Almost always the stimulus for making a tool is the need for such a tool. Now I have recently made a promise to myself to simplify my shop a bit and set some tools off to the side until I feel like I can get rid of them. I admit fully that the trigger for this recent behavior was my preview of the first 2 chapters of Chris Schwarzs book "The Anarchist Tool Chest" but the words I read and the sentiments he has been writing about on and off in his blog for the last 6 - 8 months have felt like kind of the mirror of my own feelings and thoughts. I wrote a post last August talking about the year I spent without my table saw and the things I learned (you can catch it HERE if you havent read it or want to remind yourself) At that time I was happy to be able to return to a full size shop from the closet I was working in before. Just the chance to set up part of my shop that I had been denied for so long was exciting to me, but in that time I had added new tools and a new skill set, a hand tool skill set if you will. Joining these two worlds together into harmony was not as simple and straightforward as I thought it would be. That should surprise nobody, things are never as simple as you sometimes think they should be. So I have begun the process of sorting through, at least in my mind, and working towards paring down, simplifying, and focusing on woodworking where for the last while I have been focused more on my shop and what I can do to improve it instead of doing the very scary work of putting myself out there with creative furniture.
I have started the process. The other day I gave my father my trusty power miter saw, one of the first pieces of woodworking equipment I ever bought. Yes really, when I started I bought two power tools, the miter saw and a small trim router from one of those traveling, tool sale tents. But at the time I was looking more towards the home we were remodeling not towards building furniture.I have started to rethink my shop in many ways and I will be making changes, not rapidly, but slowly, but they will be changes.
The first change I have already made, I have committed myself mentally to stop buying tools I do not need, that I cannot justify. I know buying tools is fun and it is exciting. A while back I could not help but pick up a very nice and clean Stanley #6 and a Miller Falls #4 from a flea market for $40. What a buy huh? But when I got them back to the shop there was a little buyers remorse. I didnt really need either of those planes, even though they were an awesome deal. I can use them, dont get me wrong, but I didnt need them. Perhaps there was another woodworker out there, right behind me in the crowd, and he was standing in the shoes I was a couple of years ago, and finding those hand planes would have jump started a whole new chapter in his shop life. I have never believed in the adage "He who dies with the most tools wins" in any other part of my life, it is time to let my shop be more authentic to me and reflect my feelings there.
Second, I have decided that the tools I do purchase from now on will be well researched tools that follow a thought out plan of action that compliments my abilities in the shop instead of impulse buys based on what is new and great and what seems like a great idea at the time. I have started this path recently too. I have made one of my first purchases of a quality, premium hand tool. I bought the new dovetail / small tenon saw from Mark Harrell over at Bad Axe Tool Works. This saw is in-frickin-credible! (OK and I was showing off a little when I tool the picture of it above, but its not my fault, I was baited into trying my hand at "tool porn" but thats a different story) Im starting to call it The Theory of Tool Relativity, I dont have an equation for it, Im just not a mathematician, but I do have a distinct feeling for it, when it feels right and when it doesnt. It comes down to simple questions. Do I want to make furniture or do I want to collect tools? Do I want to work in a shop thats well organized with tools I know well that can perform everyday or do I want to work in a shop where I am fighting the losing battle of storage space and work organizers with tools that may or may not hold up ("Oh damn this smoothing plane is dull, let me go grab another") ? Do I want to be my own man and make my own decisions about what tools I need to get projects completed to my standards or do I want to be the puppet of the hundreds of tool makers and sellers out there and purchase the next dozen versions of the lock miter router bit? Do I want to be a tool collector or a woodworker? Do I want to play around of get serious? Heres a bit of how my thought process has changed and an outlook on what the future holds for the Oldwolf Workshop. As a lucky member of the email newsletter from Lost Arts Press I was sent the first 2 chapters of the upcoming "The Anarchists Tool Chest" The first chapter is available for everyone to download HERE, but the second chapter is a little actual meat and potatoes. It is The List, what Chris Schwarz is naming as the essential list of tools a shop needs, period, anything more than what is on this list is extemporaneous fluff. And you know what? For the most part, I couldnt agree more.
While I dont own all the tools on the list, I have seriously looked at all the tools on the list over and over knowing that I should have those tools and what do I think has held me back? All those great deals Ive found on fixer uppers. If I had saved the money I had spent and instead invested in tools that I know I should have but just seemed too expensive and out of my reach, Id be further ahead than behind now. So I sat down and developed a plan for my shop, not a rigid plan but one combining the flexibility I need with the focus I desire. First I took the ultimate list of tools from Chriss book and printed it off. Then I spent a good while with a highlighter and a pen going over the list, making notes to myself, thinking my way through the process of what I want as that list. Of course mine is not going to be a carbon copy of Chriss, and I dont think he intended it to be ironclad, besides change comes from thinking it through, not just following it blindly. I eventually separated the list of tools I should have to fulfill whats needed into two columns. A list of tools I should make, and a list of tools I should be buying the best quality possible. I took these papers and I hung them on the bulletin board in the shop to remind me what Im up to.
So among my other summer projects, including a few commissions, I am going to focus on the list of tools to make. I kind of look at it as a check list, there are bigger things I want to focus on with The Oldwolf Workshop, there are bigger ideas in my head, but you cannot put a cart before the horse. and completing this list will set me up to dive head first into those other things. Yes there will be distractions and side trips on the way, but thats part of the journey too. I have been in a heavy period of building things for the shop, understandable really when I step back and look at where I am in the process. I think that this list plus one big thing will complete the journey of readying my shop, for the most part. (sometimes I think Id like to take another crack at a bigger workbench, maybe a Roubo instead of my Nicholson) the final item will be a traditional style tool chest. I know with Chriss new book that this will probably be the "Hot" item to build and blog about this summer and fall, probably for a couple of years so I kind of feel like Im just a sheep joining the crowd when I build one here, but the truth is this is a project I have been working on and planning for some time and even more seriously in the last year since my Father-In-Law gifted to me the family heirloom of the tool chest that followed his great uncle Melvin over the seas from Norway in the 1860s. (You can check it out for yourself HERE) And I have been promising to make one ever since I received the gift so I can get the old bird out of the shop and into my house like a real family heirloom deserves.
I think I may take one other step towards freedom this year as well. I think I may swear off The Schwarz. I will still read what he writes, I will still enjoy all of his blog posts and I will still envy the projects he does, but I have been on quite a kick following his projects lately. From the English Layout Square to the Moxon Twin Screw Vise, from both my workbenches, (Yes the Joinery Bench was inspired by Tim Williams but the info was carried to me by Chris) to my tattoo. Hes a hell of a guy, a hell of a woodworker, and a hell of an inspiration, but I need to take a step back and focus on being inspired by his spirit to do more of my own creating and less "follow the bouncing ball" Cheers. Oldwolf
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