The marketplace at the WIA conference was bustling with would-be tool buyers looking for the latest offerings from manufacturers.
Lie-Nielsen devoted a corner of its booth to its new line of innovations: saw jointing jig, chamfer plane, tongue & groove plane, inlay tools, corner chisels, small hammer, fishtail chisels, burnisher, and a tool that cuts shallow mortises, Quaker locks, and the like
after you have assembled your workpiece.
I was especially in
terested in the saw jointing jig, which hinges open so you can slide a file in place. The wings of the jig fold over top your saw blade so that the file rests on top of the teeth. You slide the jig along the teeth, thereby jointing them to the same height.
In one of the conference seminars—
Modern Tools: Tolerances & Myths—which was conducted in panel format with
Robin Lee (RL),
John Economaki (JE),
Konrad Sauer (KS), and Thomas Lie-Nielsen (L-N), a lively discussion ensued after an audience member asked if new designs were merely gadgetry. "Do we really need all these tools?" he asked. He sited one product, the
Jointmaker Pro, invented by John Economaki, and inferred that it might be unnecessary and overpriced.
Here are the responses from the panel:
KS—Experiments are important. Some are valid, some are not, but inspiration keeps the industry moving forward.
RL—If you enjoy it, buy it.
JE—One thing you might not know about the Jointmaker is how many people it has helped: schools for the blind, people who have never been able to saw a straight line, people with one arm, and people with Parkinson's disease. You can't put a price on that.
RL—We offer a right angle magnetic guide for people with hand tremors.
JE—You don't need a lot of tools. Buy something because it speeds up woodworking. Gadgets might help you if you have time constraints. Above all, learn to make meaningful projects. Treat wood like it's $500 bf. That piece has to have a voice by itself when you're gone
.
Another question from the audience: What are you going to change/what have you learned?
JE—We create new products based on my whims.
L-N—We're going to offer more instructional DVDs.
RL—We're slowly going to expand technologies with new lines of tools. We are just now offering our first handsaw. Many suppliers are disappearing. We have witnessed the closure of over 2,000 of our vendors/suppliers, which makes it difficult for us.
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Gadgets or godsends? You decide. But I'll leave you with this insight from Adam Cherubini:
"We need to support the modern tool makers. You can't grow a movement with antique tools."
Daisy Susan (Daisy)
Rosebud Grace (Rosie)
Charlie Jane
Anders Hjalmer (Andy, my parents' cat)
oth displayed a page from "The City and Country Purchaser's Builder's Dictionary", a book originally published in 1726. Of particular interest is the explanation of Round and Hollow Planes: "curious artists have 16 sorts of these planes, of different sizes, from half a quarter of an inch to more than two inches, wherewith, by the assistance of the snipes-bill, and the rabbet-plane above mentioned, they make the various sorts of mouldings."
Rabbet planes are used to make fillets, but it's difficult to maintain a straight line without first creating a small channel in which to start the cut.
intended to make more. This dvd provides the perfect refresher course.
According to Jim Blauvelt and Harrelson Stanley, Japanese saws just make sense. Since they are used on the pull stroke, they tend to stay straight in the cut, as opposed to Western saws, which are used on the push stroke and can sometimes bind in the cut. Because of this, Western saw blades are thicker than Japanese blades in order to accomodate the resistance.
of employing a vise, you cut down toward the benchtop at a 60ยบ angle. I was intrigued with the planing stop: a sliding dovetail (second to last photo).
ulse-hardened teeth, where only the surface of the teeth are hardened. These teeth appear bluish in color. Jim & Harrelson said "you can feel the steel stretching as you use [these saws]."
oba (meaning "both") is a 2-sided saw. One side is crosscut and the other is rip.
terested in the saw jointing jig, which hinges open so you can slide a file in place. The wings of the jig fold over top your saw blade so that the file rests on top of the teeth. You slide the jig along the teeth, thereby jointing them to the same height.
.
tools that would like to come home with me, and lots of wide-eyed woodworkers. 
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