Interesting and...
ThomD
>" A piece may indeed be more enjoyable to the craftsman because is was produced by hand tools. But, that does not equal quality of product. I know that I cannot rip a board with a handsaw like I can with my well tuned table saw. You can't either.. no disrespect intended."
I can certainly do a more accurate job with hand tools, even if I ripped by hand, I would scribe, saw, and hand plane, that would certainly deliver a more accurate result than an all power tool approach, since no power tool in comon distibution actually produces perfect results, you get a variety of geometric distotions, like snipe, or you get surface distortions like the saw blade or cutter tracks. Your main power tool alternative to plaining would be sanding which is not generally accuracy inducing in most machines currently available.
I don't think this forum is necesarilly about hand tool only approaches. I do some work that is 100% tree to finished product hand work, like chairs split from raw trees. I also use power tools to make my own lumber, I think most anyone working to size here is going to do some power tool work. And at some point productivity may force me to use power nailers disc grinders, etc... I am happy to have tools and skill to tackle anything. Right today, I am doing a new roof, and it is almost all hand work. The only power tool I used was a saw to trim the overhang. A roof nailer would have been nice, but I haven't got one of those yet, nor do we have air here. But my approach is probably not all that different from the money earning pros around here, a lot of them are fast anilers, and it is mostly hand work.
There are jobs where hand tools are faster, like it's faster to split firewood, or parts, than to use your table saw, and the end result, a riven part is probably going to be stronger. Hand planing and scraping are usually faster than power alternatives. There are also pieces of wood that are so large that bringing them to the saw is going to be impossible unless you own industrial tools, and have blazed a road. Is it faster to power hand plane such a part or hew it? Not a great deal either way...