It’s almost a religious debate: two camps staunchly divided and ready for battle. Or at least, sometimes the divide between hand tool users and power tool users seems this black and white. It’s either one way or the other, right? Well, not really.
Obviously, the development of powered tools dramatically changed the landscape of woodworking (among other disciplines). Power tools can dramatically reduce the time and effort to required accomplish certain tasks encountered while woodworking. They make many operations easier and more efficient. The obvious example of this is milling lumber from rough to ready. Our woodworking forefathers had to accomplish rough milling the hard way – in fact one of the first things that a budding woodworker learned in an apprentice program was to mill a board four-square with a saw and hand plane. Of course, this task required a significant amount of effort and also a great deal of skill with hand tools. The theory being that only after this skill was mastered could the apprentice move on to explore the real tasks of joinery.
Many wood workers today do not have the skills or the desire to mill rough lumber with hand tools. This is for good reason. Power tools allow us to be much more efficient and to more quickly get to the “real” work of joinery for the project at hand. This may be even more important for the amateur woodworker who may only get a few hours a week to work on a woodworking project and does not want to sacrifice those precious hours of shop-time to these types of tasks (on the flip side, an amateur may only work on one project a year and therefore could have the luxury of time to spend working exclusively with hand tools). For the most part, to the professional, time is money and the more efficient he can be at getting a project completed (without sacrificing quality) the faster he can move on to the next commission. These are all very justifiable reasons to use power tools in your woodworking.
Hand tools undoubtedly require a fair amount of skill to use efficiently. Most hand tools are devoted to a very specific need or operation (i.e. you can’t use a saw to smooth a panel). So, to complete a project proficiency is needed with a wider variety of tools. The power tool camp would say that nothing can be done as efficiently with a hand tool as with a power tool. Of course, there is a counter argument by the hand tool folks that say that if you take into account machine setup time, etc. you can do the same operation by hand as quick as with power (and a lot more peacefully, to boot). Well, like everything else, there is probably some truth in both of these arguments and the real answer is somewhere in between.
My personal view is that I would never give up my power tools because of the efficiency and productivity that they give me. They allow me to get the most out of my time in the shop and to make quick work of the more mundane tasks such as milling rough lumber for use on a project. Going a step further: I’m not going to be trading in my Table Saw or Band Saw any time soon because these tools allow me to precisely cut joinery with the repeatability necessary to create accurately fitting, high quality joints. However, there are many tasks for which hand tools simply excel. I don’t think I could live a day in the shop without my block plane, chisels and card scraper. These tools make the job of fitting a joint and/or refining a surface so easy and efficient that they have no equal in the power tool domain.
So, I think it’s best to keep an open mind when it comes to these kinds of things. It’s often the case that “you don’t know what you don’t know” until you’ve experienced the alternative. The best way to learn new things is to be open-minded to alternatives and then to try them for yourself. When it comes to the debate over which is right, hand tools or power tools, there is an equal opportunity for both in the shop and in fact a good mix of both is probably the best choice for the almost any woodworker.
For some other reading on this subject, Robert Lang recently shared his views in a good article over at the Popular Woodworking Blog.
Tags: hand tools, power tools
Hello and welcome to my web site.
My name is Mark Mazzo and I’m a woodworking craftsman/designer living in Upstate New York. Woodworking is something that I’ve always had a keen interest in. I’ve been woodworking and collecting tools for several years now and I find that there’s something very special about creating beautiful and functional things with my hands. At some point I’d like to spend all of my time designing and building things out of wood, but for now I have a day job and I just do woodworking as a hobby. It makes for a good activity in the cold, snowy and sometimes long New York winters. Though, as I sit here writing this today in September, I do not want to think about that change of season just yet!
I’ve worked to develop a reasonable set of skills for this craft in many areas. However, I feel that you never stop learning in anything that you do. So, I continue to learn new skills and techniques on every project that I undertake. In addition to the mechanical skills and techniques required in woodworking, one other area that I am continuing to evolve is my sense of design. In the past, I’ve done many projects that have followed existing plans for a piece of furniture, etc. However, with each new project that I undertake I am further developing the skills to build things of my own design and I am finding this new chapter in my woodworking a very rewarding experience.
My intent with this web site is to chronicle the path that I follow in developing these design skills and to also show the progress as I create finished products from my designs. Along the way, I’d like to share new techniques and skills that I develop and use as well. I’ve learned much that I know about woodworking and design from the Internet (as well as may other sources) and I’m hopeful that I through this site I can impart some of my findings to others interested in the craft.
I am sure that as this site evolves there will be many other things that are relevant to discuss here. We’ll just have to see where it takes us. The woodworking community on the Internet is a fast growing one. It is my hope that with this site I can contribute to that community in some meaningful way – not to mention that I think hearing from others interested in woodworking and discussing designs, techniques and approaches to problems will only serve to help evolve my skills as a woodworker and designer.
So, that’s it for now. Please stop back when you can and send me comments and questions on what you see. I’m looking forward to the journey.
