Within the woodworking world, there are many specializations or offshoots that an artisan may explore. These could include furniture building, wood turning, box making, or even sculpture. What you make, how you make it and even how you acquire your wood can define your whole approach to the craft. This complex relationship is why I started this thesis and why it sustains my interest. Before I get into the build of the project, I want to outline the approach I am taking to tool use within this autoethnography.
My woodshop
When I started working with wood eight years ago, I focused on power tools because these tools were familiar to me from high school. Our shop was filled with the big green monsters with accompanying dust collection systems, yellow and black tape highlighting the safe zones around the machines, and safety guards protecting students from the loss of a digit. Naturally, I gravitated to that type of set-up for my own shop. But as I began to build and my knowledge of the process changed, I was introduced to the old way of building; strangely enough, what is old is new again.
I began to see hand tools (i.e. tools without a cord) as both a viable option for building and as objects of beauty themselves. There has been a revival of these types of tools and their use, both online and in specialty shops. Many woodworkers are bringing back the old by refurbishing hand planes from the early 1900s and finding them to be better than any powered machine. At the same time, companies like Lee Valley and Lie-Nielsen are innovating in the hand tool world with new designs and materials that surpass what has been done historically. We have seen some well-known hand planes from the turn of the 20th century command top dollar, publications like Mortise and Tenon Magazine find success in the marketplace, and the number of social media channels dedicated to this style of working steadily increase. Along with many others, this revival of hand tools use has piqued my interest.
Hand tools on my bench
One of the challenges of using power tools is the space they take. My shop is 12’ x 23’ and is stocked full of those green machines. Hand tools, however, take up much less space and require fewer speciality additions than the large machines. They may be less efficient to make simple cuts and require much more time to accomplish the same work that can be done in seconds on a table saw, but there is something about running a tool under your own power that is exciting. My hope is to use this project to explore how I can better incorporate hand tools into my everyday woodworking and, perhaps in time, move to a place where hand tools take a more primary function in my shop and the powered beasts become secondary.
Now, let me be clear. I am not starting this project by turning off the breaker in my shop and working by candlelight. The reality is that there are time pressures to get this project done and I will be using many power tools. My hope is that I can explore more hand tool use at stages where it makes sense. For example, part of the project requires some veneering. To do this, I am going to use a process called hammer veneering that is done with traditional methods, materials, and tools. There will also be several dovetails that will need to be cut and that will all be done by hand. However, some of the more tedious processes like dimensioning (jointing, planing, and squaring) the lumber will all be done using the big green monsters.
What I hope to explore for myself is how these older processes and tools change my relationship with the material and the final piece. Using a hand tool is slow and requires much more effort. But there may be a personal benefit in slowing down and understanding your processes at each step. There may be some complexities and techniques I will learn as I turn off the machines and look to more human powered work.