Gentlemen, before putting my perspective on the question, I would like to put some fuel on the fire, and Quote the famous photographer Ken Rockwell from his provocative but somewhat true "leveling" of photographers. Just exchange the word Photographer for woodworker and images for woodwork project.
Quote:
"Equipment Measurbator: Bottom Level 1 (equivalent to "Hell" in Christian mythology)
These men (and they are all men) have no interest in art or photography because they have no souls. Lacking souls they cannot express imagination or feeling, which is why their images, if they ever bother to make any, suck.
These folks have analysis paralysis and never accomplish anything.
Does poring over a microscope analyzing test images have anything to do with photographing a Joshua tree at dawn? Of course not. Even worse, time wasted concentrating on tests is time not spent learning useful aspects of photography and certainly time that could have been better spent actually photographing. Test just enough to know what your gear can do, and then get on with real photography.
They are interested solely in equipment for its own sake. They will talk your ear off for hours if you let them, but as soon as you ask to see their portfolio their bravado scurries away, or they think you want to see their cameras or stocks."
End quote.
Now, here comes my confession - I might be one of those, finding it intresting reading about equipment, and comparing to other equipment, of wich I have none.
But it dosent matter, as long as it gives me joy and happiness as part in my overall woodwork hobby.
Let's make the comparison between a stamp collecor and a handtool collector.
- The stamp collector never intend to use (post) any of the stamps, but just like to watch them and feel them. In the same way, some powertools and handtool guys gets happy just from owning some rare or expensive equipment, but never really uses them much.
And that's leading to the real question: What makes you happy in your woodworking hobby/profession?
If we all asked us that question: What brings me most work-joy, rather than talking about technicalitie like extra thin shavings vs extra-extra thin shavings, or wich plane sole that is 0.000002" flatter versus another one, we might end up with a different shop-setup. Right?
Is it the woodwork process, creating things, or just to knowing that you have the possibilitie to create things that makes me and you happy?
I beleive woodwork as a hobby is also about dreaming, and justifying/telling yourself "If I only had this new Equipment X, I would produce so much better than today".
An amateur guitar player might seriously claim, and beleive that if he only had that ultra expensive guitar, he actually would be playing better. And justify the cost/sacrifice of buying this expensive guitar, because of his dreams of playing like his guitar-heroes.
The truth is however, a professional guitar player will still "outplay" him by the factor of 10 on any cheap guitar, becase the craftmanship is in the hands, not in the instrument.
And to re-hook to the initial LV-LN question, when so many is running like a bunch of cheeps in the same "boutique"-direction, could one stop for a moment and reflect, Is this really what will bring me most joy/satisfaction to my hobby?
For me, I mix ultra cheap with better tools, but I never buy any tools just because they are expensive. And to quote the same photographer one more time:
Quote2:
"These are the same people who bought the first 2.7 Megapixel digital SLRs designed for newspapers like the Nikon D1 back in 2000 just because they cost $5,000. They gave technically poorer results than the film cameras used by snapshooters. All because it's expensive doesn't make it good.
Bad rich amateurs think fuzzy B/W images of poor people are art."
End Quote2.
And at the risk at offending some, I provoce with the follwoing line:
-Bad rich woodworkers think a pile of woodshavings from some exotic hardwood actually is art. ;-)
A friend is a professional photographer (meaning making full time living from it) and when he get's the question what equipment he uses, he always answears: Whatever the client want me to use.
To translate that to woodwork would be, Does the client want handcut dovetails, or cnc made? Does the client want handplaned surfaces or machine thicknessed?
Maybe the client don't care at all about the process, and just care about the result?
And if you are the client - what bring most joy to you along the road to completing the project?
That is the productive question - that is what we all should be asking a lot more often.
What the core happiness in any woodworking project for you?
I hope I did not offend to many people, just wanted to put another perspective on these questions.
Best regards, Patrik
ps: check this
Tutankhamun link, handcraft from more than 3000 (!) years ago. The things they produced back then put me to shame no matter how good equipment I use. But of course, they were really skilled craftsmen, I'm just a hobbyist