Hand tools in kitchen remodeling
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>With this kitchen remodeling, the electron massacre has been incredible, but, in the last few days, installing kitchen cabinets, I've gotten a chance to pull out the hand tools:
*Needed to trim some shims under one cabinet to lower it 1/16", and pulled out the trusty 78 and equally trusty 1/2" chisel; done in no time.
*Making a 3" or so spacer from birch, with a straight side, to move one upper cabinet over to align with a lower. This reminded me that my precision planing skills are pretty rusty, but after I pulled out and sharpened the No. 8, it went a lot better.
*The last, and trickiest, was scribing an 8 foot high cabinet at the end of a run, simultaneously taking exactly 1/8" off so I could slide in the next to last cabinet. A good sharp No. 5, my knee pads, and lots of curly shavings, and I'm there.
I'm reminded how much I enjoy the sensuality of hand tools, and their efficient precision.
