As I get more into using hand tools, I continue to train myself in all means necessary. I am attending a class on building a mini-hope chest entirely by hand. I practice a few techniques on scraps or small projects. Lastly, I occasionally rent or buy a DVD to watch and learn from. Recently, I bought 3 DVDs which are all available from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.
First, I watched “Course, Medium and Fine: Fundamental Woodworking Techniques” by Christopher Schwarz. Of the 3 DVDs, I found this the most valuable. Chris goes through prepping materials for a project. He discusses the integration of power and hand techniques or exclusively one or the other. He wraps up with demonstration of the hand plane techniques for each step. This was all very useful and taught me a lot. BUT I think the most valuable part was the discussion of what each kind of hand plane is really used for. He discussed the Course planes being the Jack or Fore. He discussed the Medium planes being the Jointer. He wrapped up with the Fine planes being Smoothing. He fit in specialty planes as well. For instance, he discussed how many people think the Scrub plane is used for the course work and that through research, he found that the Scrub plane is really targeted at the edge of a board rather than the face. The Jack with a nicely curved blade does the rough work and gives you better control. From all this, I have some work to do on my planes to get them more tuned. I think my Fine group of planes is good. My medium may also be good but my Jack (I have low angle and standard) need to be re-tuned.
My second and third videos are “Hand Tool Techniques Part 2: Hand Planing” and “Hand Tool Techniques Part 3: Precision Shooting Simplified” both by David Charlesworth. I found these both useful too though not quite as valuable as Chris’s DVD. Hand Planing covered the use of planing faces and edges. From Chris’s reference, David was entirely focused on the Fine part of the work and not Course or Medium. The precision that David talks about is rather intimidating from my vantage point as a woodworker re-training himself in new techniques. From Hand Planing, I learned how to create “flat” surfaces. David’s theory on flat is that they are essentially “spring” joints though they are not just for edges to be glued but for edges and faces that will be exposed. For Precision Shooting, I learned a lot about the proper use of a shooting board which is for the last fine tuning of the material. He demonstrated how to achieve squareness (though again his precision orientation is very intimidating), angles for miters and tricks and cautionary tales. He’s got a very soothing voice so make sure you have caffeine handy.
I think in the future, I may try more Chris Schwarz videos and I think that Bob Cosman’s approach looks good.
