Well, time for me to introduce myself.
 
I have been lurking here for a short while now, and I really enjoy the
peace and guiet here compared to the p*w*r t**l forums.

I think like most people here I started out using a lot of tailed
apprentices. Almost all of them I inherited from my dad, so I doubt I’ll
ever part with them, but I find myself using them less and less. I
purchased my first hand plane almost a year ago, and that was all it took.
I didn’t really slide down the slope, I ran the whole way down (and
enjoyed every step so far)

I was one of those who thought that to do good work you had to have
expensive jigs and p*w*r t**ls. But I realized this year that if you
develop and apply a little skill, you can do work just as good, and get
much more satisfaction from it.  I cut my first practice dovetails this
weekend, and the knowledge that I don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars
to do joinery like this pretty much made my weekend. Especially since I
was able to saw them out with the bowsaw I finished last month using stock
that I prepared with nothing but hand planes (yeah, it was a fun weekend…)

I think the excitement from hand tools for me is finding new was to
dispense with p*w*r t**l usage where practical. Being able to do more with
less..

So, umm, just how far down does this slope go anyway??

Adam