Replies

1. 
   lat_axe | Oct 11, 2024 04:55pm | #1

   Well, if you reciprocate it with your arm its a hand tool but if a motor does it then it's probably a machine tool.

   Arms use power (porridge animates mine - sometimes toasted rye bread with a smear of jam on it) so even a Japanese Ryobi saw might be a power tool.

   Sometimes a hand tool can be made of a power tool. I have a friend who habitually hammers things with the battery end of his cordless drill. (Yes, I know - I've told him but he disnae listen).

   I did once observe a fellow cutting branches off a tree with a cordless "reciprocating" saw by using his arm, since the battery had gone flat and he'd forgotten his charger. It kept sticking. Well, it would, wouldn't it.

   Taxonomies, eh!? But a thing is what it is, does what it does and is used as its used, never mind the name of it.

   Well, except when you're shopping for one on line.

2. 
   rob_ss | Oct 12, 2024 10:00pm | #2

   I would suggest that if the tool in question is powered by anything other than human muscle, then you might not reasonably be able to claim that a piece was made 'with hand tools only', but where should you draw that line?

   In the workshop?
   In the Mill?
   In the Forest?

   These days, pretty much all wood is cut with power tools, removed from the forest and dressed with power tools, sliced into boards, dried, moved and transported to where you pick it up, usually in a powered vehicle.

   Do we have to be total hand purists and go back to the days of logging with Jack and Jill saws and saw pits, or can we be more reasonable?

   I use the most appropriate tool for each job. Sometimes it's a hand tool, sometimes it's a power tool and I mix and match as the mood takes me. I would not give someone a hard time for saying 'I made this with hand tools only' if they did rough lumber trimming with a recipro saw, provided those cuts were later refined with hand tools, it's not a biggie for me. Others may disagree...

1. 
   lat_axe | Oct 13, 2024 07:22am | #3

   As we know, post-modern times demand that actuality, reality and all them other olde fashioned notions are made defunct and should be replaced with large & garish labels to cover up the actualities, so that we post-moderns can imagine a thing to be completely other than it is, with the label reassuring us that our imaginings are right.

   So, as long as the label says "hand made" .... well, then it is!

   ************
   Now, being olde and fashioned a long time ago myself, when the realities were unavoidable, I've taken to various even older-fashioned ways. The spoon, bowl, shrink pot, wooden cup and similar have demanded primitive approaches, including the cutting orf of tree parts with a bluddy great bow saw, Silky saw or even a Bahco on the end of a very long stick. No smelly chain saw for moi!

   On the other hand, I don't employ the snigging horse & rig to pull the lumps of handsawn wood from the forest or garden. (Horses are expensive and can bite). I am big & strong, me, so I carry the boughs and logs myself to the workshop.

   Then I have at them with, amongst other tools, a lataxe (froe to you) but also various knives, gouges and beetles.

   Has anyone made a power knife for carving? I bet they have, the rascals! I've seen the most outrageous power tools on that Amazon, including a machine for blowing leaves from here to there! I mean!! What's wrong with leaving them ('scuse pun) to the wind?

   I don't label any of the results from my sawing, gouging and knifing. It's tempting to call them by their Sveden or even Croatian names but traditional English names are easier on the tongue, for a limey. On the other hand, there are probably Welsh names, especially for the love-spoon, which I confess I don't much care for despite living just a few miles from a Welsh love spoon factory (all hand made, mind) in Sir Benfro. :-)

   Lataxe (not my true name, just a label).

3. 
   TexasBurt | Oct 13, 2024 10:32am | #4

   If the blade is in the tool then it's one thing. If you take the blade out and file it to make a scraper then it becomes a hand tool.

4. 
   Botch | Oct 13, 2024 06:01pm | #5

   I read this "interesting" thread less than an hour ago, and then this thumbnail appears on my EweTube:

   
1. 
   lat_axe | Oct 14, 2024 03:18am | #6

   :-)

5. 
   jlorenzo19 | Oct 22, 2024 05:25pm | #7

   So the big question is, where can I get a decent recip blade?

1. 
   bobr2 | Oct 22, 2024 08:26pm | #8

   I guess it depends on where you live and what you mean by decent. I've used Dewalt, Bosch, Milwaukee, Diablo and Lenox blades depending on what the home center had that day and I can't say any struck me as bad as long as I used a blade designed for the material I was cutting.

1. 
   lat_axe | Oct 23, 2024 06:36am | #9

   Ha! As all unplugged purists know, the only good saw blade is one you make then sharpen yourself, to the exact specification required for the timber to be sawn and how it'll be cut. If one can smelt the ore to get the metal oneself - all well and good.

   Mind, making and sharpening may require eleven machine tools to accomplish - but if we just design our sawblade then get "a friend" to make it, such machine tool use doesn't count when we apply the label "unplugged" to ourselves. (Same as with bringing the new blade home in car then using it in a workshop heated by a mini-split).