Hand tools versus power tools: the great debate
Chad Martin, our Community Engagement Director, got a bit frustrated with me the other day.
It was nothing new, as we both seem to have strong opinions on most topics, a dry sense of humour and aren’t shy to share our thoughts on any woodworking topic. To be clear, it’s all in a fun, lighthearted way, as we get along great. For example, Chad must have sent me a dozen YouTube links so I could watch (sometimes in horror) as woodworkers from around the globe shared how they rip thin strips of wood on the table saw. I think he just got a kick out of reading my long-winded responses filled with all caps and exclamation points.
Like many stubborn people, I have my way and I stick to it, but only after being taught formally, having apprenticed in a few different small furniture-making workshops and trying many different methods on my own. However, being stubborn about this topic out of the gate can be a recipe for disaster, not to mention kickback.
You don't like hand tools, Mr. Brown!?
Chad was asking me (tongue in cheek) why I hate hand tools so much. I told him I didn’t hate them, I just spend the majority of my time using power tools because they’re faster, more repeatable and don’t need to be sharpened daily. I hate sharpening.
It got me thinking about the age-old hand tool versus power tool debate that many of us have either had, or at least read about. Before we go down that road, let’s set out some ground rules. I think the definition of a hand tool is pretty clear; something that’s operated by hand and can’t be plugged in. A power tool, on the other hand, will include any sort of electric tool, ranging in size from a 12V cordless drill up to a large table saw. I’m sure some of you will find some sort of loophole in that loose definition, but that’s what makes the comments section so enjoyable to read.
I’ll now take a look at some of the different aspects of this debate and break them down with how I see things.
Speed
I do enjoy using hand tools, but I don’t use them very often. The hybrid woodworking movement typically says somewhere around 80% of your time is used on power tools, taking the grunt work out of tasks like milling lumber and machining joints, and 20% of your time with hand tools to fine tune those joints and create a smooth surface that will accept a finish. I used to say I used hand tools about 20% of the time, though it’s really more like 2%, once I really think about it.
The work I do revolves around producing projects for clients and the transaction of money. To make this all work nicely, I need to not only produce good work, but I also need to do it fairly quickly. My clients have never asked me how often I use hand tools, nor do I think they care. Advantage: power tools, heavily.
Accuracy
As long as a hand tool is sharp, and you know how to adjust and use it properly, a hand tool is very accurate. For the most part, this can also be said about power tools, though to a slightly lesser extent. Taking a wispy shaving off a tenon, allowing it to fit perfectly in the mating mortise, is a job for a hand tool, not a power tool. With virtually no setup, the hand tool takes care of the task before the power tool has even been adjusted to do so.
Having said that, power tools can be set up to cut surprisingly accurately, if needed. Advantage: hand tools, slightly.
Repeatability
Taking a shaving off of one tenon is a great job for a hand tool. Taking a shaving off 100 tenons might be better suited to a power tool. The setup time is greater, but this will be cancelled out by the fact that a power tool will catch up after a dozen or so passes. Obviously, this will differ with the operation, tool and many other factors. Ripping, crosscutting, routing and other operations can all be set up to take care of repeating the same cut many times. Advantage: power tools, heavily.
Flexibility
The great hybrid woodworker and Canadian woodworking icon Vic Tesolin told me a story that shows how flexible a hand tool can be. While Vic was working at Rosewood Studio in Ontario, Garrett Hack was teaching a class. One of the students was pondering how to cut a somewhat complex joint. Would a unique jig on the table saw work best? Maybe a router with a special guide? The deliberations continued for a while. Hack approached the student, asked them what the challenge was, then took about 30 seconds to lay out the cut on one of the joints and make it with a hand saw, before allowing the student to make the same cut on a few other joints. The cuts were virtually perfect and completed quickly.
Power tools can be flexible, but not without a fair bit of work. Come to think of it, that’s not really the definition of being flexible, is it. Advantage: hand tools, heavily.
“That old timey feel”
Whether you’re a woodworker, had a relative who had some woodworking tools, or you have no relation to the craft, there’s the initial thought that woodworking should be done with hand tools. You should work, as your forefathers have before you, with just a good set of hand tools and some well-honed fine motor skills. Some think it’s almost like cheating if you use power tools. I bet these folks picture a dimly lit cellar, too. No thanks to both of these misconceptions.
I do feel a certain extra love of the craft when using hand tools, but I also think our furniture-making ancestors would have plugged in a thickness planer as they dressed a stack of 2″ thick oak planks a century ago if they had one beside them. I’m not giving up my power tools just to “feel” more like a woodworker, though others might have different thoughts. Advantage: hand tools, by a wispy, thin tenon shaving.
Noise and dust nuisances
As I see it, noise and dust are a necessary evil when working with power tools. Nobody in their right mind would give the edge to power tools in this category. Having said that, I’m very thankful for insulated walls and ceilings, quality Bluetooth hearing protection, dust masks and dust collection. Advantage: hand tools, but only slightly, after I protect myself properly).
Add it up
The pros and cons are somewhat split on this matter, though the power tool column comes through in big ways for me in a few of the more important categories. As a professional furniture maker, I can’t afford to be slow, even if I’m accurate. Tom Fidgen has built a very respectable living out of using only hand tools to work wood, but few of us have the tenacity to do what he does.
Power tools make working wood so much easier, at least in my situation. And to be clear, this isn’t an either-or situation. A mix of both is strongly preferred, but the middle ground doesn’t often make for a great debate. I would solely use hand tools if it made sense, but it doesn’t. In the real world, where I have to produce items, I use power tools at least 98% of the time while building furniture.
Obviously, everyone is different, depending on the type of work they do, the style of woodworking they enjoy, where they work (anyone here have a small hobby shop in a condo closet?), pro versus hobbyist, etc. For the sake of this discussion, I respect a hobby woodworker if they take three times as long using hand tools, rather than plugging in a tool, but I could far more easily survive without hand tools than power tools.
Routing Mortises
While some may choose to cut these mortises by hand, I opted for the precision, repeatability and speed of a router equipped with a long, straight 1/2" diameter bit.
Rob is a studio furniture maker and the editor at Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement. Instagram at @RobBrownTeaches
In relation to Hand tools versus Power tools, there could be a close comparison, not absolute, with David Pye’s definition of the “workmanship of risk” and the “workmanship of certainty. Risk– hand tools; Certainty–power tools.
However, if you make a joint using a router and a table saw but are not careful about your measurements as well as fence and guide setup and choice of cutters and blades, the risk is that, with certainty, you will produce a poor piece of workmanship.
If you make a joint using all hand tools but are not careful about your measurements and using freshly sharpened tools as well as having spent many days, weeks, months, perfecting your hand skills, the risk is that, with certainty, you will produce a poor piece of workmanship.
I believe that good workmanship and quality results come from patience and attention to detail. You must be able to see the smallest detail of all the components in your minds eye as well as on the drawing. When you judge the piece you have produced is worthy to have your name stamped on it for all to see, both clients and other woodworkers, it is this end result not the tools employed in making the piece that makes all the difference in the world.
In the practice of their craft woodworkers should study traditional work methods and styles, but must not be afraid to break with tradition after a solid knowledge and practice of the trade has been gained. Without the innovations of new tools and methods; the workmanship of risk will become a mere curiosity in a museum of a bygone era; and not a viable and worthwhile endeavour which produces objects of value and benefit for both the maker and client. Without the chances taken in the workmanship of risk, which I believe can incorporate both hand and power tools, innovation and the individual character seen in such items will be lost. The goods produced in factories by the workmanship of certainty eliminate individuality from items which is present in items produced by workman who practices the workmanship of risk. The products of the workmanship of certainty are not to be reviled, they have their place in the smooth running of a modern industrialized and technology driven world in the production of what are frequently high quality products but standardized in form which shows little or no character of the maker within the item or its design.
In relation to the ‘workmanship of risk’ and the ‘workmanship of certainty’ the concept was developed by David Pye, and can be found in full, in his book “The Nature and Art of Workmanship”.
I belong to a makerspace with a 5×10 CNC router, with some programming/electronic component which are not up to snuff, thus periodically generating errors.
I had to surface a 3×10 solid maple table top. I did it by hand and was repeatedly told by “CNC” advocates that I could use the CNC. However the table top was too heavy to maneouver onto the CNC. Besides, how do I know some glitch isn’t going to take a nose dive into the wood – destroying my investment in in the lumber. My answer – this is to me “risk management” – I won’t strain my back and won’t risk the cost of materials and labour so far. There are many folks who believe a power tool, maybe accompanied with a computer, can solve all their requirements.
I am with you, but there are times when I pick up a plane, but I will be darned if I am going to pick up a hand saw and cut the length of a six-foot board.
When I first got into woodworking ( more than fifty years ago, ouch!),my vision was of days spent in a sun lit shop feeling warm shavings and the scent of fresh cut wood as my freshly sharpened plane made that glorious swoosh/ swoosh sound and the grain of the wood glowed with chatoyance. How I miss that dream as my vacuum howls trying to be heard over the incessant whine of my routers or the scream of the compound mitre saw as I cut piece after piece of wood to length. Most ironically of all is the insane howling of the planer as I thin boards to finish thickness. The most offensive noise maker is my CNC, probably because it is so persistent and I have no control over it. When you are power sawing or routing, you almost wince in anticipation of the onslaught of noise as you engage the workpiece. But you have no such sense with the CNC. Even with the clock ticking, I sometimes ignore it and pull out a sharpened plane or chisel just to remind myself why I got into this in the first place.