Shift to Hand Tools, or just being crazy?

[rodger.]

so how do we all feel about CNC then?

[pkinneb]

Like Mike. I am pretty much a use what you want guy (call it something if you must) but just get out and make stuff

Personally my hand tools are for fine tuning and machines do all the heavy lifting.

Pug regarding CNC I have no interest primarily because I do not enjoy computers that much. However, I have seen some amazing things done with them and I for one see it as a form of working with wood.

[Tom King]

5 hours ago, Mike. said:

I don't like labels, especially labels that don't need to exist.  Woodworking is woodworking.  Tools are tools.  People should use whatever makes them happy.  This idea that you need to fit into a bucket (a "hand tool guy" a "power tool guy" or a "hybrid guy") is just stupid, imo.  

Also, the shaming that goes on in some circles regarding power tool use is really annoying.  

I'll agree with that.  The first time I heard the term "hybrid" woodworker, it sounded like some sort of derogatory label.  I'm sure the older guys back when I started, who used handtools about as much as I do now, would have thought it stupid for anyone to call them a "hybrid" woodworker. That's the way you got it done.

Somewhere along the line Cabinetmakers, who were the highest skilled of woodworkers, became makers of kitchen cabinets who rarely ever touched a hand tool an now cabinetmakers laugh at the use of hand tools, and say things like chisels are good for opening cans of paint.  All the labels changed fairly fast in the past 50 years of so.

It's a stupid, and fairly new label.  I certainly don't want to be called a hybrid woodworker.  I'm still doing things mostly the same way everyone did for most of a century before such labels were even thought of.

Some are working towards a final product. Some are just trying to find something fun to do with their time.  From one extreme to the other, it's all Woodworking.

[Martin-IT]

Try hand tool, you may like it, or not.  

I bike around the country side, we get passed by motorcycle.  

I pedal to go uphill, they have a gas engine. They enjoy what they are doing, and I do too.

If you are thinking of going all hand tool,  take a look at what you could do with your current tools.

As an example, I tried using card scraper a few years back, but the results where not what I expected.

After reading online, and how I could skip some sanding grit level, I give it another try. 

It is in this case, faster than sanding (and who like sanding?).

Unlike plane which could set you back 1000$, I have not seen prices so high for card scraper.

I do not have the skills or the patience to develop  the skills required to be all unplug, but I appreciate seeing someone that has them and why would the price be so high.

 

[Guest Randy]

2 hours ago, Tom King said:

It's a stupid, and fairly new label.  I certainly don't want to be called a hybrid woodworker.  I'm still doing things mostly the same way everyone did for most of a century before such labels were even thought of. Some are working towards a final product. Some are just trying to find something fun to do with their time.  From one extreme to the other, it's all Woodworking.

The term "hybrid" is just a term which I think Marc first used to describe exactly what you are describing - a mixed use of power and hand tools to use both the best advantage. Absolutely nothing wrong with using all hand tools if that is what makes the woodworker happy. I now use more hand tools than ever before but, since I'm interested in completing a project in a reasonable period of time given my current skills, I use a planer, jointer, table saw, band saw, router, and power sanders when it makes sense. Use of hand tools exclusively wouldn't give me the quality result I desire. So, I think that's all that "hybrid woodworker" means. I doubt it was ever used to denigrate a woodworker who uses the tool that works best at the time. I certainly didn't mean it that way.

[Tom King]

I don't care how recently the term was invented.  It's a poor one.  We have a bunch of company in the house, so I asked them.  Not one of them is a woodworker, but all very successful in their fields.  To a one, they said it was something like someone who did woodworking that was limited in some way.  It would be like calling a woodworker who only used powertools a "power tool limited woodworker", and a woodworker who only uses hand tools a "hand tool limited woodworker".  It's just a name that doesn't have a clear meaning, but brings some fictitious image to mind.

It doesn't matter at all if woodworkers know what it means.   Ask anyone who has been woodworking for over 25 years or so if they mind being called a "hybrid woodworker".

I stand by what I said.  It's a dumb term.

[Eric.]

I think you might be reading into it a little too much, Tom.  It's just a word, and it's not derogatory in any way.  I consider "hybrid" to mean only "use the best tool for the job."  And I think that's what you do...so I wouldn't take offense.  Honestly I still fail to understand how it offends you.

[Llama]

7 minutes ago, Lester Burnham said:

Digital "woodworkers"?

 

[Guest Randy]

I've been a woodworker since about 1975; over 40 years and I don't mind the term at all. It's not personal in anyway and I don't remember calling you a "hybrid woodworker" anyway. I assume you're a woodworker who will use whatever tool you feel will do the job best; using a combination of tools in other words.

Actually the connotation of "hybrid" usually tends to mean a combination to attain the best possible result. Don't know why that's insulting, but sorry if it is. It's just not to me. Enough on this topic for me. Too serious.

[wtnhighlander]

'Hybrid' just means we are the mules of woodworking.

[Pwk5017]

I never understood what people are fine tuning with hand tools that they couldn't have done better and faster with a power tool.  Perfect example, I see people whipping out a shoulder plane to reduce a tenon. I take the extra seconds to make it perfect off the machine. Repeatable. Taper clean up with your hand plane, one pass at the jointer. Hand tools are versatile and great tools, but made mostly obsolete with properly equipped and calibrated power tools. Not knocking people's methods--you do you--but hand tool effectiveness is few and far between. 

 

I believe in the end product defining the woodworker. If krenov's work sucked then it wouldn't matter diddly if he only used hand made wood bodied planes. Same applies now. I don't care how the craftsman got there, I want the final product to illicit a response in me. 

[Eric.]

8 minutes ago, Pwk5017 said:

I never understood what people are fine tuning with hand tools that they couldn't have done better and faster with a power tool.

Fitting drawers or doors to their case counterparts are the best examples I can think of where hand tools leave machines in the dust.  When you need to take off a thou here or there...hand tools are the answer.  It's a little counter-intuitive, but hand tools are often more precise than machines.

[Guest Randy]

I hope none of my posts on this thread indicated I don't have a use for hand tools. It's just the opposite. I have gone from believing that you really don't need hand tools (except for a chisel or small saw once in awhile) to realizing that block planes, some other smaller planes, and hand sanding are a necessary part of getting parts to fit perfectly. I have found that I can real close with cuts on a table saw, passes on a jointer or planer but, if I want the whole project to fit together to my level of satisfaction, I most often need to take a small plane or chisel and take ever so small an amount off some place. Also, I've found it's much faster to use a block plane to ease the edges on a piece than to spend the time necessary to take out a trim router, install the bit, and get it set to just the right depth. There are uses for all tools that work for each individual.