Introduction:
A common assumption of our age is that machines make things
better than people can. For this reason, and because it is so much
easier to push a switch than to nurture hand-eye coordination, most
of us begin our woodworking journeys reliant on power tools. Then,
along the way, as our sensitivity to wood and understanding of
craftsmanship grow, we may begin to appreciate the practical
benefits and subtle pleasures of traditional hand skills.
There is a romance to hand tools that should not overshadow their
utility. They are far more than charming accents with which to
decorate country cottages or ornament workshops. No contemporary
woodshop is complete without functioning hand tools. No craftsman
achieves excellence without first mastering their use.
Although hand tools are essential to the highest level of
craftsmanship, there is a lack of information available to the
woodworker who desires to attain proficiency with them. A new
thickness planer comes with a detailed manual explaining setup, use,
and maintenance and an exploded diagram to facilitate repair. A new
handplane often comes only with wrapping tissue. Yet, of the two,
the handplane requires more skill, knowledge, and time to set up and
use successfully. Think of this book as the missing manual for your
woodworking hand tools.
In these pages you'll find a comprehensive representation of the
specialized hand tools commonly employed by the contemporary wood
furniture maker. You'll learn what each tool is used for, what to
look for when buying one, how to tune it up for maximum performance,
and, where appropriate, how to use it efficiently. Of necessity,
more demanding tools such as bench planes merit longer treatments,
while there is no need to belabor the obvious by explaining how to
swing a hammer.
This book is intended as an ongoing source of information as you
work. For ease of reference, I have set it up much like the Yellow
Pages of a telephone book. Tools are listed alphabetically within
functional groupings (abrading, cutting, sawing), which are likewise
arranged alphabetically. Two categories that you will not find in
these pages are woodturning tools and carving tools -- they are such
extensive specialties as to require books of their own.
A word of advice: You don't need to rush out and buy all the
tools you see within these pages in order to be a good woodworker. I
have found it best to wait until I have a specific need and
understand how a new tool will fulfill it. Even in our school shop
at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, which I believe to be
well equipped by any standard, you wont find every tool that is
presented here.
What is the place of hand tools in the workshop? In part, the
answer is a matter of temperament. Each craftsman finds a personal
balance between machine and hand work. There is no right way to
work. The 20-plus years that I have been making furniture have been,
and continue to be, a learning process. As my experience increases,
so does my respect for the practical advantages and aesthetic
pleasures that hand tools provide.
Simply, you can do more things with wood using hand tools than
you can using machinery. Hand tools enable the woodworker to create
the widest possible range of designs. Of course, machines are
reliable and fast, and great for straightforward tasks such as
milling wood four-square or cutting simple mortises. And with enough
capital expenditure, jigging, and fussing, they will also perform
exceedingly complex tasks dependably. But for the one-of-a-kind or
limited-production furniture maker who wants to incorporate
compound-angle joinery in a chair, marquetry or carved detail in a
casepiece, or a unique molded edge on a tabletop, a mastery of hand
tools will get the job done quicker, better, and less expensively.
Wood is a sensuous, seductive material unlike any other. Every
tree, every board, is individuated by characteristics of color,
density, grain pattern, and workability. Hand tools enable the
craftsman to meet wood on intimate terms, sensitive to every nuance,
and endow him with finer control of the medium. There are
extraordinary pieces of furniture in which the life of the tree and
the subtle presence of the makers hand live on together, such as the
work of James Krenov. This is a level of excellence well beyond the
capability of machine work.
At the heart of the idea of craftsmanship is the notion of skill
-- of hand-eye coordination won through years of practice.
Certainly, the part of furniture making that I love best is being at
the bench working with hand tools, whether cutting joinery or using
a handplane. The joy of surfacing a lovely piece of ash with a
well-tuned jack plane is exceptional -- the feel, sound, smell, and
sight of the blade throwing off translucent shavings and leaving
behind a surface of smoothness and clarity.
More than anything else, I go into my workshop for the experience
of being there, for the joy of making. The furniture I create is the
measure of that process, and hand tools are essential to it in every
way. Whether you look to hand tools as a source of pleasure,
quality, or efficiency, I'm sure you will find this book of
assistance.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION
1 ABRADING
2 BORING
3 CLAMPING & HOLDING
4 CUTTING
5 DRAFTING
6 MARKING & MEASURING
7 PLANING
8 SAWING
9 SCRAPING
10 STRIKING
APPENDIX: SHARPENING CHISELS & PLANES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Soft-cover,
8 x 10 in., 208 pages,
with drawings
Published 1998
ISBN: 978-1-56158-216-7
The Woodworker's
Guide to Hand Tools
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