Don't get down off the soapbox. I have preached much the same sermon for a long
time. But preaching to the choir is often unproductive. Stay with it. I am too
tired to carry on the fight.

On Apr 24, 2014, at 11:33 AM, Kevin Bock  wrote:

> Pardon me as I ascend my soapbox. 
> 
> I think Sellers is a breath of fresh air.  
> 
> I'm still fairly new to woodworking and hand tools in general.  I got the
galoot bug a few years ago have slowly collected a menagerie of tools and,
occasionally, have done some woodworking.
> 
> One of the things that I found really really really frustrating when I first
got into this was a general sense of tool-snobbery pervading the woodworking
community.  You have to have the latest and greatest plane.  Bailey's design is
inferior.  You at least need a Bedrock to get decent results.  LN or LV are the
only planes worth anything.  Wood planes and transitional planes are firewood.
> 
> I've thought about why this is for a while now, and I have two theories:
> 
> 1. There are a number of woodworking personalities who I think, frankly, don't
have much to contribute to the woodworking community (and there are a lot of
names I could put here).  But they've managed to make their career in writing or
talking about ww. And so they delve into the minutiae of toolery and woodworking
and strive to get their plane tuned so finely they could circumcise a flea
blindfolded.  Then they release a 12 DVD box set on plane tuning and flea
anatomy.  As a newbie, I found this incredibly frustrating.  I didn't want to
"waste" money on a tool that was inferior and I had no real clue how on earth I
would ever get a plane tuned properly, or a chisel perfectly flat, without
spending hundreds of dollars on equipment.
> 
> 
> 2.  The other issue is just the sales pitch from tool makers. And that's
understandable. They're just trying to sell their product.  I mean, you never
trust someone who works on commission.  I went to a LN hand tool event and came
away thinking the whole company was made of anal retentive woodworkers.  Like
OCD was prerequisite for employment.  The rep was using his bevel up plane to
and he says it's getting dull.  So he takes it over to his $1k sharpening bench,
flattens his 10,000 grit water stone with a $150 diamond plate, then uses a
Veritas sharpenting jig to run his blade over the water stone -- get this --
TWICE.  And then he puts it back into his plane, goes back to his other $1000
workbench, gets out his $50 1oz. hammer and taps away at the blade trying to get
it just right so he can take his nearly invisible shavings.
> 
> 
> 3. Bonus point.  The internet is alive with a lot of opinions (like mine) and
not a lot of substance when it comes to ww and tools.  Newbies beware...
> 
> 
> When I came across Paul Sellers saying you could use a $10 chisel set from
Aldi to get perfectly fine results I was thrilled.  It so flew in the face of
the general consensus of the woodworking carpet-baggers.  I watched almost all
of his videos in the next few days.  I couldn't enough.  It was liberating.
D-Day all over again.
> 
> 
> BTW, My poster boy for tool-snobbery is Mr. Schwarz.  I mean, the guy talks
about his tools like you'd expect a Star Bucks barista hippster to talk about
his coffee....and turns his nose up anything that wasn't brewed from mountain
grown organic coffee beans gathered by a Columbian coffee bean picking union
composed exclusively of rainforest natives living in their ancestral manner and
dress.  And then you've got Flo working over at the truck stop serving up coffee
for $.50 a cup.  I mean, both have caffeine, and both will wake you up.  The
StarBucks might be a little stronger but they both do the job.  It's really what
you prefer.
> 
> 
> And I don't mean to single out Schwarz (even though I just did) he is just the
first one who comes to mind for me. I expect to walk into Star Bucks one day and
see Schwarz sitting their, with his LN #8, sipping his Espresso, and typing away
at his Mac for his next blogpost on Popular woodoworking about getting your
plane so sharp it cuts the wood fibers on a quantum level.     Schwarz has some
good things to say.  I just think he's a bit of a tool snob.
> 
> 
> End of rant. Thanks for listening.  I apologize to everyone I've offended.  
> 
> 
> Kevin
> 
>   
> 
> On Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:41 AM, Dwight Beebe  wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 10:53 AM, paul womack 
> wrote:
> 
> snipa, snipa
> 
> So in this view, a convex bevel is a (undesired) side effect of double
>> bevel sharpening.
>> 
>>    BugBear
>> 
> 
> Gracious Galoots,
> 
>> From what I've seen, Mr. Sellers purposefully creates a convex bevel, that
> is, no primary or secondary bevel is ground or honed.  Sharpening is
> accomplished with a slight "rolling" motion as the blade is moved across
> the stone, so that a smaller angle is presented to the stone as you extend
> your arms away from your body, conversely, a greater angle is created as
> you bring your arms back closer to your body.  For the Porch's edification,
> here's a blogpost and video by Mr. Sellers explaining his position
> (ideologically) and demonstrating (pragmatically) the results of his method.
> 
> http://paulsellers.com/2013/11/sharpness-mean-real-
terms/">http://paulsellers.com/2013/11/sharpness-mean-real-terms/
> 
> Here's a second YouTube video of his actual sharpening process during which
> he uses, not stones, but diamond plates with glass cleaner as the vehicle
> to remove the swarf.
> 
> http://paulsellers.com/2013/11/sharpness-mean-real-
terms/">http://paulsellers.com/2013/11/sharpness-mean-real-terms/
> 
> I don't have a dog in this fight.  I enjoy hearing how others approach
> their work and prepare their tools for woodworking.   Please let us not
> devolve into finger-pointing, -wagging, or the giving thereof.  Each Galoot
> to their own well-considered and practiced sharpening methods.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Dwight
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> value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
> traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.
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