#HTE

Tools & Craft #68: Free Introduction to Hand Tools Class This Saturday

Although we sell high-end power tools, we also have a reputation for devoting a lot of showroom and warehouse space to hand tools. Over the years, lots of people–both professional contractors and hobbyists–have stopped by, and I can see them looking at the hand tool displays and trying to wrap their heads around the idea of using these things. Some are only familiar with hand held power tools, the stuff that Home Depot stocks. Many are perplexed by the idea that you can actually build sturdy, useful and functional stuff with hand tools. That’s probably because they’ve never seen hand tools in efficient operation.

But they’re coming into the showroom and asking questions because they sincerely want to expand their horizons. I want to satisfy their curiosity, so this Saturday, October 14th I’m teaching a free Introduction to Hand Tools class. If you can make it to Brooklyn, please swing by.

I’ve spent the past few weeks thinking about how I should structure the class. What can I do to give people what they’ve come to discover? I have to get and hold people’s attention. I have to make hand tool skill look like it’s obtainable (which it is). I have to show the distinction between cheap knockoff tools that don’t work well and quality hand tools. And, particularly for the amateurs, I have to show that the basic operations of woodworking by hand, operations that can be performed in a small apartment or shop, don’t have to be painful, and can yield good results.

I try to be practical, not (just) philosophical.

I should teach how to measure accurately, but I am afraid it isn’t sexy enough to keep a class engaged. People want to see sawdust!

I think I want to teach people how to start a cut with a handsaw. That’s a big problem people have. They try cutting something and since they can’t start the saw they never get to the joyous moment when they can advance easily through the wood.

I think I want to teach people how to set a hinge because that gives me a chance to demonstrate marking out and chiseling to a line. And it’s easier than setting up a router.

I think I want to show people how to clamp their work. It’s not very sexy but it’s pretty useful. I know some tricks with a few clamps that let you set up anywhere, even at the kitchen table.

I will have to plane something - wood shavings are sexy. And if I rub the shavings on the wood I can show a wonderful burnished surface.

And of course I plan to drill a big hole with a brace and bit, showing how to not splinter out at the end, and also how a ratchet brace really helps with those large holes. We’ve all seen a power drill noisily produce a hole, but it isn’t patently obvious how to work a brace or a bit, so seeing it in operation (and doing it) is fun.

I think that’s all I can do in a couple of hours. My main goal, of course, is to inspire. I hope that at least a few of the attendees will look at what I am doing, try it themselves and then go home, take the plunge and start building stuff.

If you are in the area this Saturday, you’re invited to the class! For more details click here.

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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.