Myth #2 is on the money. I usually skip content featuring festool tools because I know it won't be realistic for a hobbyist. Great to hear a pro stating this. Thank you!
I in general agree with #2 with the census and thought on the same notes. Though I live in Australia, there are similar brands here not only I can reasonably and fairly comment similar. If when I need to have tools even I wouldn't get festool if I was considering what I'd go through with the tools.
Thank you for this video. I am by no means a master woodworker, but I have been "playing" at it in various forms for 30 years or so. I still learned things on this video. Maybe I wont remember but I learned. You never, ever know it all!
Always found it funny that Roy Underhill started the Woodwright Shop to show how people could use hand tools because it was becoming a lost art. Meanwhile just a few years later Russ Morash and Norm Abram launched the New Yankee Workshop to show how heirloom furniture can be made using power tools because people believed you had to master hand tools to make classic furniture pieces. Basically there is always an excuse not to even try.
FINALLY! Someone who states the plain unvarnished truth without any B.S. The very beginning of your video made me think of my Dad. He was what people would call "A Master Carpenter", he owned his own business doing custom cabinetry & remodeling. During the summer he would take me with him to a job site where he would be installing Base Boards, Crown Molding, etc. and my job as an 8 yr old would be to follow behind him with a hammer & a nail set. This was in 1958 so no fancy nail guns. You are so right about the quality of furniture that could be be built with basic hand tools and a minimal amount of power tools. He had a table saw, drill press, a jointer, band saw, a circular saw, and a router. He eventually bought an electric drill but still preferred using his "Bit and Brace" or (what is now considered an antique) manual hand drill. The saw that he used more often was his hand saws (either cross cut of rip depending on the cut). I'll be 74 this month and don't do as much wood working but I still prefer the "Old Fashion" way. I guess I prefer quality over speed. For example ... when I'm nailing together the sides for a drawer, by using just a hammer the nail will go EXACTLY where I want it and no worry about "blow out". Yes, it may take a little longer, but does it REALLY need to be nailed together in a few seconds???? LOL
Thanks for sharing that! I loved hearing about your dad and your experiences growing up with him. That's some real hands-on learning! Quality craftsmanship over speed any day, I'm with you on that.
Thank you for addressing the myth of having to have those expensive tools to do woodworking. I get so tired of watching some of the channels that shove Festool down our throats. This is a great video.
Excellent video. If you find the time I think a comparison of fastener, bolts, screws, nails, etc. along with their strengths, weaknesses (and myths) would be useful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
With all the pain of cleaning up glue joints, I put painter's tape as close as possible on each side of what will be the the glue line before I glue and clamp. Makes scraping off the squeeze out easy, and if you insist on wiping off the excess glue instead of scraping, there will be very little exposed wood at the joint to soak up the glue. Takes a lot less time and it's a lot easier than scraping or wiping when glue spreads out from the glue line.
Hi an aging, like you, Kiwi wood and metal worker. Spent around 30 years teaching Wood, metal and Tech Drawing, Graphics, in a local secondary school. Also as a musician, I'm a hobby, acoustic instrument builder and repairer. Also, my wife's, captive, do whatever is needed, furniture maker, builder etc, around the home. That's been over fifty years. Thanks very much. I really enjoyed your honest, informative and down to earth approach. I actually learned, a great deal from this vid. Thanks' very much. Just a small point, regarding hard and soft woods. All our native trees in NZ are evergreens. However we have both soft and hardwood, native trees, What I always taught my students, was that. Hardwoods, have flowers and fruit or nuts. Softwoods have cones. Yes I was aware that Balsa was a hardwood. Of our natives, we have timbers like Matai, a soft wood, which you would have trouble hammering a nail into. But yes, our hardest and dentist timbers, are hardwoods.. Once again, thanks so much.
Questions for someone with a lot more education than I. Relative to your sharpening segment. 200 grit vs. 800 grit. This is 400% more dense? Will the surface of the tool be a true 400% better? Will it cut with 400% less force and and leave a finished work face 400% smoother? I have asked "gurues" this and none of them want to get off their hobby horses and address it. These are the guys that mandate sharpening to 6000 minimum and preferably higher.
The grit of the stone, like the grit of sandpaper, refers to the size of the individual grains that are doing the sharpening work. Higher numbers indicate that they are smaller, which translates into them making smaller scratches (in depth), taking off less material. There really is no direct correlation between the grit number and how smooth a surface we get on our chisels and other tools, other than to say that a finer grit will provide a smoother surface. You can see that, in that it will reflect more light. But does that result in a better or easier cut, as you asked? No. The cut surface will be a bit smoother and it will be a bit easier to push the wood though the wood, cutting it. But there is no real correlation between the grit and how much smoother or easier it is to cut.
The mention of tools being dangerous in regards I mention the same that could be walking down the road and vehicle (car, bus, even a push bike) can be more dangerous than any tool. Even tripping over a hose or even rock down the street could be fatal. So thanks for sharing the thoughts on this myth
To add, I've been working with wood, metal and plastic, woodworking, metalworking, mechanics, so workshop and outdoors like out in the field since I was before I got into my teens and I'm late 40's.
I have only few wood working related tools. Circular saw and poor guide, drill, driver, measuring items, orbital sander, hand saw, pocket hole and dowel jig, couple cheap foldable saw horses, drill press (that's for metal working 99,9% of time and virtually useless in woodworking), electric planer, jigsaw and at last maybe the most versatile small tool and that's small Makita palm router. I dare to claim one can accomplish quite a bit with those. Only thing I'm kinda wanting to get is table saw and even that would have to be jobsite model as I have really small workspace and I do much of woodworking outdoors.
Hello, I really like your videos, do you have one on band saws? If not I would really like to hear your take on it, I am interested in starting a woodworking hobby/side hustle, and I would like to know how to cut large thin wood for small projects
One myth that most people think is. When you glue and clamp up a job you cant touch it untill the next day. Wrong Modern pva glues recommend clamping for at least 30 mins. After two hours the glue won't be fully cured but is about 60 percent of full strength This mean you can move on in you project and free up clamps. I can clamp up a table top and be planing and scraping it in 2/3 hours with obvious care
That safety part was good. There's a lot of weird saa sayings and one of my favorites is "gloves are dangerous with power tools". First of all, there's some truth in that. I would never ever use gloves and metal lathe. There's very high risk of glove cathing rotating parts. But I've always laughed when some say they're dangerous when using drill press. If they get dangerous there, one is doing things seriously wrong way and has implement really bad working methods. Common sense goes long way. My first rule for saa safety is "if it feels wrong or suspicious, stop, take a breath and re-evaluate what you're doing and how"
The hard part for me as a being on this wood work journey is get wood to work with . I have the 10in table saw and a dewalt miter saw and a planer and all kinds of outher tools but haveing a hard time getting wood to work with and yes I know about pallets and rough cut wood but even thats hard to get around here
Do you live near a hardwood dealer? Do an online search for local hardwood dealers. You can also contact local cabinet makers and ask them where they get their supplies, they will let you know if they acquire it locally or if they get it in truckload quantities (think large makers, look for some of the smaller ones.) Bottom line is any wood you can find you can use to craft things. Also look for trees that have been taken down or have blown over in storms. Most of the time while green it's usually free. Mill it and let it dry. If you keep an inventory that will help. Finally, you can always order wood online. I use Bell Forest when I need something I can't source locally. It's a bit expensive but its all usually S4S, and if you're making small projects I find them to be perfect. Just some thoughts to try to help...enjoy your journey.
I never pay much for wood. I use reused building wood which I buy from the tip shop for nearly nothing. Also pallets are free. Removing nails etc planing and ripping to size takes time and hard work but result is usually straight seasoned beautiful wood.
You are wrong about Myth 25. Hardwood refers to Hardwood... NOT deciduous trees. The Yew Tree & Heart Pine are classified as Hardwood Conifers. Softwood refers to softwood... NOT coniferous trees. The Balsa Tree, Sycamore, & Chestnut are classified as a Softwood Angiosperms. For decades the terms Hardwood has been falsely equivocated to Deciduous, because most of the woods commonly used from deciduous trees are Hard Wood... while Softwood has been falsely equivocated to Conifer, because most conifers used by carpenters are Soft Wood. As such the terms have been commonly misued, which is why you still find a lot of texts using them incorrectly. But in Botany... the term Softwood refers to any wood with a Janka Rating of 900 or less... & Hardwood refers to any wood with a Janka Rating above 900.
38:05 ummm... please allow me to be (respectfully) pedantic in re your explanations. Hardness is not correlated with evergreen/deciduous. Eucalyptus are evergreens and most of the species are darn hard (eg ironwood, Allocasuarina luehmannii, 5000+ Janka hardness - granted, it won't chip your iron if you set the plane sole-down on it, but you'll need to sharpen it more often than if planing pine or even oak). Also, growth rate doesn't provide a reliable metric for hardness either - the Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) gains 2m (7 feet)/year in ideal conditions, while the pine species achieve about 2-3' (1m)/y.
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Myth #2 is on the money. I usually skip content featuring festool tools because I know it won't be realistic for a hobbyist. Great to hear a pro stating this. Thank you!
Myth #2 is a big one for me too-woodworking should be for everyone, regardless of budget. Thanks for the support btw!
I in general agree with #2 with the census and thought on the same notes. Though I live in Australia, there are similar brands here not only I can reasonably and fairly comment similar. If when I need to have tools even I wouldn't get festool if I was considering what I'd go through with the tools.
Exactly
Thank you for this video. I am by no means a master woodworker, but I have been "playing" at it in various forms for 30 years or so. I still learned things on this video. Maybe I wont remember but I learned. You never, ever know it all!
Always found it funny that Roy Underhill started the Woodwright Shop to show how people could use hand tools because it was becoming a lost art.
Meanwhile just a few years later Russ Morash and Norm Abram launched the New Yankee Workshop to show how heirloom furniture can be made using power tools because people believed you had to master hand tools to make classic furniture pieces.
Basically there is always an excuse not to even try.
FINALLY! Someone who states the plain unvarnished truth without any B.S.
The very beginning of your video made me think of my Dad. He was what people would call "A Master Carpenter", he owned his own business doing custom cabinetry & remodeling. During the summer he would take me with him to a job site where he would be installing Base Boards, Crown Molding, etc. and my job as an 8 yr old would be to follow behind him with a hammer & a nail set. This was in 1958 so no fancy nail guns.
You are so right about the quality of furniture that could be be built with basic hand tools and a minimal amount of power tools. He had a table saw, drill press, a jointer, band saw, a circular saw, and a router. He eventually bought an electric drill but still preferred using his "Bit and Brace" or (what is now considered an antique) manual hand drill. The saw that he used more often was his hand saws (either cross cut of rip depending on the cut). I'll be 74 this month and don't do as much wood working but I still prefer the "Old Fashion" way. I guess I prefer quality over speed. For example ... when I'm nailing together the sides for a drawer, by using just a hammer the nail will go EXACTLY where I want it and no worry about "blow out". Yes, it may take a little longer, but does it REALLY need to be nailed together in a few seconds???? LOL
Thanks for sharing that! I loved hearing about your dad and your experiences growing up with him. That's some real hands-on learning! Quality craftsmanship over speed any day, I'm with you on that.
Thank you for addressing the myth of having to have those expensive tools to do woodworking. I get so tired of watching some of the channels that shove Festool down our throats. This is a great video.
Thanks! Appreciate it.
Excellent video. If you find the time I think a comparison of fastener, bolts, screws, nails, etc. along with their strengths, weaknesses (and myths) would be useful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great teacher with simple reasoning and explanation. Thank you.
Thanks so much! It’s great to know the content is helpful for you.
Great video. I learned a few things.
Here in Australia, your concept of leaves fall off hardwood trees is different. Our hardwood trees are evergreen.
Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees (flowering trees).
Nice job. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Glad you liked it. Thanks a lot!
With all the pain of cleaning up glue joints, I put painter's tape as close as possible on each side of what will be the the glue line before I glue and clamp. Makes scraping off the squeeze out easy, and if you insist on wiping off the excess glue instead of scraping, there will be very little exposed wood at the joint to soak up the glue. Takes a lot less time and it's a lot easier than scraping or wiping when glue spreads out from the glue line.
Hi an aging, like you, Kiwi wood and metal worker. Spent around 30 years teaching Wood, metal and Tech Drawing, Graphics, in a local secondary school. Also as a musician, I'm a hobby, acoustic instrument builder and repairer. Also, my wife's, captive, do whatever is needed, furniture maker, builder etc, around the home. That's been over fifty years. Thanks very much. I really enjoyed your honest, informative and down to earth approach. I actually learned, a great deal from this vid. Thanks' very much. Just a small point, regarding hard and soft woods. All our native trees in NZ are evergreens. However we have both soft and hardwood, native trees, What I always taught my students, was that. Hardwoods, have flowers and fruit or nuts. Softwoods have cones. Yes I was aware that Balsa was a hardwood. Of our natives, we have timbers like Matai, a soft wood, which you would have trouble hammering a nail into. But yes, our hardest and dentist timbers, are hardwoods.. Once again, thanks so much.
Appreciate you sharing your extensive knowledge! Thanks for the tip on hardwoods and softwoods. Glad the video was helpful to you!
This is a wonderful video! Thank you for making it. Refreshing!
I'm happy you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!
the Mistakes part Sold me! thanks for the the Vid!
Thank you for the positive feedback!
Excellent, straight, truths. Thank you. Respect, sir
Thanks! Appreciate the support.
Questions for someone with a lot more education than I. Relative to your sharpening segment. 200 grit vs. 800 grit. This is 400% more dense? Will the surface of the tool be a true 400% better? Will it cut with 400% less force and and leave a finished work face 400% smoother? I have asked "gurues" this and none of them want to get off their hobby horses and address it. These are the guys that mandate sharpening to 6000 minimum and preferably higher.
The grit of the stone, like the grit of sandpaper, refers to the size of the individual grains that are doing the sharpening work. Higher numbers indicate that they are smaller, which translates into them making smaller scratches (in depth), taking off less material. There really is no direct correlation between the grit number and how smooth a surface we get on our chisels and other tools, other than to say that a finer grit will provide a smoother surface. You can see that, in that it will reflect more light.
But does that result in a better or easier cut, as you asked? No. The cut surface will be a bit smoother and it will be a bit easier to push the wood though the wood, cutting it. But there is no real correlation between the grit and how much smoother or easier it is to cut.
The mention of tools being dangerous in regards I mention the same that could be walking down the road and vehicle (car, bus, even a push bike) can be more dangerous than any tool. Even tripping over a hose or even rock down the street could be fatal. So thanks for sharing the thoughts on this myth
To add, I've been working with wood, metal and plastic, woodworking, metalworking, mechanics, so workshop and outdoors like out in the field since I was before I got into my teens and I'm late 40's.
This video is the absolute truth. love you man❤
Appreciate the support. Thank you!
I have only few wood working related tools. Circular saw and poor guide, drill, driver, measuring items, orbital sander, hand saw, pocket hole and dowel jig, couple cheap foldable saw horses, drill press (that's for metal working 99,9% of time and virtually useless in woodworking), electric planer, jigsaw and at last maybe the most versatile small tool and that's small Makita palm router. I dare to claim one can accomplish quite a bit with those. Only thing I'm kinda wanting to get is table saw and even that would have to be jobsite model as I have really small workspace and I do much of woodworking outdoors.
Hello, I really like your videos, do you have one on band saws? If not I would really like to hear your take on it, I am interested in starting a woodworking hobby/side hustle, and I would like to know how to cut large thin wood for small projects
Thank you for all the work you put into this video. It's very helpful to all of us, regardless of our level of expertise! I've learned a bunch!
Thank you for watching and for the kind feedback! It means a lot to know the video is helping others.
One myth that most people think is.
When you glue and clamp up a job you cant touch it untill the next day. Wrong
Modern pva glues recommend clamping for at least 30 mins.
After two hours the glue won't be fully cured but is about 60 percent of full strength
This mean you can move on in you project and free up clamps.
I can clamp up a table top and be planing and scraping it in 2/3 hours with obvious care
Great stuff!
Thanks!
That safety part was good. There's a lot of weird saa sayings and one of my favorites is "gloves are dangerous with power tools". First of all, there's some truth in that. I would never ever use gloves and metal lathe. There's very high risk of glove cathing rotating parts. But I've always laughed when some say they're dangerous when using drill press. If they get dangerous there, one is doing things seriously wrong way and has implement really bad working methods. Common sense goes long way. My first rule for saa safety is "if it feels wrong or suspicious, stop, take a breath and re-evaluate what you're doing and how"
I learnt a lot, thanks so much
Always happy to share what I know. Thanks for watching!
I still use saw horses and plywood when I do anything in the back yard.
The hard part for me as a being on this wood work journey is get wood to work with . I have the 10in table saw and a dewalt miter saw and a planer and all kinds of outher tools but haveing a hard time getting wood to work with and yes I know about pallets and rough cut wood but even thats hard to get around here
Do you live near a hardwood dealer? Do an online search for local hardwood dealers. You can also contact local cabinet makers and ask them where they get their supplies, they will let you know if they acquire it locally or if they get it in truckload quantities (think large makers, look for some of the smaller ones.) Bottom line is any wood you can find you can use to craft things. Also look for trees that have been taken down or have blown over in storms. Most of the time while green it's usually free. Mill it and let it dry. If you keep an inventory that will help. Finally, you can always order wood online. I use Bell Forest when I need something I can't source locally. It's a bit expensive but its all usually S4S, and if you're making small projects I find them to be perfect. Just some thoughts to try to help...enjoy your journey.
Great video. A lot of useful perspective and guidance.
I never pay much for wood. I use reused building wood which I buy from the tip shop for nearly nothing. Also pallets are free.
Removing nails etc planing and ripping to size takes time and hard work but result is usually straight seasoned beautiful wood.
Number 2 is probably the most important one. Thomas Chippendale, look him up if you are unaware.
Uve mentioned that fungus gets in the tree while growing.... This im not sure of but ill do sum research
If you mill your own lumber (raises hand) it takes a looooot of time!!!!
Try sharpening something to even 1600 and then tell me 600 is sharp enough. 28:46
You are wrong about Myth 25.
Hardwood refers to Hardwood... NOT deciduous trees. The Yew Tree & Heart Pine are classified as Hardwood Conifers.
Softwood refers to softwood... NOT coniferous trees. The Balsa Tree, Sycamore, & Chestnut are classified as a Softwood Angiosperms.
For decades the terms Hardwood has been falsely equivocated to Deciduous, because most of the woods commonly used from deciduous trees are Hard Wood... while Softwood has been falsely equivocated to Conifer, because most conifers used by carpenters are Soft Wood.
As such the terms have been commonly misued, which is why you still find a lot of texts using them incorrectly.
But in Botany... the term Softwood refers to any wood with a Janka Rating of 900 or less... & Hardwood refers to any wood with a Janka Rating above 900.
38:05 ummm... please allow me to be (respectfully) pedantic in re your explanations. Hardness is not correlated with evergreen/deciduous. Eucalyptus are evergreens and most of the species are darn hard (eg ironwood, Allocasuarina luehmannii, 5000+ Janka hardness - granted, it won't chip your iron if you set the plane sole-down on it, but you'll need to sharpen it more often than if planing pine or even oak).
Also, growth rate doesn't provide a reliable metric for hardness either - the Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) gains 2m (7 feet)/year in ideal conditions, while the pine species achieve about 2-3' (1m)/y.