G S Haydon Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Excellent, I was quite into Deco before the kids arrived. I find the designs to stressful to look at these days, I need more relaxed designs to sooth my mind these days . I did some trawling and found plenty of your posts on other forums, you pull no punches! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CStanford Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Excellent, I was quite into Deco before the kids arrived. I find the designs to stressful to look at these days, I need more relaxed designs to sooth my mind these days . I did some trawling and found plenty of your posts on other forums, you pull no punches! If I develop an Art Deco portfolio I'll probably put up a website. That sort of work has wider appeal since it's fairly rare to find somebody that does it. Frank Pollaro in New York is really the only game around. The chair pictured in my previous post was by the French firm Dominique if you're interested: http://willy-huybrechts-gallery.com/biographies-of-art-deco-artists/dominique-biography Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CStanford Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Very nice desk sir, nice indeed. I still keep coming back to one thing - I haven't been eschewing the use of power tools out of some allegiance to methods of bygone eras but because I just can't stand the high pitched whine of power tools. I'll have to overcome that before I run out to get my domino joiner and bandsaw. And that alone is reason enough. I used your post to point out that the use of the moniker "hand tool" woodworker to describe somebody who is doing blended woodworking the way it has been done from the 1900s to present is a recent phenomenon. Nobody ever would have self-described as such. It's a bit ersatz IMO. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Tony, good well tuned stationary power tools don't have that terrible high pitched scream. My portable contractor TS has that becasue those little portable saws have the same type of motor as a circ saw (I think... I don't really know anything about motors). A bandsaw will scream if its not dialed in but if you you get it well tuned it PUURRRRRs through the wood. I don't even wear earplugs with mine when I'm doing quick straight rips and I am an ear plug FANATIC (having spent a lot of time in drumline as a kid, had multiple instructors with tinnitus, and having damaged my own hearing a bit). Resaws I put them in just because that can get louder but even then its not that terrible scream of a router or circ saw, unless the saw in poorly tuned, the blade is dull, or you are not feeding the wood properly. A friend of mine has a Powermatic TS...that thing hummmmmms too. Still a good idea to wear earplugs, but much MUCH quieter then a portable power tool. Definitely nothing like that high pitched scream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 +1 to the comments above above. You have to go back a long way to find hand tool only stuff. Also, it's worth thinking about the type of work done in the hand tool only era. Most of the pieces from the pre power are done in a way to work in harmony with the hand tools. This could be very limiting. The Shakers for instance were very keen on removing the burden from woodworking, pioneering their own take on circular saws and planing machines while still retaining quality. I will underline my point again, the effective and safe use of power tools in equal to and as skilled as hand tool work. Machines & Power tools are an asset. A band saw would I'm sure become a good friend of yours. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cochese Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Tony, good well tuned stationary power tools don't have that terrible high pitched scream. My portable contractor TS has that becasue those little portable saws have the same type of motor as a circ saw (I think... I don't really know anything about motors). A bandsaw will scream if its not dialed in but if you you get it well tuned it PUURRRRRs through the wood. I don't even wear earplugs with mine when I'm doing quick straight rips and I am an ear plug FANATIC (having spent a lot of time in drumline as a kid, had multiple instructors with tinnitus, and having damaged my own hearing a bit). Resaws I put them in just because that can get louder but even then its not that terrible scream of a router or circ saw, unless the saw in poorly tuned, the blade is dull, or you are not feeding the wood properly. A friend of mine has a Powermatic TS...that thing hummmmmms too. Still a good idea to wear earplugs, but much MUCH quieter then a portable power tool. Definitely nothing like that high pitched scream. Hmm, my bandsaw really screams. I will have to look into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Hmm, my bandsaw really screams. I will have to look into it. Start here: http://www.ccwwa.org/NEWSITE/plans/BandsawTuneup1.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 +1 to the comments above above. You have to go back a long way to find hand tool only stuff. Also, it's worth thinking about the type of work done in the hand tool only era. Most of the pieces from the pre power are done in a way to work in harmony with the hand tools. This could be very limiting. The Shakers for instance were very keen on removing the burden from woodworking, pioneering their own take on circular saws and planing machines while still retaining quality. I will underline my point again, the effective and safe use of power tools in equal to and as skilled as hand tool work. Machines & Power tools are an asset. A band saw would I'm sure become a good friend of yours. Very well said! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CStanford Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 +1 to the comments above above. You have to go back a long way to find hand tool only stuff. Also, it's worth thinking about the type of work done in the hand tool only era. Most of the pieces from the pre power are done in a way to work in harmony with the hand tools. This could be very limiting. The Shakers for instance were very keen on removing the burden from woodworking, pioneering their own take on circular saws and planing machines while still retaining quality. I will underline my point again, the effective and safe use of power tools in equal to and as skilled as hand tool work. Machines & Power tools are an asset. A band saw would I'm sure become a good friend of yours. You have to be careful with the Shaker analogies. Their best stuff was produced in a relatively brief slice of time that may or may not have involved the mechanization you've mentioned evenly in all facets of all furnituremaking or evenly throughout the various Shaker communities known for producing the museum pieces we cherish now.. There was actually a point in which it all became abysmal, derivative, and even poorly made. While the correlation could very well be spurious, this point was when volume production started to have its influence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 That's a fair point Charles. The crux of my response was to illustrate that the often revered Shakers did not turn their noses up at removing burden. The likely demise of quality was more to do with flawed concepts such as "not having it away" (procreation) and failure to entice new members to their group due to their outdated views on the world rather than the introduction of a circular saw or powered lathe in the workshop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 I'm out of likes for the day, so Graham, you get a big +1 for that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Mel, that's normally my problem! :-). Just poped a l like on yours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CStanford Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 That's a fair point Charles. The crux of my response was to illustrate that the often revered Shakers did not turn their noses up at removing burden. The likely demise of quality was more to do with flawed concepts such as "not having it away" (procreation) and failure to entice new members to their group due to their outdated views on the world rather than the introduction of a circular saw or powered lathe in the workshop. Speaking for myself only, removing burden for removing burden's sake often leads to a faster mediocre result. I've put some ill-advised workpieces into projects simply because I was able to ram them through tablesaw, jointer, and planer in a relative blink of an eye, when working the parts by hand would have revealed problems before the piece got glued into the project. Speed kills. Sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Sometimes , sounds like you have the balance just right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jHop Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 Get what you want. If you want a given tool or machine, that’s the only justification you need. I like hand tools a lot. But there are some machines that I have, and use, mainly because there are some tasks that I either don’t like to do by hand, or I’m really bad at doing by hand. This is my list of machines: 1. Bandsaw 2. Jointer/planer combo machine 3. Drill press 4. Lathe Why? I use the bandsaw for resawing and long rip cuts. I use the jointer/planer for milling that I need to get done fast. I have the drill press because I’m bad at drilling, and I have the lathe because I’m bad at carving a bowl out of a chunk of wood. With the exception of the bandsaw, this is my list. Although I add an ROS and a quarter sheet sander, and a Router because I don't have space to store all the moulding planes. (Funny,now that I think about it, the reasons why are the same, too... ) In the end, I'm thinking that "hand tool only" is great when there's no power, but when the time crunch hits, grab what gets the job done fastest. If that's your rip saw or your planer combo, use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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