Fear of hand tools

[GhostFist]

Do you find some carpenters are too afraid to use hand tool? I'll give an example, when building the bases for that fence thingy I was doing (faux concrete footing for a chainlink fence surrounding a basketball court set) the tops were ripped to 12 1/4" and beveled to 45 degrees on both edges. The guy i had making these pieces wasn't a surgeon on the saw but i didn't really care considering the whole thing was going to get slathered in concrete. To the point, when attaching the tops the edges came out just proud of the rest of the structure in some spots due to someone's wavering hand on the saw. Another carpenter's solution was to drag out a belt sander and run a lead to where we were working in order to belt sand it all uniform. To me this is too much mucking about not to mention unnecessary noise plus it takes longer then a couple of quick silent passes of my block plane, which was in my pouch. He saw me do this, saw how quick it was but still decided to go rummage for the belt sander.......WHY?

Similar situations having to hack something off quick and dirty I pull out my Silky (love that guy) people get all leery and go searching for a sawzall, by the time they're 5 paces away the job is done.

Chisels people seem to like but to get someone to use a chisel for the job it's intended and not say, AS A PRYBAR. is another thing altogether.

Where does this fear come from i wonder??

 

[awdriven]

I really enjoy good hand tools. I used to try to solve every problem with a power tool, but have been learning the right hand tool can create a great result with not a lot of work.

Norm was my first exposure to woodworking.

 

[Kevin Stricker]

I think the problem lies in the hand tools that most carpenters own.  Dull saws and chisels do not get much use, and a block plane that has never been properly sharpened is next to useless.  The problem is that most do not know that hand tools do not come ready to use and it is only with sharpening that you have an effective tool.

I think that is why Japanese saws are much more popular, because they come sharp.  Until I took some woodworking classes my chisels were pathetic scrapers, don't even think about cutting wood with them.  Now they are surgical instruments...what a difference.

 

[awdriven]

Definitely, Kevin. I learned about the scary Sharp system, which uses fine grit sandpaper to sharpen. It's about $40 to get set up. Prior to that, I saw the expensive jigs and stones in the woodworking catalogs and thought I had to go that route to have decent results.

 

[GhostFist]

You probably hit the nail on the head there kevin. Come to think of it I do use alot of japanese saws mainly because they're portable and as you said ready sharp. I ever get my own shop set up I'll invest in some nice traditional saws as i've often wanted a push saw in certain applications.

 

[awdriven]

This could make an interesting little thread. I got some Stanley brand chisels at the Borg years ago and at the time I thought to myself, 'How could anyone get any real work done with chisels? They don't cut worth a darn.' I came to learn later, they just weren't sharp.

 

[kfitzsimons]

I just finished fitting 6 solid poplar interior doors with mostly hand tools. I used a TS55 to cut the 3 degree bevel (with major problem of saw bogging down and rough cut), but mostly hand tools. Cut mortises for hinges and lock sets. I used a marking knife to define the cut lines, chisels to outline mortise, and a Lie-Nielsen butt hinge mortise plane to cut mortises. I used a L-N #4 plane to clean up the bevel and refine the fit in the door frame. It worked perfectly. Very accurate, shavings not dust, and QUIET. Beautiful fit and practice planing. A very sharp blade and planing with the grain are keys to success.

 

[Ikisumu]

Here's my suggestion, fairly cheap, quick and efficient.

Pick up a scrap piece of melamine board like here, and clamp it:

 

Apply a bead of polishing paste (here we have the POL. Wenol, Autosol or Tormek polishing pastes would do about the same):

Spread the bead on the board with a piece of tissue:

The residue of the first single push (Stanley 9½ Sweetheart blade, about one hundred years old carbon steel yet still quite hard at 63 HRc)

Seven pushes, already pretty polished:

18 pushes, rather overpolished (razor edge appeared already a while ago):

Here are three different steels polished, all very razor edges. High carbon steel (the Stanley Sweetheart), low alloyed high carbon steel (the chisel) and M42 HSS (the marking knife):

In the last picture, the melamine surface is already quite clogged. It's no wonder, I started polishing the blades right after a medium grit diamond stone (to compare the result for M42 at HRc 65).

Please consider, you can use any very hard surface (hard epoxy, phenolic, urea-formaldehyde etc ) for this kind of polishing. On those hard surfaces, you can either push or pull the blade. You can also use let's say 2...6mm thick polyurethane elastomer sheet glued on rigid substrate to make a strop, on which you only pull the blade.

Those aforementioned "greasy" amine soap binded polishing mediums work the best (POL, Wenol, Autosol, Tormek) because they will remain viscous and will be spread over the surface under the honing pressure. Water based binders (some commercial mediums are like skin lotion mixed with ceramic powder) seem to abruptly clog and will not really spread evenly over the surface, because they just dry up too soon and become too thick.

***

For those who have access to raw materials, I recommend Almatis (ex-Alcoa) A 16 SG alumina powder, where SG denotes "superground", where the material is ground close to monocrystalline level. With that you can apply the same kind of binder as with those commercial polishing pastes. It will then be even finer, yet very fast and powerful paste for steel edge polishing.

Cheers,

Ikisumu

 

[GhostFist]

Great little video series I found.
Squaring up a board

 

[andy5405]

I know someone with an alcohol and cocaine dependency that has some unexpected beneficial side effects. He can't shove an expensive power tool up his nose so his toolkit is still largely based on hand tools. His work with a handsaw is extremely accurate as he has to match power tool accuracy on a low budget.

On the subject of sharpening chisels has anyone used the Trend Fast Track System? I know a couple of guys who swear by it.

 

[Kev]

It took buying an expensive set of Japanese chisels for me to realize the difference between a useful tool and a lump of wood and metal.

Funny how seeing my father doing things very wrong stuck with me (you don't now they're wrong!)

All tools need care. All edges need sharpening or to be disposed of if that's their nature.