I have been seduced

[Phil Spencer]

My present project is a Myrtle dovetailed box, last night it was time to cut the rebates for the bottom of the box. This time I decided to do things a little different, normally I would use my router to cut the rebates this time I decided to use my Rapier No3 plough plane and Stanley No79 to ease the rebates.

What a sensual experience setting and sharpening the blades and, to have complete control and see the shavings come off the planes it was the next best thing to sex that I have experienced, I guess that the dark side is reaching out to seduce me!

Have to go I can hear the song of the No45 calling me!

Phil

 

[Frank D.]

...it was the next best thing to sex that I have experienced...

Congratulations...you've almost reached the bottom of the slope...almost!

 

[Philly]

Welcome to the Forum Phil!
Sounds like you are well on the way :lol:
Philly

 

[Alf]

Welcome, Phil. Ah, those mini grooving planes are seductive indeed. A Record #043 was my introduction to The Slope and now look at me. Don't say you weren't warned... :wink: :lol:

Any chance of pics? Myrtle sounds promising.

Cheers, Alf

 

[GEPPETTO]

Hi Phil,
do we know ourselves, don't we?
Welcome to the Forum and yes, I agree, it's so lovely to work with hand tools.
For me it was a choise because I'm feared of "powered cutters" and with great surprise I found all things can be done with hand tools too. Yes, you must take more time but at the end results are even better.

Many cheers
Gabriele

 

[ByronBlack]

Gabi,

Using hand-tool is a great experience, and you do have a better sense of achievement, but I wouldn't always say the results are better.

For example, if your looking for accuracy, a machined dovetail would be more accurate than a hand-cut one - better? Not nessacarily. More accurate? Almost definitly.

 

[garywayne]

I believe with today's technology we have created a rush, rush, I have no time society.(Hence power tools).

If people made time, to, take time out, and slow down, and instead of planning to make there table in a weekend, they planed to make it in several weekends with hand tools, I believe they will start to appreciate the tools and the wood more. Then they will really feel the satisfaction of a job well done. (I do realise that time is of essence in industry).

I think it is a shame that people don't have the time to slow down, and have to use only power tools.

ATB Gary.

 

[GEPPETTO]

Gary I'm with you.. I think, we must slow down.. ourselves and consequently I hope will do the Society. Do you have ever occurred to do the same way by foot or by bicycle instead by car? What did you see? Surely what you didn't have never seen by car! The velocity...does to lose the details everywhere.Examples could be a lot...

With this statement I don't mean to say I'll go at work by foot (50 Km) but perhaps sometime a walk is healthy.

Many cheers,
Gabriele

 

[Ian Dalziel]

I believe with today's technology we have created a rush, rush, I have no time society.(Hence power tools).

If people made time, to, take time out, and slow down, and instead of planning to make there table in a weekend, they planed to make it in several weekends with hand tools, I believe they will start to appreciate the tools and the wood more. Then they will really feel the satisfaction of a job well done. (I do realise that time is of essence in industry).

I think it is a shame that people don't have the time to slow down, and have to use only power tools.

ATB Gary.

I dunno i think power tools and machinery definately have their place. If they had access to power tools away back then i think they would have used them otherwise they wouldnt have been invented. man is always looking at making things easier for himself by using machinery. look at a JCB against shovels

I once read that the head of the department in the patent office in the states said at the turn of last century that they might as well shut the office as everything that could be invented has been invented...how wrong was he


I for one would rather use a planer thicknesser than a scrub plane but then use a finely tuned 98 8) for cleanup later



I

 

[dchenard]

I once read that the head of the department in the patent office in the states said at the turn of last century that they might as well shut the office as everything that could be invented has been invented...how wrong was he
I

Here's the quote:

"Everything that can be invented has been invented"

Charles H. Duell
US Patent Office, 1899

DC

 

[woodbloke]

I suppose the machinery we use takes most of the sheer hard graft out of woodworking, which is probably why its used. Sure, you can use hand tools for almost all woodworking operations, but would you really want to plane up by hand a load of oak in the temperatures we had last month? It was an effort to get into the 'shop to do anything with a machine, let alone a hand tool. Use the hand tools for that fine work once the donkey work has been done. Given the choice, I know what my decision would be - Rob

 

[Alf]

I agree, Rob. But we seem to have lost the path where you knew how to do things without the machines if necessary, but brought the machines in to take out the drudgery. Now we're too dependent on machines as a substitute for skill. I'm as guilty of that as anyone, to my shame. And oh dear, we do get so distanced from the material sometimes. It's no wonder folks want to bring engineering tolerances to it when so many treat it like so many piles of MDF. Given that wood supplies are not what they were, I wouldn't be surprised if we aren't eventually made to take longer over using it and waste less of it in the voracious machinery.

But yep, hand work and machinery are like ebony and ivory. They can live side by side in your workshop in perfect harmony. Plus tablesaws make a great place to flatten plane soles on... :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[woodbloke]

Alf - agreed, I think we all have to find our own balance and preferences on this one. What one person may do on a machine another will opt for a hand tool, but it is very easy to fall into the total machine trap (Norm on the box?) My view is that the power tools make life easier (biscuit jointing) and generally quicker, though not necessarily better - Rob

 

[Mittlefehldt]

I have a primarily hand tool shop, the only exception being a 12 inche bench model Ryobi drill press, which sees less and less service every year.

I am a hobbyist, not a professional, and most of what I make is one offs. I usually have the rough planing done by my local wood purveyor for a nominal charge, and finsh it in my shop. If I was doing this for a living then I would no doubt be looking at machines to expidite the work, but the only dead lines I have are my own more or less so what is the rush.

Case in point, I recently had to make a 20 inch groove 3/8's of an inch deep and 3/4's wide. If I had used a power router (UGH) I would have had to set up a fence sort of thingy, and figured the depth and all that stuff, and maybe it would have taken me twenty minute after the set up and clean up, ie square the corners, and maybe smooth the bottom with a router plane.

I used a mortise chsiel and my nifty new LV router plane and it took me twenty minutes, except I was ab le to listen to the radio while doing it. Now if I had to do a number of these grooves then it might have been much more timely to have used a tailed router, but it was as I said a one off.

This is where people seem to get their hackles up thinking it has to be either/or, the truth is there is a place for both, and occasionally a need for electric stuff, but in my shop it would be for the most part a waste of money to buy a bunch of machines that would be in use maybe a few minutes at a time, to save me time. I really prefer listening to the radio while I work.

Sorry I did go on there a bit didn't I.

 

[garywayne]

I agree with all your comments, there is a place for power tools, and they are very important, especially these days, even I use them. But because of our "I can't wait" society, I believe people are using power tools moore, when it is not necessary out of pure habit, or ease perhaps.

As I said before,(or meant to say). I really do think it would benefit people to, on occasion slow down and use hand tools to get back in touch with the wood, and work with it. Instead of beating it into submission and shaping it with power tools.

When I was at collage I wondered why most of them where there. Hardly anyone was interested in using a hand tool, and wanted to rush to finnish the project. Not to look at it and feel a sense of accomplishment, but just to get it out of the way.

Sorry for going on.
ATB Gary.

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Here's the quote:

"Everything that can be invented has been invented"

Charles H. Duell
US Patent Office, 1899

DC

Good find DC.....it was a few years ago i read it

I

 

[dchenard]

I remembered having it in my Shazam manual (an econometrics software package). Each chapter starts with predictions, made by people from all walks of life, that couldn't have ended up being more wrong. Just to show that economists aren't the only ones who make bad predictions... :roll:

One of my favourites:

"The deliverance of the saints must take place some time before 1914"

Charles Taze Russell
American religious leader, 1910

"The deliverance of the saints must take place some time after 1914"

Charles Taze Russell
American religious leader, 1923



...

DC