The phoenix often serves as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. I think it is time for the rebirth of the Hand Tool forum.
There is a simple reason why posts here have dwindled - too few are making an effort to offer their woodworking adventures. As simple as that.
We need new members, younger members. The average age here is about 70-ish, and many have become passive observers. And worse, inclined to read and not offer observations or critique. As one who has posted here, I can say that the absence of feedback is terribly disheartening. Feedback does not need to be sweet and superficial - it is really appreciated when someone makes the effort to analyse and comment.
I have posted the same articles on both the Hand Tools and the Messages fori, and the number of hits and comments on the latter is hugely higher. This signifies that the Hand Toolers are bloody slack!
Posts do not need to be profound. This is not a competition ... just friends getting together and sharing our hobby.
Sadly, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are heading toward colder days......but, that also means people will be going to their woodshops more.....and making things......and maybe the posting will increase as well.
Feedback does not need to be sweet and superficial - it is really appreciated when someone makes the effort to analyse and comment. I agree whole heartedly, but it results in personal attacks for my "attitude". I find it less stressful to just not respond at all.
One forum I read has a topic that has been going on for 6-1/2 years and more than 3,000 responses. � It hasn’t stopped one single person from posting about anything else.
It amazes me to read of the effort Messages posters go to in avoiding using hand tools. It is so much easier to pick up a chisel and mallet to do the same thing.
I think The Taunton Press is a good example of stroking the favors of heavy tool advertisers and, the Lee Valley suppliers of hand tools. Its practices kills the reality of woodworking.
Michael Pekovich published a couple recent photographic (coffee table) books--The Why and How of Woodworking, and Foundations of Woodworking, by The Taunton Press--that relied heavily on machine tools, jigs, and mechanical aids for 95 percent of the construction. The last details, trimming tricks, provided the individuality.
Reading these books, you would think all that is needed for hand tools is a block plane and chisel. Maybe, a sharp knife to scar pristine oak and white ash, further reinforcing a handmade aura.
Pekovich's jigs and molds must have cost far more than the actual wood used for the pieces. [I am guessing.] Maybe, he plans to build clones for retail sales. The wood he does use is the supreme of the premium grade. Unfortunately, we amateur's don't have the access to this resource, which, itself, makes machining much easier than the seconds we get.
I blame Apple and would blame Android otherwise. Like most, I take pictures with my phone. To post anything with a photo requires moving the pics or posting from my phone. Although a youngster by WC standards I am not a fan of using a phone for every computing need.
I don't get a lot of shop time in but I'd definitely post more if the phone were more appealing to type on.
If you are one of us who got here via The Great Badger Pond Migration.....you might recall that The Hand Tool forum here was really, really slow.....hard to find a heart beat......now, by comparison, this is a virtual hot bed of activity......Messages always seems to do well......but, those damn Turners put us to shame......what is it about turning something that makes a person want to show it and get so many others to talk about it??
I often like to include a quick sketch to illustrate something, and my only option is take a picture of my sketch, email it to myself, resize it on my computer or phone, and attach it to the appropriate post. Wouldn't it be nice to have a way to wirelessly transmit a photo from a phone to the message-posting interface?
I'm not sure this is a great excuse for not posting, although visuals sure are nice to include.
As host here, first allow me to apologize for anything and everything -- or the absence thereof -- of which I may be culpable in regard to the slowdown of traffic. (I can't apologize for slackers.) Our recent travails with our server host, after lo these many years, have been particularly troubling to me, not because I had anything to do with it other than cling to this heroic bit of software all these years. Outages and the convulsions of getting used to new software and servers always takes its toll on postings and goodwill, and these past few months have proven that again.
So, as someone wiser than me once said, here we jolly well are, aren't we? Like you, Derek, I yearn for the old days when there were more visitors and there was more enthusiasm for posting and sharing wisdom and commentary. To recreate those conditions, we'll have to entice more folks to tune in, and we'll have to encourage more participation, as you're doing here with this thread. I greatly appreciate your caring enough not to vote with your feet as others may have already done.
Demographics aren't likely to change. As far back as I can recall, the average age of serious woodworkers has hovered between, say 55 and 75, maybe because we're the last generation that was taught by parents who valued hand workmanship, often as a matter of necessity. And, if anything, it's creeping higher all the time. There's not as much impetus anymore for younger generations to invest time and resources into this craft. The halcyon days of our parents' and grandparents' generations are behind us. The younger folks have more urgent things to worry about nowadays.
What isn't behind us is the need to solve problems, which is what every woodworker and craftsman does. Start with an objective and try to come up with the most appropriate solution. We're motivated by our need to make something or to effect change. In the hand tool realm, this is likely about the tools themselves or how and when to use them. Sometimes they are the simplest, most rewarding way to accomplish something, especially once the onerous work of stock prep is done. I'm sure there's no end of ways we can edify each other in this realm, and I appreciate your taking up the mantle here.
Sorry for the nosebleed. Maybe while we're creating messageboards here, we should make one called "Deep Thoughts."
I find social media, such as FaceBook and Instagram, very different in the presentation of information. They are short and sweet, a "look what I've done", rather than a basis for a discussion and evaluation.
There is much of this now taking over YouTube - presenters offering "this changed my life", and it is a quick jig build of little consequence. Essentially click bait. And there are viewers who enjoy the entertainment. It is all hands-off. That is not the gist of a woodworking forum.
Thanks for the welcome Derek. YouTube does have its plus points but you have to go pretty tabloid with the headlines to draw attention. Click bait, as you said is another good way of describing it. Then there's another icon making us aware of paid promotion...
Ellis, thank you for all your efforts to keep WoodCentral going. A few weeks back my bookmark for WC stopped working and for over a week I thought the site might be down for good. That made me realize what a part of my life this place has been and how much I count on being able to come here for expert opinion. There are also many posters I consider "internet friends" even though we've never met.
Thanks also for sticking with the software. The way it handles threads is great for encouraging thoughtful discussion.
Now that I'm retired I may actually post some projects. The company I worked for had a strict confidentiality requirement that prevented sharing any project information. Now I'm doing small projects in my studio apartment and having a great time.
Design is about solving problems. I don't how I could have solved WoodCentral's server and software issues without our new web wizard, Peter Martin, so a big shout out to him for the new look and functionality of the site. We're still only part way through fixing stuff --that could take a while -- but we're on a solid foundation now and it's only going to get better from here.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work, Steve.
An analogy: The techniques for setting up a Japanese plane are different than those for setting up an infill, but you can get equivalent results from both with appropriate instruction and practice. This concept also applies to computer technology.
I may be the exception to the rule, but what I do works OK for me. I carry an iPhone 7.0 and a MacBook with me just about everywhere. They're both older models, bought on clearance or second hand. I use a very cheap ISP (Tello) when I'm traveling and my wife's WiFi and FIOS when I'm home, so the cost is not exorbitant. The iPhone and the Mac automatically connect to the internet via WiFi. The phone automatically connects to the cellular network when it can find it and automatically sets itself up as a WiFi hotspot that connects to the Mac when they cannot find another free open WiFi network or one for which they both know the password. Under most lighting conditions, the old iPhone takes acceptable pictures and videos under most conditions, so I usually don't bother to carry my DSLR to the shop or wherever I'm trying to record woodworking tools, techniques or materials.
My process for posting a pic to WC is to take the pic with my iPhone and email it to myself (from my gmail account to my verizon account). I receive the e-mail on my MacBook and save the pic (usually in my Downloads folder). I open a WC forum window in my web browser (Firefox) and write a new message or write a response to someone else's message (just like everyone else) and select the .jpg pic I just received. To quote Derek, "Easy-peasy."
In the case of drawings, I learned to use MacDraw almost 40 years ago, and as newer and better drafting applications were developed to take advantage of newer versions of MacOS, new faster chips and more memory, and the one I had been using became obsolete and unsupported, I upgraded and learned the important differences. I'm still using one (Canvas X Draw) today, and still learning its finer points, that will export drawings in .JPG format (and many other formats). It's easy enough to make a quick sketch, add captions, illustrations, circles and arrows, and post it on a WoodCentral forum.
None of the brand names or file formats I've referenced here are meant to be product endorsements or recommendations. They are just examples of things I've been able to make work within my environment and at a specific time in the past or present.
This stuff takes way too long to write and edit, because I try to make it understandable to the widest WC audience. In the process, I'm always afraid I will either make the verbiage too complicated, or leave out something important. My other fear is that either no one cares enough to read and comprehend it, or no one has even read it, or everyone here is so dyslexic that they're afraid to attempt a question or a comment.
