Sages: Jim Tolpin (part I)

I had seen a couple of videos from Logan Cabinet Shoppe on making try squares and marking gauges. Having more time than money, the idea of making some of the tools I would need really appealed to me. In my dive down this rabbit hole, I stumbled across a mention of Jim Tolpin on a forum discussion about making certain tools from scratch. He had recently written a book called The New Traditional Woodworker: From Tool Set to Skill Set to Mind Set. The poster in the forum mentioned that, with Jim's book, the reader could make several useful shop tools from scratch. That really lit my fire and I immediately set about finding the book. With book in hand, one of the first things I noticed was a quote on the back that read: "Working wood. Not machining it. If you're more interested in working with wood rather than machining it, you will be relieved to learn that expensive powered machinery isn't required to build furniture. You can also forget the dust masks, face shields, and hearing protection since many of the safety concerns related to woodworking--the use of power tools--are eliminated." I was pretty sure this was my guy. As the title suggests, the opening portion of the book is an introduction to woodworking hand tools with suggestions about which ones you might need as well as a discussion about shop set up. The second portion is a series of exercises. As the student completes each exercise, they are left with an additional shop tool. The third part of the author's stated goal is accomplished so slyly that one might not even notice it. Jim's instructions for each exercise introduce the student to habits such as "tool slaving" and the use of tick sticks. Without even realizing, the student begins to adopt a set of habits that radically reduce errors and reliance on abstract numerical measurement. I can honestly say that this book is one of the only books that I have read cover to cover in many years. More on the book in a bit.

The Port Townsend School of Woodworking in sunny

Port Townsend, WA.

So, who is Jim Tolpin? I was tempted to write a full bio of Mr. Tolpin but I decided not to re-invent the wheel. I will say that he is one of the founders of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in Washington. He is the author of many books and a lifetime woodworker. Jim Tolpin grew up in Massachusetts with every expectation of going to college and working a white collar job. He studied Geo-Physics at University of Massachusetts but, the Fates had other plans. During his college days, Jim found himself spending a lot of extracurricular time working wood. He made hay forks from green wood. He built boats. He installed cabinets. It is my understanding that in the beginning he viewed these as odd jobs that he enjoyed but not really a career path. Before long, however, their Siren song wooed him from his intended path and he committed to life as a wood worker. Eventually, this path led him to Port Townsend, WA at the mouth of the Southern Puget Sound where he and some like minded colleagues founded the Port Townsend School of woodworking.

For the bulk of his career, Jim embraced power tools and the target demographic for many of his books are people setting up a professional cabinet shop. At some point his orientation shifted and in 2011, he published The New Traditional Woodworker.

To be continued...

I'm not dead!

I just finished the sixth project in Jim Tolpin's book, The New Traditional Woodworker, the Edge Planing Stop. I am working on a larger, biographical post on Mr. Tolpin but it's still under construction.

I've been documenting each project as I finish them and plan to write a lengthy post on each.

This is just a note to say that I haven't abandoned this blog and there other posts in the works.

Hand tools and where to find them

It is a fact that hand tools have fallen out of fashion. I could wax on about how we've lost touch with a slower, more deliberate and more artisanal time, but I am choosing not to. Partly because I don't think that's entirely fair.

My current hand planes from L to R: An Indian made block plane
from Grizzly. A used Craftsman block plane (eBay). A super cheap #33?
plane from Harbor Freight. A Stanley #3 smoothing plane from a
flea market. An unmarked #4 clone from Grizzly. A used
Craftsman #4 clone (eBay). An unmarked #5 jack plane from
Grizzly. Lastly a used Craftsman jointer plane (eBay).

There are a lot of advantages to those modern conveniences. For example, we don't burn down our houses as much because candles or kerosene lamps (not to speak of indoor air quality). Our streets aren't piled in animal dung. If we don't finish something, we can put it in the fridge for later. If you would like some perspective about the state of the world and modern comforts, you should check out this bit between Louis CK and Conan O'Brien.

But back to the point. Power tools have replaced hand tools. If you want to use hand tools, it will cost you. It's a fact. Either you will pay premium prices for new quality tools or you will pay in time to restore older quality tools or tuning less than ideal new tools so that they perform like their betters.

There are several vendors that sell new quality tools. My personal favorite is Traditional Woodworker. They have one of the best selections of new hand tools in one place at the most reasonable prices they can manage. A runner up would be Woodcraft/Japan Woodworker. I'm not sure of their corporate arrangement but they are affiliated. Woodcraft has a very broad selection of tools both powered and hand. Japan Woodworker is almost entirely hand tools but with an obvious emphasis on Japanese hand tools. The Ferrari of hand tools would be the twin manufacturers of Lee Valley and Lie-Nielsen. There are many other retailers that I could mention but I don't want to bore you however there is one more that I feel I should mention mostly because I have purchased so many items from them. That would be Grizzly Industries. Hand tools feel like more of a novelty item for them but at least they do sell them.

My specialty planes in columns from L to R:
An Indian made rabbet plane from Grizzly. A used Stanley #147
tongue and groove plane (eBay). An unmarked small router plane
from Grizzly. An unmarked spokeshave (Grizzly). A used Stanley
#71 router plane (eBay). An Indian made shoulder plane from
Traditional Woodworker. A Taiwanese made plough plane from
Japan Woodworker.

Now, one could spend a great deal of cash outfitting a shop through these fine merchants. As a librarian working in the Mid-West, I do not have the kind of cash flow that it would take to pay the premium prices so, to save some dough, I frequently spend the time making sub-standard tools perform better.

The obvious place to find a wealth of good used tools is eBay. A word of caution though. Hand tools have become collectors items. People buy them who never intend to use them and they have driven up the prices of used tools. As a result, it is not uncommon to find a Pre-War #4 Stanley smoothing plane fetching the same price as a precision made #4 from Veritas (see the Lee Valley tools link). So, you can pay $200 for an old plane that will require some TLC or a new plane that you probably won't even have to sharpen first. Be cautious of listings with words like Vintage or Rare. They're probably over priced from the get go.

Another surprising place to find tools is Etsy. You have to be savvy but there are treasures to be found there. Pay close attention to the photos and do your research before you buy. I find some of the listings here to be a bit vague. I don't suspect deceit as much as I suspect ignorance. Many times people listing here don't seem to know much about the items and fail to include info that is important for an informed decision.

Lastly, I would like to advise you to bump through your local flea markets and swap meets. There is a hundred years of tool inventory out there to be had. I can't believe it's all in current circulation.

Be wise. Do your research. In subsequent posts, I will do a sort of what-to-look-for for each major tool category. I will also do several tool restoration tales for your edification.

The Workbench

In order to work wood of any kind you will need to have work space. The center of that space is usually the workbench. You will need a level, sturdy table somewhere around wrist high. There are places where one can purchase a work bench; Rockler, Grizzly, Woodcraft, Traditional Woodworker, to name a few. I should say, they can be purchased at great expense and, possibly, great marital strife. However, you can get by for quite awhile without a bench. In his book, Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings, Mr. Watson gives us some clever ways to use clamps and wedges on a sturdy table to secure your work piece. I'm not going to pretend that these are a substitute for a sturdy bench but, they can tide you over.

Now, if you are like me and don't have tons of money to spend on stuff, getting a bench is a pretty steep obstacle. A decent sized bench with vises can pretty quickly get into used car territory. The situation is not totally bleak, however. I'm sure there are dozens of options out there but the one I eventually decided to try was Tom's Torsion Box Workbench. It looked like a sturdy bench that didn't require a lot of fancy tools or complex joinery (remember that I was just starting out and knew nothing). The plans were posted to Popular Woodworking's website in 2012 but were originally published in American Woodworker in October 2001 when it was suggested that it would cost $250 in material. In all honesty, it would probably cost you nearly $100 more than that today.

 I built the bench pretty close to exactly as it was designed. I was limited by a lack of tools in some kinda goofy ways. For example, in order to attach the front rail, you benefit from a socket wrench to tighten the lag bolts down into their countersunk holes. At the time, I only had an adjustable wrench. The result is that, if you were standing in front of the bench, you could see that the countersunk holes for the bolts are roughed up around the edges. I also didn't have a large enough drill bit to drill the holes for the threaded rods that hold the whole thing together so I drilled holes with the biggest bit that I had and then used a rasp to enlarge them (not recommended as it is a real time consuming pain in the ass).

So, how does it work? Well, when you balance the cost of the thing, it's pretty dang nice. It has it's limitations. The most frustrating one is probably that the hand screw tail vise will loosen and eventually release under heavy strain like course planing.
Additionally, over time, the jaws of the front vise became worn slick and it took stupid amounts of pressure to hold anything if there was the slightest lateral force applied (think, planing end grain). I eventually became so frustrated that I applied anti-skid tread tape to both sides (not recommended). While it radically reduced the slip it introduces accidental abrasion from the grit. Had I foreseen that (or thought at all about the sandpaper like nature of anti-skid tape) I would probably have used suede. I expect that mis-matched scraps could be acquired fairly cheaply and glued to the jaws introducing friction without the scratches (that's the point of this blog, by the way, to pass along lessons that I learned the hard way).

As I learned more about woodworking techniques, I eventually decided to modify the bench. One of my first mods was to bore holes into the top to for use with hold fasts. Those perform better than they have any right to. If you looked at the plans then you know that the top is a hollow box made of 2x4s and plywood. Since hold fasts stay in place because of the friction of the wood surrounding the shaft is so great it seems likely that a hold fast knocked into a hollow box wouldn't hold for crap but you would be wrong. The will still occasionally turn loose but not often.


Another modification I made was the introduction of the free rotating saw backstop. It is a piece of wood screwed the end with washers to keep the pivot smooth. It will rotate until vertical when it meets a dowel driven into the end of the bench. This provides back pressure when sawing (with a Western style saw) which is nice because I haven't gotten around to building saw horses yet.

Now, back in November, Woodcraft had a significant sale and I have picked proper tail and front vise hardware (coming soon).

Where to start?

I thought a very long time about where would be a good place to begin. I decided to recreate my path but to straighten it a bit.

If you are interested in working wood using hand tools, the first step I would recommend to you is that you go and get a copy of Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings. Aldren A. Watson is the author of this book and created a lifetime store house of very simple yet extremely vital information for the user of hand tools. Everything from holding boards while making simple cuts to how to drill a hole precisely where you want it. It's like working along side an uncle or grandfather who has forgotten more than you know about the subject.

So, what's to be gleaned from this book? He very clearly describes how to get the best from your tools. Also, he'll tell you what tools you will get the most use out of. Do you need 17 planes? No, just two to start. How about a fancy $150 cabinet makers vise? No. They are nice but you can get by with a $30 vise and a couple of Jorgensen type clamps. He tells you how to sharpen an auger bit, how to cut a rabbet, how to clean a file, how to maintain a hand plane (do you know what points need oil?). You need to make a hole? He can help you chose between a hand drill or a bit brace. 

While the book is not that terribly old–it was published in 1982–it still seems to capture the spirit of a previous age. I promise you, you will return to this book again and again as you travel in the alternate universe of hand tools.

Woodshop

My dad is a carpenter. I grew up watching him create amazing things: wooden helicopters, chains carved from solid wood, furniture, puzzles, rooms, houses. I guess some of that snuck into me. For the last year or so I have been teaching myself woodworking. My personal interest has been to learn how to do as much work as I can with hand tools. I have many reasons for this. Firstly, budget. To fill a shop with power tools would cost more than my car. Secondly, space. I have half of a basement–about 300 square feet. Lastly, I have always had an fondness for doing things the old fashioned way. I read a book called The Seven Essentials of Woodworking by Anthony Guidice. He is a professional woodworker living–as far as I know–in the Saint Louis area. In his book he makes a very compelling argument in favor of hand tools. He says something about if you are making a few custom parts, by the time you got a machine set up and ready to go, you could be finished with the job and moving on using a hand tool. I do a lot of cooking and I have found this to be totally true in the kitchen. I can grate cheese with a fancy gizmo or a cheese grater. When you count set up, tear down, and clean up. The humble cheese grate is far more efficient.

Unfortunately, I have had to cobble together information from many separate places. Power tools are the rule of the day and, if you are interested in doing things by hand, you are kind of on your own. Hand tools are, by and large, considered novelty accessories to real tools.

Honestly, this is all fine. I'm the kind of person who likes to cook from scratch. My personal computer runs Linux. We replaced our front lawn with a native perennial flower garden. Doing things different has never bothered me much.

In the next several posts, I am going to retell how I got where I am and make recommendations for those who want to do the same. I will also connect you to the resources that I used to learn what I know and acquire the tools that I have.

Promiscuous apes

So, I was brushing my teeth this evening when an idea struck me. Evolution favors the promiscuous. Not the kind of idea that we like to think of, that animals that have lots of sex are more likely to survive. I know full well that natural selection, especially of the punctuated variety, deals death and mercy based on many other criteria than whether or not a species or individual has lots of sex. My thinking was just that individuals with a ramped up drive get more chances to pass on their genes.

On a related note, I have a semi-crack pot theory that acne was selected for at one point in our past. Currently, marketers would have us believe that there is no way that we will ever get laid if our complexion looks rough and that we should hide our faces in shame. Imagine this scenario: a bunch of hominids are taking a siesta. Some of the members of the troop have these skin blemishes that need attention. These particular members are those who have recently come into sexual maturity. You get a couple of these close together, grooming one another, well...let's just say that nature takes over. Individuals who get to spend this quality time together become far more likely to develop the familiarity that breeds offspring. Those who have a lesser need for grooming miss out on this quality time. Therefore, individuals who have a predisposition toward skin blemishes get selected for and those who are not so predisposed get selected against.