>Chuck Hess wrote:
>>
>> ..........................................................  Second I
>> must point out that there seems to be a lot of jealousy for Normy here.

Ken Stagg wrote
 It's not
>about p*w*r t**ls and how they can make some jobs easier - most of us
>wouldn't deny it anyway.

My aditional take on this is this:  I use p***r t***s as well when I'm in
production mode,....  and I grew up in the trades and refinished
professionally for 8 years.  But when I started getting in to hand tools
more, several things started happening.....  my work (eye?) got sharper and
more accurate;  my tools got sharper because they had to (no more burning
your way through)..... my hand techniques got better, amd I got "closer" to
what I was doing...my connection with the wood and the feel of what I was
doing improved.  I have a grandson who is destined to have a shop of his
own, and I hope to "apprentice" him with the hand tools before he gets
electron fever.  My SIL is a pedigreed Normite.  My job as grampa is to
save my grandson from this dreaded disease that turns woodworkers into
product focused bottom-liners instead of process oriented mystics<G>

Cheers all.....
Wishing you all a generous helping of shop time this weekend
Tom