Lie Nielsen Hand Tool Event! This Friday and Saturday!

A little back story:

Late one Texas winter night, I was browsing the internet. While I was obsessing over every woodworking/bushcraft/sustainability/permaculture article and youtube video I could get my hands on, I visited the Lie Nielsen website to drool over the various instruments of wood, brass, and iron. As I tortured myself with their catalog - dreaming of one day deciding between A-2 or 0-1 steel, fantasizing about wrapping my mitts around hornbeam handles or grazing my pinky finger across a curly maple lamb's-tongue - I stumbled upon their "upcoming shows" link on the homepage.

I can still feel the joy I felt as I realized that a troupe of woodworkers and some of the finest modern toolmakers from Warren, Maine and across the country would be somewhere in Texas the following day! Not only would they be in Texas but Austin! And not only would the event be held in Austin but at Fine Lumber and Plywood, the very same lumberyard where I had recently taken a field trip with my cabinetmaking instructor! What a miraculous moment of fateful coincidence it was to realize that had I not been eye-fucking some hand tools on the internet that night, I may never have held a Lie Nielsen plane in my hand.

If I hadn't attended, I may never have met Frank Strazza, a woodworker from Homestead Heritage in Elm Mott, TX. It is one of my largest regrets that I never attended any woodworking courses at Homestead Heritage during my time in Texas. I only lived two hours away during my years in Denton or Austin! I plan to return one day. Actually, I have had thoughts of moving to the craft village in Elm Mott to start a simpler life but I'm not exactly sure if there is land for sale or if they are accepting new residents. I'm not sure how that works...


Frank Strazza at the 2010 Lie Nielsen Hand Tool Event In Austin, TX.


When I went to the Lie Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Austin, TX last year, I barely knew who or what Lie Nielsen was - Not to mention that I had never held a real plane or saw in my hand. Ever. I actually bought my first saw there from Dowd's Tools, an antique tool dealer from Garland, TX who had set up a booth at the event. It was the Disston backsaw that I recently attempted to sharpen (with little success).

This year, I plan on buying another saw, or two...or three. My woodworking is currently on hold because I do not have a proper saw/set of saws. I cannot rip! I cannot crosscut! I currently only have the ability to cut tenons (poorly) with my medium-sized back saw and I have a cheapo Kona razor saw that I've been using to practice dovetails. Two of the finest saw makers in the world will be attending the event this weekend in Portland and will undoubtedly be hocking their wares.

Speaking of "hock", Ron Hock, sharpening guru will be at the event, as well as Glen Drake Tools the creator of the tite mark marking gauge.


One of the things I'm most excited about is seeing what Bridge City Toolworks has to offer. They have come out with some amazing new tool innovations such as:
The Jointmaker Pro Saw by Bridge City Toolworks (Portland, OR)


It's going to be a really cool show.

And just for fun...

Three Artifacts, Pt. 1: The Tool

I received three items in the mail yesterday. All of them carefully planned, doted over, essential; hand crafted.

The first item came in a large box sealed with packing tape embellished with green text which spelled out the words, "Lee Valley Tools, Ltd."

I have spent hours upon hours over the last 2-3 years navigating websites and browsing catalogs from fine toolmakers such as Lee Valley/Veritas, Lie Nielsen, Tools For Working Wood, Highland Woodworking, etc. So when I saw the packing tape with the toolmaker's insignia, I was so overwhelmed and unbelieving that I could barely recall what the item might be.

The item: a router plane from Veritas, the Canadian manufacturing arm of Lee Valley Tools, Ltd.

I had spent hours debating between the large router plane from Lie Nielsen versus Veritas's version. While Lie Nielsen stays more true to the original pre-WWII Stanley's, I decided on Veritas's unique design. I was nervous about my decision when I placed the order (or rather, wrote it on my Christmas wish list to my father;) nervous that it might be "too fiddly" and have too many pieces to get lost. However, the opposite is true. It fits the hand perfectly and all the pieces fall right into place. Whereas with Lie Nielsen's version it seems you have to remove the depth stop and depth adjuster when changing or reversing blades, the Veritas router has a brilliant spring-loaded collar that allows for removal of the blade without any further action.


I immediately set to work cutting dadoes for a chisel rack I've been planning to attach to my bench. I'm smitten.

A Point of Reference

I'm still trying to decide on my "first" woodworking project. I've built several projects through community college woodworking and cabinetmaking courses but they were very heavy on the table saw aspect of the craft and held no emphasis on honing one's skill.

As with many modern woodworkers, the noise and dust of machine woodworking seems unhealthy and unnecessary to me. As such, I am solely interested in the hand tool side of things. Not only is it cheaper financially to use hand tools, it is more practical for those of us that rent or don't have a whole lot of space to store: a table saw with out-feed table, jointer, planer, band saw, chop saw, router table, etc. (not to mention dust collection!) With hand tools, I can work quietly enough (almost) to keep going late into the night even when my duplex neighbor has his kids for the weekend.

It would be a safe guess to say that I subscribe to the ideas of modern hand tool woodworkers, i.e.:

Lie Nielsen


Christopher Scwarz and (of course) Roy Underhill.

I am a purist at heart (not to be confused with Puritan) or maybe that is not the correct word; maybe the very opposite: "anarchist," perhaps. Is there such a thing as an "anarcho-purist"? Maybe my understanding of both words are totally off the mark. I'll have to scrounge up $37 for a copy of Schwarz's book to really find out for sure. At any rate, I have deep convictions that humans were never meant to evolve to a state of such technological malaise or to become so disconnected to the surrounding world.

Eventually I would like to end up making fine furniture as a source of supplemental income, owning my own furniture shop or just setting up booths at markets and fairs. In any case, I intend woodworking to be an ongoing hobby/profession for the rest of my adult life.

For now, my workbench is planted in a 5' x 10' area of the basement of my SE Portland duplex (the other half of the basement will become a seed-starting area with shelving for grow lights come January.) So in the coming days, I plan on organizing my workspace and building a few helpful appliances formy workspace, including: a set of saw benches, bench hooks, shooting boards, and some shelves and racks to hold my tools off of my bench. Everyday I get a little more excited about the things to come.