OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

23340 Stephen York <Stephen.York@E...> 1997‑08‑04 BIO
Hi,

	My name is Steve York, and I have been lurking for a while, and I 
thought that I should introduce myself. I am a novice woodworker, finding
out how I want to go about woodworking. I started out by reading rec.norm,
and went and took a night class in woodworking offered by my local adult
education system. 

	I found that:

	a) most people in this class use only power tools,
	b) my ears are offended by these big monstrous machines.

I talked to at least 3 amatuer woodworkers who work at my company, and they 
told me I would not be able to build anything decent without t*bles*ws and
other electical devices. 

Since I am only going to build wooden items as a hobby, I did not see why
I have to dump all that money into big power tools. After all, people were
building nice furniture before we all had electicity. 

My woodworking instructor, after I asked about hand tools, told me he used to
work solely with hand tools in his younger days. He told me that with
practice, and patience, I could indeed build nice pieces of furniture without
all the big machinery. He feels the big power tools are really for
production work. I was starting to get discouraged until then...  

So here I am, having thrown out my plans for buying power tools and trying
to figure out what tools to buy and how to use them. I already have a number
of handsaws and backsaws, brace, and level from my fathers garage. I also
have a 10$ Sargant jack plane my FIL found for me at a flea market.
 
I bought Leonard Lee's book on sharpening, and sharpened several chisels
and my plane blade. Now I am trying to learn how to use the plane. I suspect
it will take me quite a while, but it is much more pleasant to use than
a big power planer. Do people really like 'Restoring, Tuning amd Using
Classis Woodworking Tools" by Michael Dunbar, and 'Hand Tools, their ways 
and workings" by Aldren A. Watson? They seem like they might be good places 
to start. 

I also picked up the "Workbench Book" by Scott Landis. I am trying to
modify a 30 year old garage wall bench for woodworking. It
is very solidly made, but the top is 2X8 Doug Fir, and I think is not
thick enough. Also, it has knots in it, so it might be hard to flatten
with a jointer plane. But I could remove the top and replace it with a 
maple top I make myself. The supports are very solid 4 X 6 beams.

Thanks to Patrick Leach and Erv Shaffer for kindly answering dumb questions 
about planes and handsaws.

See ya!

	Steve York



Recent Bios FAQ