On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 1:33 PM, Kevin Bock  wrote:

> Pardon me as I ascend my soapbox.
>

Your description below I found very effective and helpful.


> 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.
>

I have spent some time thinking about how to teach people to use hand
tools.   There is a very real problem suggesting what tools to get.  On the
one hand, the teacher can be confident that a Lie-Nielsen plane will work
out of the box (after sharpening).  If there are problems using the tool,
they are with the student.  On the other hand, suggesting a student go buy
a wood or transitional plane is like telling the student to travel to a new
city and pick a restaurant.  It is difficult for the student to identify
where they should eat.  The teacher can tell roughly what to look for, but
there are no guarantees.  Following this path, lots of us end up with piles
of okay, but not great tools as we search for just the one we want.  So
which path leads to the least frustration for the student?  That's really
up to the student.

I thought I couldn't afford a jointer plane.  The Lie-Nielsen plane seemed
too expensive.  I was worried a vintage one at over $100 wouldn't work well
and be a waste of money.  So I did something even crazier.  I made a wooden
plane.  It didn't work well.  But in the mean time I found a 100 year-old
Stanley #7 on craigslist for $35 that works very well after just
sharpening.  I have been using that plane for years.  I know how to use it
to make a board flat (because the sole is not perfectly flat).  My level of
work has improved and I want a flatter plane now.  So I taught myself to
flatten a plane sole on shorter planes.  I don't enjoy doing that and it
took a long time.  I am now seriously considering a Lie-Nielsen jointer.
So  what would I recommend to a student?  I don't know!  It really depends
on the student.

BTW, there is a solution to this problem.  Find a galoot who lives near
you.  You may be astonished at the volume of information a single visit can
convey.

Another problem teachers have is they don't have experience with all the
tools.  Let's say I want to recommend a full-size hand saw.  Well, there's
Wenzloff for $325 and a long wait.  There's vintagesaws.com for $200-$550.
There's Pax for $100-125.  There's ebay.  I've never used any of those
saws.  My favorite saw is a Disston D8 that came from Galootaclaus.  It
arrived sharp.  When it was dull, I learned to sharpen on another saw and
then sharpened my favorite saw.  That's not really a repeatable process I
could tell a student to use.

Again, there is a solution to this problem.  Participate in this list and
find a galoot who lives near you.

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 started hand tool woodworking, the internet was full of people
praising the Veritas sharpening jig.  This is the old one with the single
screw on top.  I never did get that jig to function well.  It wasn't until
much later that I learned it was because the jig doesn't function well.  As
soon as you tighten the screw, the blade shifts.  It takes a lot of self
confidence to be able to post, "I bought a $50 sharpening jig made by a
well-respected company.  It doesn't work at all and that's not my fault."
The people with the confidence to say that publicly often sound (or are)
abrasive.


> 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.


I have been reading Schwarz for several years.  When I first found him, he
was a real breath of fresh air, as you describe Sellers.  He was constantly
trying new techniques and was very good at explaining them.  You might want
to check out the first few editions of Woodworking Magazine to see what I'm
talking about.  He would give instructions on how to inexpensively make
tools (like drift pins) and did not have the tool fetish he does now.  If
you go back even further, you will find them on this forum asking questions.

The problem with all these public personalities is they know that
generating heat (as opposed to light) generates eyeballs and dollars.  They
all do it in their own way.  Besides that, there's only so much to say.
Lots of people on this list watched more Paul Sellers videos because of
this discussion.

If you live anywhere near Minnesota, I suggest checking out Mike Siemsen's
woodworking school.  Mike quietly and succinctly answers questions on this
forum and is a big proponent of getting started with inexpensive tools and
shop assemblies.

Mark