Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

paul womack

>1) Scratch stock. I love what this ludicrously simple and cheap tool can do. An old saw (for raw material) and some files and you can make any moulding you like, especially if you like making small work. (you wouldn't want to make a cornice this way).

2) Wooden jack plane, fully tuned. Stunningly effective at removing waste AND leaving a good surface. A joy to use. Round my way they are routinely available at around 5 GPB (plus or minus).

3) A brace. With well sharpened augers they are counterintuitively effective. (I actually use shaped sheet metal with SiC glued on for final honing). It's also a blast with a screwdriver bit, and very effective at driving a threading tap.

BugBear

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>1. my old 60.5 block plane, both for sentimental reasons (came from my dad) and its versatility.

2. a partial set of E.A. Berg chisels.

3. an old D-8 crosscut saw, not the best one, but it's the first one I reach for.

Bruce

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

JL work

>LV Low angle spokeshave,LV regular flat spokeshave - tried others - really liked these and the old Stanley 51. Other would be an old no-name drawknife - it takes an edge and can hog off a lot of wood.

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Steve Kubien

>Knight smoother, a sharp chisel, 4" engineers square. I use these all the time and enjoy them tremendously. My father's no-name jack plane and Knight jointer are a very close 4 and 5.

Steve Kubien

Trying to get me in trouble?

Ernie Miller Topeka

>I have gotten more that three tools from people who I met on this board If I mentioned one and not all some one might get upset. After al I have been doing that Secret Santa thing for several years. Dad's 60 1/2 Atkins crosscut saw I keep in the car. User made infill plane that would take the prize in Indy if I could only get there. No doubt about it I would have my pick of the tools.

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Thomas Skaggs, Go Illini!!

>My three favorite are my favorites because I use them so much. They are:

LN- Low angle block plane.

Marples Bench chisels (I'm looking to upgrade to LNs)

LN- Independence dovetail saw.

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs? *LINK*

Mike L in Trabuco Canyon, CA

>A while back, I picked up a tool chest that I believe originally belonged to a shipwright in the PNW. Three tools from that chest are among my most cherished, even though I have only used one of them. They are:

1. L&IJ White slick - long and clean.

2. D.R. Barton shipwright's adze - well worn but clean.

3. Razee jack plane out of undermined tropical hardwood with an early E.A.Berg double iron. Cuts like a dream but the handle is horribly uncomfortable for my hand.

These tools carry the memory of a skilled craftsman.

Story below.

Regards,

Mike


long story

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Richard R

>Card scraper

606

40 1/2

No particular order. Love the way I can use them to surface a board in just a couple of minutes.

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Stanley 40 scrub smelled like pipe tobacco when it came to me. A very well used 605 there was just a stub of a blade left well used. The LV medium shoulder plane seems to get alot more work than I ever dreamed it would.

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Tony Zaffuto

>Hmmmmmmmm? My old 60-1/2 block plane, got it for next to nothing with three other Ebay planes several years ago--Hock blade and it's always by my side! My 12 oz. Stanley Warrington hammer--new several years ago, but it has perfect balance and feel. A little 2" Starret square--bought it and a chest full of machinist tools twelve years ago--the chest remains full and unused except for this little square.

Runner ups: My 11 pt. #16 Disston crosscut. My Langdon mitre saw. My Lufkin 6' inside reading folding rule. My large Advents and Jerry.

Hummm tough choices...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>A 605 jack that I got from the Leachmister.

My home made marking knife. The first and only tool I've made (so far).

My LN 4.5 HA smoother I got for myself after being smoke-free for 1 month.

"favorite..."

Jonathan Kaplan (OR)

>I'm torn. On the one hand, there are the tools I use the most -- that I grab without thinking:

A cheap Japanese-style crosscut saw from Japan Woodworker: #05 Gyokucho 10" Hardwood Saw (Kataha Noko Giri). I buy new blades for this once or twice a year.

An old #5C Bailey-pattern plane.

A Starrett combo square.

On the other hand, there are the tools I love but that I rely on for more particular tasks & so don't use as often...

LN #4

A handmade Dozuki Rip Saw (also from Japan woodworker)

A 2" wide Japanese-style bench chisel.

No good stories, I'm afraid...

jk

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Dan Clermont in Burnaby

>That is a tough one.

I would have to say

(1) My Berg chisels

(2) LN 5 1/2

(3) Bedrock 604 1/2

Dan Clermont

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Dave Mount

>Not necessarily in order. . .

LN DT saw -- despite my occasional whine about the handle being snug for my hand, the monumental improvement in hand DT-ing that happened when I got it gave me a rush I've never forgotten (hey, I can do this, and pretty darn well!). I still love using it.

A Keen Kutter K5 -- got it at a good price, zero rust, little wear, great patina, great rosewood, my first Bedrock-type frog. I still reach for it even when technically I should be using something else. Like your first girlfriend (or boyfriend), you never forget. . .

A set of high quality Japanese chisels owned by a friend and master craftsman who died long before his time. They were given to me by his widow when I gave her the urn I made to hold his ashes. He bought them when he was a "starving artist" long before Japanese chisels became "cool"; she said they had scrimped for months to afford them. Reasons are obvious.

Dave

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Tom MacGregor

>My three favorites are Stanleys - 604, 95 and 12-1/2. All were purchased from an elderly dealer. I found some proper parts online to complete some tools he'd had for a long time so he could put them out for sale & sold the parts to him at my cost. In return he sold me some tools I wanted based on what he bought them for rather than their market value. He's now a friend & a valuable resource for vintage tool information.

Too many to list....

HC Sakman

>

My three are:

Dan Donaldson

>1) The tools I have

2) The tools I am going to get

3) The tools I wish I had

;-)

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Bob Hackett

>Any of the tools that belonged to family members or friends before I inherited them.

I have more than 3 so it`s hard to choose.

The Ogontz frankenplane get honorable mention here though.

MB

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Ron

>LK 212 scraper

Boggs spokeshave

Spiers infill smoother

They are all much better tools than I am a craftsman

the 212 is an incredible little jewel.

Ron

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Jack Guzman from Maine

>My three favorite handtools are ;my Stanley #65 which I handle more than any tool I own.No history,bought it used.A little,black handled millers falls awl that I love for no reason other than it's pretty and it's handy;finally--my bench,cause I made it myself and I'm getting familiar with every dent,knot,low spot,etc,on it from using it constantly.It's pretty personal.---Jack

Re: Personal Foul!

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Unfair question, for several reasons:

First, you have not provided us with any indication of which definition of "favorite", or "hand", or "tool" you have in mind.

Second, for open ended, philosophical questions like this, you must open the discussion with your own list. This rule, of course, doesn't apply if you really need help with som specific problem. It also doesn't apply if the question is a setup for a drive-by gloat. It also doesn't apply, if you are Ellis, and it's an "Ides of March" kind of question, and you are going to publish the responses and you warn us up front so we don't end up with foot-in-mouth disease in print.

Third, everyone assumed that you meant woodworking tools, but even that is only an assumption, because this is a woodworking forum. Maybe my favorite hand tool should be my pitcher pump, since I know I can use it to get fresh, clean water if ever all the power tools at my disposal should suddenly, irrevocably shut down, or maybe my double bit felling axe, or my Planet Junior. Although I don't use these on a daily basis, I would sure put them at the top of my replacement list if ever I lost one of them.

Otherwise, all arguments and responses are rhetorical, and open to meaningless interpretation, debate, and misinterpretation.

Why do you want to know? Would any of the responses mean anything to you without an accompanying background check of the responder's woodworking or tool collecting or tool building credentials? Does it really matter to you, or are you one of those trolls who just tries to see how many responses he can gets?

Can you effectively work wood with only three tools? I doubt it. I know I can't. If you only had one tool that performed an essential operation, could you even consider it a favorite? On the other hand, would you have to be a collector, owning multiple tools for a particular purpose, to choose one favorite? Would you even need a woodworking purpose, or would just having it be sufficient to make the list?

How about separate lists for new tools, old tools, tools you have made yourself, tools you use, tools you just look at, tools that make you money, tools that make you happy, tools that give you a sense of family, tools that give you a sense of history, tools that make you a better woodworker?

My favorite hand tools just might be this computer, my telephone, and my credit card. I punch in all the numbers by hand, and the tools (wood, too!) just appear on the back porch. Everything else is derivitive.

Ducking and running, on the Cohansey

Re: Survey: What are your top three favorite HTs?

Gerald Doll

>Any tool that doesn't require hours of tuning, flattening, fettling, sharpening, adjusting, or otherwise messing with. This greatly reduces the odds that said tool will be chucked across the garage, hit the concrete floor, and require additional hours of tuning, flattening, fettling, sharpening, adjusting, and otherwise messing with.

Gerry

Who hasn't touched a piece of wood since starting on the slippery slope