UPDATED 25Jan2020 + two videos

Fancy power tool technology generates its own hype, and that’s why you don’t hear much about hand tools in the advertising-driven world of woodworking. Don’t get me wrong, power tools are amazing, but so are the right kind of soft-spoken power tools. Even though they’re simple and sometimes homely, hand tools still play a key role in craftsmanship. They always will. Here’s the scoop on four of my favourites.

Japanese Saws

In Japan, handsaws evolved differently than they did in the west, and in the battle for saw supremacy, I say that the west lost. Japanese hand saws are simply better in most ways. Starting with the premise that handsaws should cut on the pull-stroke (not the push stroke), Japanese blades were forged thinner that those from the European push-stroke heritage. A thinner blade converts less wood into saw dust, yielding more progress from the effort you put in. In fact, Japanese saws are usually about half as thick as western saws designed to do the same job, though they cut more than twice as fast because of superior tooth design. The Ryoba-style of saw is a good general-purpose model because its flexible, double-sided blade is ideal for trimming wooden parts flush with their neighbours, and for all-around cutting. I also use a large Ryobi-style for pruning trees. If you’ve never owned a Japanese saw but would like to try, there are many models out there. And while some of them are quite expensive, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a decent Japanese saw. The model here is one of the cheaper options, it has an exceptionally tough blade, and you can get sharp replacement blades to fit the handle.

Two Favourite Planes

If craftsmanship is about guiding your work towards a perfect ideal, then hand planes help you along the last stage of that journey. They allow wood to be smoothed, and parts to be adjusted with a finesse that stationary jointers, power planers, and belt sanders can’t match. A well-tuned plane is the Stradivarius of hand tools, and like a violin it takes skill to prepare and use.

In the days before electric power tools, every woodworker needed a large collection of hand planes for everything from dressing rough lumber to making moldings. But now that electricity powers the grunt-work in the trade, many of the old planes don’t make much sense, except perhaps as museum pieces. Despite this, block and smoothing planes are still found in every serious woodworkers toolkit because they continue to serve a useful purpose. Here’s how:

Block Planes

These are short in length –  about 6 inches long – and can be used with one hand or two. The shallow blade angle of the low-angle varieties is best because it slices end grain most smoothly, boosting tool versatility. I really like low angle block planes and recommend them. They work best for the kind of jobs that block planes are used most often these days. Tweaking the mitre joints on trim and molding, for instance,  is one of the best uses for this tool. Like many hand tools, you probably won’t end up using a block plane for hours on end, but when you need it there’s really no substitute. Here’s a tip: When you go to a lumberyard to buy rough wood, bring a hand plane. A few strokes will create away the rough lumber surfaces on boards, allow you to catch a glimpse of the true wood grain underneath, before you buy particular pieces of lumber.

Jack Plane

This is a two-handed, multipurpose tool – typically 14 inches long. It’s made for working larger pieces of wood than a block plane, especially wood that requires smoothening and straightening. You’ll find jack planes useful for tweaking cabinet doors, furniture parts and interior doors. For many years, before I could afford a thickness planer, I used a jack plane to dress rough lumber for making projects. The video below shows how I use a plane for a job that most people don’t even consider.

Bench Chisels

Chisels are like planes in that some of the once-popular designs have been squeezed out of prominence by power tools. But a good set of bench chisels– 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 1-inch wide — is still something that every serious home handy-person needs. Once again, it’s all about fine work in close quarters.

Click below for a video lesson on how to use a hand plane to dress rough lumber for woodworking projects. If you always though planing large pieces of lumber by hand, let me show you something different.

Keep It Sharp

The main thing that hand planes and chisels need is a surgically-sharp blade. The finest plane in the world is just an expensive paperweight if you can’t impart and maintain a hairsplitting edge on its blade. And the fastest route to this goal is also the least well known: the electric buffing wheel.

By installing a hard felt wheel on any bench grinder, then charging the surface of that wheel with a fine abrasive, you’ll get the world’s fastest power hone. It’s capable of taking a coarse, freshly-ground edge straight from a grindstone and bringing it to optimum keenness in just two or three minutes.No sharpening stones required. The only thing to remember is that the cutting edge of the blade must point in the same direction as the rotation of the hard felt buffing wheel. Keep this in mind, give yourself permission to mess up during the learning process, and you’ll master a skill that keeps paying off.

Click below for a video tour of what a truly sharp edge can do to shape wood. This video is part of RAZOR SHARP, my online course on sharpening chisels, plane irons, knives and other edge tools.