Hand Tool Skills & Fear
I had a very interesting day today….. I spent it at the local Woodcraft demoing (is that a word?) hand cut dovetails. After many questions and several hours speaking with quite a few customers and observers I discovered that there are a large number of us that hold a certain amount of fear with regards to hand work. Things like basic handsaw techniques, chopping & paring with a chisel, sharpening, etc…. A great number of these questions came in a flurry from one particular individual. I guess we sometimes have a fear of failure or of judgment; maybe we just need some reassurance that screwing up is OK. Some folks stated that they had tried hand tools and just became so ...
