CurlyShavings

When I was building my boat in the garage, I moved many of my tools out there. Not the stationary ones (drill press, router table, bandsaw, tablesaw) but the handtools. Some planes, hammers, sanders, etc. And you know what? Except in extreme, specialized cases, I didn't use them.

Here's what I used:

• 20 year-old nail apron with pencils, screws and tacks


• low-angle Lie-Nielsen block plane in a scabbard


• 16oz hammer


• 12' tape measure


• cordless drill/driver and bits

Ummmm, that's about it. Sometimes I used an orbital sander. I bought a belt-sander for this job. Occasionally I reached for my #6 joiner (when doing spar work). ALL my clamps were engaged at one point or another or another. There was some sabre-saw work. And I used my pull-saw from time to time. But really, there wasn't any specialized tooling that I needed.

I'm not saying that I'm a master craftsman (I could tell you stories . . .). I'm only saying that one doesn't always need the latest and greatest tool. Just a couple of ones that work well for your craft.

Would Shakespeare have written more elegantly (or just more) with a 21st century MacBook? Or would he have gotten bogged down in Leopard vs Tiger and quit when his hard-drive crashed? We'll never know.