Some thoughts from the Unplugged Woodshop…

 

Hi, my name is Tom Fidgen and I’m a craftsman living in Toronto, Canada. In my small basement space, I use only hand tools to design and build custom furniture. (No power at all, save the array of lights hanging from my ceiling…Ahhh the basement woodshop and its shortcomings!)

 

I think there may be a misconception people have when they hear only hand tools. I find that a lot of people will think of, or perhaps imagine rustic or rough pieces of over-sized, sometimes clumsy furniture. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration but at the very least they’ll envision slightly more refined pieces with elements strictly borrowed from a history book.

 

Don’t get me wrong here, there is indeed beautiful ‘rustic’ style furniture and replicas of period pieces being made with everything from primitive style tools to modern day manufacturing practices…and that’s great! There are also dozens of men and women in home workshops building period pieces with wooden bodied hand planes and traditional hand tools all with the signs and the scars that these pieces were too made by hand. In my shop here in Toronto, I try to let my imagination dictate my designs; not the tools I choose to use or the shop space I have but the things that inspire and inevitably find path ways into my work. I strive at and enjoy trying to blend worldly elements of the things that inspire me; creating my own interpretation and showing my own styles and comforts. All of these elements I mentioned above indeed may find their way into my work but this is a natural progression and work should really flow that way.

 

This point is extremely important when we begin our journey into wood working; it doesn’t matter if you use power tools or heavy rocks and sharpened sticks of hardwood to build. Trying to find your own style in your own shop while you work and emanate those feelings through the work that you do, the pieces you create, this is the challenge.

 

If it’s Greene and Greene or Krenov you like then take these elements and bring some of them into your own work. If it’s Massachusetts history then add some of that too. Find something that truly inspires you and it’s hard to go wrong.

 

Design can be only these small reflections of everything you see or you do in the run of your day. It can be borrowed from a book or stolen from a street sign down the way but really when we think about it, what hasn’t already been done? Finding a rhythm in your own work from inside your own woodshop can really make all of the difference in both your work and your love of the craft.  Don’t allow the tools you use to dictate the style you build in but strive to reach your own personal goals at a pace that’s comfortable and safe for you. People often ask me why the hand tools and how do I make a living at it? Well to be honest, it’s a real labor of love. Strange to think in these modern days with the rat racing frenzy I’m not punching a clock or generating invoices. What I’m doing is what I love and the rewards are immeasurable, maybe not in the monetary sense but true success cannot be measured by dollar signs alone. (At least that’s what I keep telling my wife!) I write as much as I can on woodworking and the ideas I’ve mentioned here and this too helps put food on my plate.

 

As far as ‘why hand tools’ I suppose the most honest answer I can give is real estate.  In my small basement workshop I simply don’t have the room for over-sized power tools so I make do with what I have and that, these days is hand tools. Personal lives aside, I’m writing this more to convey the point of furniture design in the home workshop more so than the tools we use to get there. I use an egg beater style drill or a brace and bit to drill holes; that said I also use a Kregg pocket hole jig and a self centering drilling jig. Miller dowel system when the application calls for it; these are only examples of some of the modern conveniences that are normally marketed towards a power tool shop but are accessible and just as convenient to the hand tool wood shop as well. Finding a pace is your first step, if you’re more into the process of fine tuning joinery then sure, power tools save time and to many time is money. On the flip side of that coin it may only be the hours you’re spending, getting to truly know and appreciate the wood you’re using.

 

I have the utmost respect for the men and women out there creating fine furniture using what ever means necessary to achieve these ideas of design that they’ve dreamed up in their heads. It’s this process of doing and trying and working that will show through in the finished piece. Sometimes we can get so hung up on the fact that it was built using that tool or this method by those hands that we really miss the common ground between us all; we’re all working with wood, an incredible medium that deserves the attention it’s getting. 

 

This is our mutual friend, the common thread between us all.

 

Happy shavings!

 

I invite you to check out my new book that will expand on some of these elements and may just inspire your own work while building with hand tools.

 

Made by Hand, Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop is now available for pre-order at   www.tomfidgen.blogspot.com

 

Two of the six project chapters you may recognize from these past postings here at Fine Woodworking.com

https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/13524/tool-chest   and here: https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/12460/skinny-legs-and-all

 

 Cheers!