Things have changed quite a bit for me over the last several months. I’ve been busy taking care of my 11 month old daughter full time and have had to find ways of fitting in my work around that busy schedule. I haven’t been drawing much except as it relates to my woodworking, which is a fairly new and serious endeavor for me. I started out building a new changing table, then moved on to refinishing some chairs, crib, dresser,
Cherry Dresser
footstool, table, traditional tool chest,
Traditional Tool Chest
and most recently a new toy box for my daughter.
Toy Box
I thought it was time to update folks on how things have been going and what I’ve been doing.
I started out doing most of my woodworking with machines but Montana winters drive you indoors and in my case into the basement to do the work. I found myself being very hesitant to use the router table, circular saw, or even the jigsaw because of the noise, the fairly limited working space, and the clouds of unhealthy dust they created. I started looking around for some non-powered options which led me to start using hand tools.
One thing led to another and I am now doing all of my work with hand tools and really not missing the power tools at all. Sure I still want to plane a board to a specific thickness or run a long board through a table saw now and then, but the majority of my work is done quickly, quietly, and fairly dust-free with hand tools and I’ve never enjoyed it more.
I am about to start on a new project, a smaller computer desk / organizer for our dining room so we can have a mobile station upstairs for occasional work and for storing writing materials, power plugs, etc. Over the next week or two I’ll update my blog with photos of the last few projects and some new material on the desk project.
It’s been a while since I had the urge to post some photos so I hope there is some interest out there in this turn of events and hopefully I can help being an appreciation to some of the hand tool skills that I am rediscovering in the process.
Here is a parting shot of two my my hand saws that I recently refurbished.
My refurbished 12" and 14" Disston backsaws.
Rich Adams Woodworking 