, but I'm sure I'd have to think about the details and then I'd forget what this reply was supposed to be in the first place.

I'm very much intermediate. Just curious intermediate, perhaps eccentric. And I agree that sometimes it's the fans that are worse than the person. Sometimes too many fans then enables the person, too. What comes to mind is the saw jamming episode on the Woodwright's shop and George's criticism of jamming saws. That drew fanboys out who never participate where George does, but they felt the need to register or revive their old accounts to see if they could get George in trouble. That snowballed into people going and telling Chris, and he threw a fit (he should've said "yes, it's problematic and I should do better", but instead, he made an excuse that the show rushed him or something like that and ...well, it ended stupidly with comments from moderators that all opinions are the same (which is good for advertising) and a public admonishment for George for defending himself.

As an old professor of mine (Gerard Letac) used to say when someone asked a dumb question, "sheer stupidity!".

I was put off of Chris right away when I started, not because someone told me anything about him (rather everyone said "you have to get this DVD" - rough to ready or something), but because I saw a segment of him using planes, and he looked incompetent, I didn't see the substance and don't enjoy things like golf tips from a 20 handicapper. To be fair, when paul sellers attempts to show dimensioning a board by hand, it's painful looking, too.

re: the blended woodworking, I think though people won't call it that, such a thing is generally what is taught. Chris failing to cut the end off of a bench 18 inches wide, Paul being forthright about using machine planers, it's sort of the way things are already. A couple of chairmakers come to mind as doing everything by hand, but that's about it. I doubt many people are interested in doing everything by hand, anyway, but there is a vacuum of relevant instruction for those who do. There's another person (can't remember his name) who makes a project, writes a book, writes a project, makes a book. Does neat work, but agonizingly slow. Working by hand doesn't have to be that slow.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Nice to see you here, Tony! I, too, have stayed out of this thread too long.

As with many of the Internet/Magazine personalities, there is a line of fan boys that develop and stand behind them. You are on a hiding to none if one attempts to debate any with a reasoned argument. It is not only Chris Schwarz but personalities like Paul Sellers - just venture onto their blogs and read the replies and feedback section ... it can turn a strong stomach.

All this makes it harder to state something positive, and there are many positives. I have a love-hate relationship with Paul Sellers. I love that he breaks the work down and brings it within reach of those starting out. This is being a good teacher. But the rest of his self-promoting leaves me dead. Still, he is in business, and he has a good business model.

I view Chris Schwarz in a similar light. He is a good teacher of basic techniques. He is also a responsible writer insofar as he provides the sources of his information. He never states a technique is his invention (unlike Paul whathisname) - it is the fanboys who attribute techniques to Chris, not Chris. As I understand, he is simply providing a more modern and easily readable/accessible vehicle for the old methods. And good for him - he is infinitely more readable than some of the old texts!

The furniture he builds is clean and tidy. I consider Chris to be a good woodworker. The pieces he builds may be divided into three areas: benches and tool chests (which developed out his research at Pop Wood magazine), campaign furniture (he must have read my adventure here and decided this was a good time to pursue this line ) and, thirdly, Welsh Stick chairs. The last area, which appears more dominantly of late, may be misunderstood by many since he has simplified/minimised the construction details. This comes across as dumbed down. It is to some extent, however there is nothing beginner like about curved chair parts and leg joinery. The campaign furniture is equally basic in looks because it does not contain mouldings are carvings. The fact is that he does all these very well. They may not be ornate, and this may appear less than the work of one who specialises in the styles of, say, the 18th century (and I could not say whether Chris could do so), but it does not make his teachings less relevant for many.

Would I want him as a teacher? No, I really doubt he has much to teach anyone with moderately advanced skills. As someone who likes the contemporary style, one modern, contemporary maker/teacher I would like to rather share time with (in the USA) is Garrett Hack. There are many others, all of whom have demonstrated much more advanced work than Chris has demonstrated.

Can I learn from his use of tools? Is his book any help beyond a beginner-intermediate level? I really cannot say much as I have not read it. I very much doubt that it is aimed at the likes of you, David, Charles, or anyone beyond the intermediate level. I also do not expect that the content will be new, but will rather present old information in a fresh way. I know that he came to the chipbreaker late, but that is not the only focus in handplane use, and hand planes are just one of a wide range of tools used in building furniture.

Personally, I would like to see books on blended woodworking. This is more realistic for today. That is, where power- and hand tools may be interchanged or used alongside one another. I believe that the rounded furniture maker needs to learn to use all methods. The extremists (who push extreme methods - all hand tools) bother me since either they are doing this for glory, or they are telling porkies. Chris has not hidden his use of power tools, however he does not state where he uses it and where he uses hand tools. I wish he would since I can imagine those attempting to follow in his footsteps obtaining a skewed version of how woodworking is done.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Good to see you too, Derek!

Chris does an excellent job (as I have previously posted) with "Lost Arts Press". Though I already had copies of some of his reprints, what I have are old, vintage copies. As I am a American history buff, I have purchased a number of reprints of non-woodworking books through the years, and those of the quality that Chris prints, are generally priced higher than his pricing.

You made an excellent point that he would be doing aspiring woodworkers a service by speaking to his process.

In thinking through the "fanboy" problem, perhaps this is more a function of the Popular Woodworking business model and how the mag put its people out there (Woodworking in America, as one example). Who could blame Schwarz for capitalizing on his fame (I'm certain, he never expected it, when he first took the job as editor of PWW). If we feel the need to spend $100 on a "lump hammer" or "dividers", who does it harm?

In the end, we all have our God-given brains to make our own decisions.

 

[D_W]

I'm kind of incented to pein together some dividers and file them to a nice shape. There's a whole world of retired engineers, physicians, etc, who will buy those tools because they're unique and not factory made. No problem with that. I thought the "found it in a french barn" and "peining the pin is a daunting task, so we found a really expensive solution" kind of thing to be a bit hokey. The hammer is puzzler, though. If you say you're going to only make tools that you really need, where are those?

So is the hold fast, though, i guess. The discussion around it is it's the only one that really works in everything (as if that will save you some labor by not having to have a bench that agrees with a specific hold fast). The strange part of it is that you need to modify your bench and dog holes to work with it, and in the end, it's just a crude rough casting for the same ballpark as something made by peter ross.

Just a real turn for the weird.

(peining things isn't that hard, of course. Sooner or later, one runs across very old scissors or clippers or something that are riveted - the ability to pein quickly is quite nice...tap tap, done. I'd far prefer it to any screw, especially when the solution to the problem requires you to buy a special fastener gadget - it's just created another problem, one that could be hard to find when you need it. That's a pain. Pein or pain, I'll take Pein).

I think I'll start a plane-making company and make skew-infill shooting planes, and use the same motto. "only planes you really need". except making them is a pain, and you have to pein.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

David, David, David, if only we were smart enough to gain some sharpening fans and then start marketing slag from underneath the old Century III mall as the latest, greatest sharpening medium.

 

[D_W]

Nice. Brownfield stone. A green sustainable product.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I'm an amateur, relatively unskilled woodworker. I'm probably too old (and my hands are too damaged now) to ever make exquisite things, and I have the burden of neverending DIY, requiring all sorts of tools and skills I wouldn't choose to buy, and time I would far rather spend on other things. It's soul-destroying using a lot of "free" time fixing bodges done in years past.

But I digress. I'm simply explaining the perspective I'm writing from.

I like Chris S. I enjoy watching him riffing off Roy Underhill in The Woodwright's Shop, and his books sometimes make me laugh out loud - for the best reasons. I have both his first workbench book and his handplane one.

The latter is interesting and enjoyable (for me), for one important reason: I have a small collection of planes, mostly bought as they've been needed. Chris gives me an introduction to and explanation of a lot of edge tools I don't own. Many I'm never going to own, but occasionally I can see the value of getting something for a specific task, and I will. He demystifies, and I find that helpful.

Of course I can see what the experts on here are saying: Chris is probably not the person to go to for truly deep, expert advice. But what some of our experts may be missing is that, for me, it's obvious he's not the right person to ask, either! Woodworking requires thought and judgement, and it's obvious when you need to do more research to get to the nub of something. So I read and watch, but not uncritically (in the best sense).

He's an evangelist for woodworking as a pastime. As a novice, you come away thinking, "I want to do that!" AND that his skillset is attainable, and affordably so, too.

For me it resonates with the bound back-issues of The Woodworker I have in the library - the inter-war and post-war periods were full of "enhance your life with things you can make and do yourself" writings. I see ghosts of those authors in Chris's work.

And those, surely, are important and valuable things.

E.

 

[Chip shop]

Was Chris Schwartz the one who wrote that book about making a totally impractical tool box, or was it that Cosman bloke? Someone lent me a copy and it left me a bit cold, as does all this lifestyle woodworking nonsense. The bit I seem to remember had the author waffling about a coping saw, I think I gave up then and looked at the pictures instead.

PS just checked; it was Schwartz who wrote the book. Rob Cosman seems to flog inordinately expensive saws.

 

[David C]

"And those, surely, are important and valuable things. "

Spot on. I am apalled by some of these ludicrous criticisms of Chris Schwarz.

His books are very useful for the beginner and his writing style is amusing, far more entertaining than a dry reproduction of old texts.

I have just glanced at the handplane book and am mightily impressed by the quantity of reviews and techniques.

best wishes,
David

 

[D_W]

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, David. I don't begrudge you that. I hope you recognize it's no more (than an opinion) than the rest of ours, though.

Thank goodness that for those of us put off by Chris's mediocrity, at best, there are folks like George Wilson to talk to, true masters too busy to shill and with no interest in that.

I have noticed that you guys (the video and book publishers) tend to run in packs, just as the boutique toolmakers do, and you get offended for each other with relative ease.

A lot of the stuff you guys publish makes it so that beginners get to walk through an unproductive, expensive and confusing minefield, making it difficult to ever get to the point of productivity making or designing anything. That's too bad. Aim low, shoot low.

I guarantee 30 minutes on the phone with George is far different than any of the slow paced off the mark videos that are all over the place.

 

[stoopiduk]

Speaking as a beginner: I don't have George's phone number.

 

[D_W]

Actually, if you post on sawmillcreek and have something you're struggling with and say something along the lines of "I don't want 100 opinions on this, I want something that will work", he'll probably tell you to call him.

He doesn't much tolerate people asking for advice and then telling him they know better, though.

Years ago, I got in touch with him because he saw me post a picture of a saw (that I thought I did a good job on making a handle for). Probably 20 posts about how great it looked (and at the time, I didn't have the sense to know that i didn't), and he said "I see potential areas of improvement and then you could have a nice saw". I thought at first that his demands were too much to ask of someone who had scarcely made anything at the time (especially the suggestion that I ought to understand the design elements that would make it better).

He sent me a private message right after making that post and said what is your phone number, I'd like to talk to you. He certainly wasn't rude, but I felt like he was expecting too much. It didn't take long to figure out that he wasn't, I was just being lazy and had my expectations too low.

 

[Silly_Billy]

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, David ... I have noticed that you guys (the video and book publishers) tend to run in packs, just as the boutique toolmakers do, and you get offended for each other with relative ease.

A lot of the stuff you guys publish makes it so that beginners get to walk through an unproductive, expensive and confusing minefield, making it difficult ... off the mark videos ...

Whoa! Have you watched any of David C’s videos? I’m a beginner who’s watched one of his DVDs. It was excellent. David’s DVD made me more accurate and far more productive.