Thread: The Hobbyist and Technology

Hi Chris,
I think that is a question each one of us needs to answer for themselves. I am leaning back towards hand tool work these days because it just seems a nice calm way to go about things. That said I will not be chucking the planet destroying machines either. While I like a bit of hand planing now and then I dont relish the idea of prepping the wood for a large project by hand either. I started out with hand tools and my one power tool was a Black & Decker drill. As power tools became affordable to the hobby woodworker my collection grew and I constantly lusted after bigger and better. Now that I have most of the machines I need I find myself only using them as labor savers and will use hand tools where I can. Some of this was first intended to keep noise down and not annoy the neighbors any more than necessary but I do like the hand side of things.
New technology has been a huge help to my woodworking however in the shape of the internet and this forum.
Regards
John

I think it depends why you do what you do. Do you do Woodwork for the purity of the craft? Is being a skilled hand tools only woodworker the end game? Or ( like me ) do you have limited time and just want to see actual things being made in the limited shop time you get?

For me it's the latter, and so I've embraced whatever I can to get actual outcomes - It's often still quicker to use a hand tool though!. Hell, I even use pocket holes ( gasp! ) when making shop furniture.

I get a sense of pride & accomplishment either way when I see a finished, useful 'thing' so I'm in the embrace any and all technology camp! the HOW for me is a lesser concern. Others will differ, and that's OK too. It's all about the 'Why' for each individual.

:hws: It depends on whether you focus on the process or the result and whether the new tech is something that replaces traditional workmanship (like a CNC) or just makes life easier (like a digital readout)

Digital measuring is very much a quality-of-life thing; it doesn't affect how anything works, it just make life a whole lot easier. It's easier to read, you don't get parallax errors and you get repeatability to +/- half the smallest increment; given that most machine DROs have a resolution of 0.01mm or 0.1 degree (some of the fancy panel saws even read the crosscut fence angle to 0.01 degree), that means that you can move the fence and put it back to within +/- 5 micron or +/- 0.05 degrees (3 arc minutes). Good luck doing that on a mm or degree graduated scale.

I reckon if it is appropriate, then embrace it. It's all about not going too far, such as employing a robotic arm to pick and edge joint boards for me. I can easily use my own arms for that, but I can see the appropriateness of owning and using a jointer.

What is the essence of the craft? What is the purpose of the hobby? The way I see it is that the different aspects of the hobby are always expanding. Which is something I like about it. Why not create something with a CNC one day and a chisel the next?
As long as I am creating something unique and learning something while enjoying myself and working with wood then it's a hobby in my book.

Put it another way, is "true" woodwork only about making fine furniture with stone age tools? No metal tools allowed.
....ooooohh I just had a neat idea for a future project! Gotta go.

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Would have been seen as high tech at the time. There was likely a bystander saying '' Wood is not going to last.You should build that out of rocks mate''.
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/1...lithic-toolkit
Regards
John

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

This is a question I have always been curious about, should the average hobbyist embrace new technology or not.

prior to the later part of the industrial revolution there was no such thing as a "hobbyist woodworker", and the first "hobbyists" were Gentlemen woodworkers -- upper middle class professionals who could well afford to engage a professional, but who played with wood for recreation. This is a completely different cohort to today's hobbyiest who I content varies from "I want something less expensive than what is available from a store" or "something a little better than what is sold in Ikea" or "something equivalent to that produced by a full time professional"

A lot of people would criticise some of the stuff available now such as digital additions to machines etc saying it takes away the essence of the craft.

to which I'll say "crap".
taking the caliper as an example, all a digital version does is take away the skill / knowledge needed to read a vernier scale.
as for digital scales on a machine, there is no particular essence of craft in reading divisions on a ruler, or the numbers on a digital display.

If you, as a hobbyiest, want to explore the essence of the craft you need to ditch your ruler and tape measure, and start using tools like a sector, dividers, story sticks, and study basic geometry.

Woodworking as a handcraft started to change when the industrial revolution began so it could be said that woodworking has always embraced technology but it did not filter down to the hobbyist until after WW2.
The relatively new intrusion of digital measuring etc has now become very affordable to a lot of woodworkers and will introduce new ways of doing things as we have seen with measuring etc.

I don't think so.
If anything it will potentially result in a generation of woodworkers who can follow a plan and machine parts to an accuracy of 1/100th of a millimetre but who have little understanding of grain and wood movement, and even less grasp of the principles of design.

... If anything it will potentially result in a generation of woodworkers who can follow a plan and machine parts to an accuracy of 1/100th of a millimetre but who have little understanding of grain and wood movement, and even less grasp of the principles of design.

That is a serious possibility.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally we had woodwork and wooden tools. Then about 3.3 million years ago some genius intellect invented stone tools. Of course real woodworkers don't use these new fangled stone tools.


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It's an interesting discussion and one that some get really passionate about. As has been said it isn't a "should" but it's easy to get caught up in opinion and start looking at it as "should".

I agree with everyone - it's up to the individual, technology is on a spectrum and the line is fairly subjective. There is a difference in the technology used between a groove made by a chisel or by a router plane. Is it as big a difference as hand tools to power tools?

I reckon Ian hit on the significant point for me. Understanding. Even though it made things difficult and frustrating I'm glad I couldn't buy expensive instantly accurate (if that's possible) tools. I wouldn't have learnt nearly as much and I don't think I would understand the basic concepts as well as I do. Personally I don't see the point of producing something when you are just following instructions (put the wood here and move the relevant dial so far etc). I can't even imagine following someone else's plans. I know you still have to execute them but to me it makes the whole exercise pointless.

That's me though. I know lots of people enjoy building models and you don't even have to make the parts for those. My cousin's husband makes stuff and we were talking about the difference in what we find more satisfying. For him it's making a useful thing but for me the shelves of pine, m.d.f. and screws that took an afternoon are nowhere near as satisfying as the shelves or table that took far too long but have just right joints and consistent well placed chamfers etc

Hi Guys

Interesting discussion on "appropriate technology" - what is appropriate for me, today, may be different from what I consider appropriate tomorrow!

Illustrated is a Papua New Guines kundu, a type of drum. Its hour-glass shape is critical and its been hollowed out so that the woodwork is a uniform 15 mm thick. This one is about 100 years old, but they have probably been made like this for a thousand years.

With your workshop equipment, how would you hollow it out?



The Papua New Guinean who made this did not have access to metal - just stone and wooden tools - and to hollow out this kundu he used a single tool - a 500 mm bamboo tube about 15 mm in diameter.

Most 12 year olds in PNG could still do so today!


Cheers

Graeme

There is a lot to be said in favor of perseverance.

Graeme, makes me realise that I have been equating craft with skill. Where-as you could equate it with tradition. Does this or that take less skill? Was what was in my head but you could use a tool that takes more skill to get the results and some would feel like it wasn't true to the craft.

Do do you think the thickness is measured by the tool?

The guy who made that in New Guinea would have used the most high tech gear he could lay hands on. He would also have been more craftsman than hobbyist. Perhaps artist even. I don't think neolithic peoples had time for hobbies. Life was too hard and they did not have the luxury of choice we do. Very skilled work all the same. I think we with the luxury of choice would just like a little bit of what he had going on.
Regards
John