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It was perhaps 8 years ago that I bought my first “cabinetmaker’s” chisel. I studied and researched and compared for weeks. I finally decided on the Hirsch brand (which I think is made by Two Cherries).
As Scott V has said, these very hard, highly polished chisels aren’t quite the same beast as you might expect. I spend literally days trying to prepare my new chisels. The hard, polished backs were the very devil to flatten.
After one particularly long session of trying to prepare the 3/4″ Hirsch, I decided to try and hold a bit of wood and pare it a bit. It took a great deal of effort to try and get any shaving – however, due to being tired, frustrated, and lazy – it seemed to take no effort at all when the chisel came off the wood I was holding (I KNOW! I KNOW!) and took off the top 1/4″ of my right thumb….
At that point (well, after I got back from the Emergency Room), I decided to splurge and get the newly released Lie Nielsen chisels. I’ve been quite happy with them…. (and yes, I need to try the hair spray trick)
Since then, I’ve tried the Blue Spruce bench chisels – I think they are measurably better than the Lie-Nielsens. I don’t own any of Dave Jeske’s (Blue Spruce) bench chisels, but I do have several of his dovetail and long paring chisels. Again, I’ve never used a better tool.
I also have a Japanese paring slick made by Tasai that I got back at the first Woodworking in America conference in 2008. Some people like the Japanese chisels (Charlesworth, Kingshott, et al)… eh…. As David Charlesworth says, they’re a bit of a thoroughbred – it takes a time and a touch to get the best out of them. The Tasai chisel is a fine tool, but perhaps I just don’t have the talent to fully appreciate it.
That said, I’ll never buy another tool from Hirsch or Two Cherries. Some people love them; but just hearing the name makes my thumb ache……..
Gregory,
I’ve enjoyed this thread – and following your build(s).
My daughter has requested some bookcases – so I’ve taken up with Sketchup again (for the umpteenth time). I’m very impressed with your drawings. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you develop such great sketching skills? Are you an Engineer or Architect by trade?
They tried to teach us some sketching at the Fine Woodworking Program at RRCC, but I could never get the hang of it. There are many ideas I’d like to work through on paper, but that part of my brain is broken!
Just wonderin’
Being in the Army, I’ve never had a real opportunity to take a good, structured woodworking class. Time and money (and the wife) would never allow it…. That is why I’m very thankful for Paul’s push to teach these classes via his book and DVD course (which I very recently received) and via being a paid subscriber to this site.
And while I can’t take classes, I feel like I’ve bought every woodworking DVD produced in the last 20 years – Sellers, Charlesworth, Cosman, Schwartz, Tom Law, Kingshott, Klausz, etc.
I’ve been woodworking for nearly 15 years. Though most of that time has been with heavy machinery of some sort; and as Paul said in his book, I wasn’t much of a woodworker – just a machine operator. Some years ago (perhaps 7 or 8), I had read that sanding couldn’t beat the finish of a smoothing plane. So I went out and bought a Lie-Nielsen #4 (notice I didn’t say I bought any sharpening materials….) – the best you can buy! I brought it out of the box, wiggled some knobs and levers, and started pushing it across the board. That “premium” plane skittered, dug in, chattered, skipped – and gouged its way all across the board. Point is – I had no clue what I was doing.
All that to say, I realized something was amiss. I got back on the LN website, and saw that David Charlesworth had some planing videos. So, I ordered the set…. Those videos forever changed the way I did woodworking. Yes, they may not be everybody’s cup of tea – and his process may seem tedious to others; but to me, I was able to take each small, repeatable, infinitely detailed, tedious step – and recreate it. And end the end, I had extremely sharp tools and can confidently four square a board perfectly…. So, yes – I have to give a nod to David Charlesworth.
In the same manner, Cosman is a very good dovetail teacher via DVD as he is very, very detailed about how a new student can reproduce each step of the process.
On the other had, and trying to tread lightly here, Schwartz has done much for the woodworking community – but I think his DVDs are a bit of a rehash of commonly known techniques…. whereas Charlesworth’s methods seem to be uniquely his. CW I think even quotes DC during his video on the same topic. Dunno – bit of a ripoff….
Frank Klausz – again, I’ve met him in person, have a signed dovetail – and he’s a great teacher. But he’s not a great DVD teacher…. If you were in the shop with him, it would be 1000x better. But he doesn’t really teach – he shows…. “Cut here like this, now here, now here….” Not enough detail of the minute movements that a beginner needs via a DVD format.
Special mention to Jim Kingshott (as mentioned above) – this man was a one of a kind – I probably enjoy watching his videos above all others…. Not necessarily that I’m learned great woodworking secrets, but to see this man work – and his manner – is a true joy…..
This brings us to Paul’s approach…. I’ve just gotten started on the book and DVD materials, so I can’t comment too much on that. However, I think it will be interesting to see which set of classes will be the main effort. That is, in the book – he talks not just of Level 3 (and bandsaw techniques I think?), there is also some mention of Level 4… And on the internet subscription, he mentioned projects that we’d be doing 2, 3, 4 years down the road. I wonder if the DVD course will fade with the internet class, and if not, how they will overlap of complement each other… but, that’s beyond the point.
As far as a video course, there is something that is (“was” prior to Paul) SORELY missing in all the DVDs, books, magazines, classes, etc, etc. Firstly, there was no structure – many times I never knew how little I knew – or where to even begin. There was no need for me to buy dovetailing videos when I couldn’t even flatten a board or sharpen a plane. But dovetails were “Cool” so that’s what I bought… You must start with the boring, non-sexy basics and progress.
Secondly, and most importantly – with no structure, you could never apply your skill to a project. Yes, you can cut dovetails in practice pine boards all day (and I did!), but I couldn’t do anything else…. I couldn’t apply that skill to a real project today, and a larger – more complex project tomorrow. The DVDs taught me some woodworking skills, not how to be a woodworker.
And so this is the huge void that Paul’s courses fill…. He’s teaching structured woodworking. Not just isolated skills that will sit unused in the vacuum of my ignorance.
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