Thread: Downsizing and moving to hand tools..... :) Wisdom needed!!!

Hi Doug,

Is this an “all welcome” event - if so, when is it and where?

Thanks,

Brian

Originally Posted by homey

Hi Doug,

Is this an “all welcome” event - if so, when is it and where?

Thanks,

Brian

Have a look at my signature under all my posts, or maybe it's not visible on whatever device you view the forum on. either way the link is here. Doug3030's Open Shed Day for 2019

Many have pointed out that I do, indeed, like them, suffer from a multitude of woodworking sins, aliments and illnesses!

-- Multiple one-off tools for specific jobs
-- Multiple instances of "I'll use it sometime...."
-- Multiple instances of Its Good Value* or Just In Case The First One Breaks
-- Buying several of the same thing, but with marginal differences

... and finally, a seemingly universal and nearly incurable case of Timber Accumulation Syndrome.


* Often confused with I Dont Know What Ill Use It For Yet.



May the gods help me when I'm dragged off to a nursing home!


Thank you everyone for your inputs, wisdom and advice. I'm going to be rational about this (hahahahaha!) and write down what I intend doing, what I REALLY need to do it and then prune that back.

Keep the ideas coming!!!! I'll watch, read and adsorb everyones links/videos/sources tonight in bed

On the resawing, I suspect that will be done down at the Guild. Been a member now for 5 years, renewed yearly, and not visited even ONCE. Outstanding value!

So far, I've considered keeping:

-- My Japanese saws, chisels and planes
-- A few micro-pencils
-- The Parf Guide maker. Love those big tabletops.
-- The carving chisels I bought off a forumite
-- Scrollsaw

And these are potentially on my Keep List....

-- Festool vacuum and Mirka sander
-- The Festool circular saw TS-whatever


I'll make:

-- I'll make a mini-bench a-la IanW and his two threaded vice bolts he most generously gave me (my special treasures!)
-- A lap-bench (or floor bench) Japanese style

These saws are users not collecters items.

Originally Posted by Pagie

These saws are users not collecters items.

That's our favorite kind. I have no room for a display case in the shed.

Deceased fridges or freezers make an excellent tool chest. A minibar fridge with a timber top screwed to it makes a handy bench with tool storage.

No room for a fridge either

Don't forget you can always use my big toys (the least I can do after all the help you have given me to get started and I'm only a stone's throw away) or go and visit the Woodcraft Guild - you stranger - I can show you around down there!

Jane

LoveToRide.... been a member for 5 YEARS and not been once! Im efficient

I think it will become part of my "doings" from now on

Everyone, thanks for the advice. Derek, I've priced up some of those Veritas tools.... yikes(!!!)... but they are a very good option.

I spent the day meditating and seeking clarity (which for me, is almost an impossibility) and the hand tool route is definitely the right way to go.

I'll take a little time to write up and photo as I go, in case anyone else wishes to pursue this route in future

Thanks for the nice words on my 'portable' bench, CT, but what I think the OP is working on is the tool-kit itself - the storage arrangements generally follow from that..

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

....It's entirely possible he made have posted the build on the forum but if so it would have been before the picture crash.....

Nope, it's still intact, with all the pics (here). There are numerous ideas for workbenches that are useful for a small space, the "milkman's bench" is just one of several I've seen. But that's for your next thread, when you start thinking about a workbench....

The idea of a minimalist kit has been occupying my mind on & off for quite a while, now. We live on acreage, and LOML & I have agreed that we are getting close to the time when we have to accept the inevitable & downsize, so it will be goodbye to my shed and machines, and even a heavy cull of my hand-tool cupboard for me, too. But it's a bit like trying to decide which one of your children to give up! My hand tools have been collected over a lifetime (well, almost), and although some aren't so flash, they have associations or back-stories that are pleasant reminders of things past. There's an old 110 block plane that I hardly use now, but it was my first ever 'real' tool & I've had it for 62 years, how can I send it away??

So I've been indulging in a mental exercise that might help - I think of some moderately complex item of furniture and in my head, step through making it using the bare minimum of tools. I can get it down to something that would fit comfortably in the Krenov cupboard shown, fairly easily, but then I open my main tool cupboard: Left door.jpg
and see all but the two Beech-handled screwdrivers in this door are my manufacture, & every one gets regular use; or open a drawer Squares b.jpg
and there's a whole bunch of tools in here that aren't absolutely necessary, but each one is perfect for something or other. Then there is my collection of infills, Infills b.jpg (which has grown a bit since the pic was taken, I'm ashamed to admit ), but none would be essential in the anarchist's toolchest.

And all my resolve goes to hell in a handbasket....

Whatever I eventually decide to keep, it will be different from what you end up with WP, not just because we will make different stuff, but because we will have our own preference for what tools best suit us for making it. I'll just keep doing the mental builds and paring down the tools needed. I seem to arrive at a pretty consistent core, it's the "couple of others dozen that would be nice to keep", that lets me down......

Cheers,

Indeed, the "mental builds" are what is occupying me.

It is a shameful exercise in that one realises that almost everything collected to date isn't really all that necessary!

My imagined kit is really incredibly small. Everything else is an indulgence!

I'm no longer making 10 table and chair sets a week for kids, so all the big machines can go.... and and and.... so many things bought to accommodate one job.

I'm keeping my laser though fffffffff----ZAPPPP!!!!

Google Keep is helping me maintain the list.... so far, excluding the mini-bench, it looks thusly:

HAVE
Liogier Rasps
Jap chisels
Jap saws
Veritas Low Angle Smoother
Genno x2
Clamps
Spokeshave (round)

ACQUIRE
Router plane
3 saw dovetail kit veritas
Plow plane small
Veritas LA Jack plus 3 blades - camber one as a jack, 50 degree bevel for smoothing, 25 degree bevel for shooting and planing end grain
Ppokeshave - flat and concave

just some comments on your proposed "kit"

Originally Posted by woodPixel

so far, excluding the mini-bench, it looks thusly:

HAVE
Liogier Rasps
Jap chisels
Jap saws -- how many do you have and how many would be duplicated by the proposed Veritas purchase?
Veritas Low Angle Smoother
Genno x2
Clamps
Spokeshave (round)

ACQUIRE
Router plane
3 saw dovetail kit veritas -- why the 3 saw kit? Many will be duplicated by your existing Japanese saws
Plow plane small -- which blades? I suggest you limit yourself to maybe 3 (1/8", 1/4" (comes with the plane), 3/8")
Veritas LA Jack plus 3 blades - camber one as a jack, 50 degree bevel for smoothing, 25 degree bevel for shooting and planing end grain -- Personally, I'd recommend a longer, #6 size, plane like this one Veritas® #6 Fore Plane - Lee Valley Tools
Spokeshave - flat and concave -- do you really need a concave shave?

Like I said, it all boils down to our own likes & prejudices, but I'm not surprised the sticking points are often planes & saws. The latter are a problem for me, I have so many I could give up, just don't want to (yet!). I guess I'm waiting 'til the crunch comes, and see how many I can secrete in the moving van.


One thing is certain, there won't be any wood included in the downsizing, it's just too space-hungry. From that point on it'll be buying just what I need when it's needed. Might keep a pen-blank or two if I have access to a lathe, but it'll have to be a fold-away treadle job.


Cheers,

DerekCohen and IanW had a great conversation here - The bench-bench that got a bit carried away...

I stole most of the pictures

I feel the adventure may begin with an IanW-style mini-bench. The idea of a side clamp plus the front moxon is appealing. I can make such a thing fit the balcony easily. The mini-bench is both very convenient for my continued box-making (my main love!) and also as a sturdy workspace (but, NOT a tool piling space!!!!!)

Ian, good advice! I can see that I am already doubling up and I've not even started!

The only reason I thought to get the veritas dovetail saws is that they might be better for dovetailing than the japanese saws. My experience of them is that their thinness makes such cuts quite difficult. The flex too much when cutting at an angle to the grain. Could be my technique. They do, however, work brilliantly when cutting with or against the grain.

Thank you all for your wisdom. My journey is easier for it.

I'll post a few things soon