Though my days of teaching woodworking might be over, the process has left its mark on the tools I use. During the last 10 years, I made changes to my tool set to make it less intimidating to my students.
I gave my Eccentric Toolworks saws to a friend. I mothballed my Seaton saws from Mike Wenzloff. They were all fantastic tools that were made by people who I am proud to support. But they are unobtainable today. And I don’t want students to think there is anything magic about tools. The magic is in your fingers.
So here are the tools I use now. Only one is exotic. So let’s get that one out of the way immediately.
My tenon saw is a Wenzloff & Sons tool that was copied from the Benjamin Seaton tool chest. This saw was one of the first saws that Mike Wenzloff ever made – before he really decided to become a full-time sawmaker. It’s unsigned. It’s handle is polished and worn to fit my hands. I can no sooner get rid of this saw than sell a child. It’s sharpened rip at 10 ppi with just a bit of fleam.
My carcase saw is a vintage Wheeler, Madden & Clemson that I’ve owned forever. It’s sharpened crosscut at 14 ppi.
My dovetail saw is a Lie-Nielsen with an apple handle. Thomas Lie-Nielsen got his hands on a few chunks of apple and made this handle for me in exchange for a piece of furniture. While there are lots of good dovetail saws out there, it’s hard to beat the Lie-Nielsen. When I started woodworking they were made by Independence Tools (run by Pete Taran and Patrick Leach) and seemed exorbitantly priced at $125. Now the $125 seems the best bargain out there in saws (and I can’t believe it’s still $125).
The flush-cut saw in my chest is the Veritas one with the black plastic handle. I used to have the Veritas one with the bubinga handle, but after kinking its blade I went to order a new one and Lee Valley was out of stock of the bubinga saw. Hence the plastic one.
The saws I use for breaking down stock are vintage panel saws that Matt Cianci restored. I have a Disston panel saw that is sharpened crosscut at 8 ppi and a Spear & Jackson panel saw that is sharpened rip at 7 ppi.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my Stanley Sharptooth saw that I use for breaking down rough stock. It lives in my truck, not my tool chest, but has been an important part of every project during the last five years. I want to hate the $10, plastic-handled (but made in the USA) thing. But that would be disingenuous.
Speaking of saws that don’t live in the chest, I have a vintage Langdon miter box below my bench that I use for precision crosscuts and miters. The original sawblade was trashed, so I replaced it with a Lie-Nielsen miter box saw.
A lot of people ask me about the Veritas saws with composite spines and wooden handles. Why don’t I use those? They are excellent saws. I’ve used many of them that were owned by students and I regularly recommend them to beginners. When I assembled my kit of tools, Veritas didn’t make joinery saws. If Veritas had made joinery saws back in 1999 I’m sure would have stocked my chest with those.
Next up: marking and measuring tools.
— Christopher Schwarz
Part 1 of this series on handplanes can be found here.
I get a lot of questions about the specific tools I have in my chest. On the one hand, I resist answering the question. “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” was written to give you the ability to make those choices for yourself.
On the other hand, I’d like to tip my hat in appreciation to the toolmakers who have busted their butts to make these tools that put food on my table.
So here is my current inventory of tools. Know that I paid the “bronze price” for every one of these tools. No discounts. No freebies. Full retail.
Handplanes
My bench planes are little changed. I use a Lie-Nielsen No. 8 as my jointer. I still have the same Stanley No. 5 (a Type 11) as my jack plane. My smoothing plane is a Lie-Nielsen No. 3 in bronze with a 45° frog, improved chipbreaker and a (gasp) Veritas PM-V11 iron. I am a huge fan of this steel. It takes a wicked sharp edge that lasts a long time.
My block plane is still the same Lie-Nielsen No. 60-1/2 with the original high-carbon steel iron. This plane will be buried with me. It’s the best production block plane I’ve ever used.
For rabbet planes, I’m still using the Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane. The depth stop has broken off (that’s OK; I don’t use it much). And the fence is off the plane as much as on. It’s a great plane. I also fell into a used Clark & Williams 3/4” straight rabbet plane that I use about half the time. I should probably get rid of one of these planes. I don’t need both.
My plow plane is a Stanley No. 45 that I picked up from Patrick Leach. I decided to mothball my Barrett & Sons plow because its price was so intimidating to beginning users. And Barrett & Sons seems to have closed up shop. The No. 45 is an outstanding plow.
On moulding planes, I’ve been scaling back. I’d purchased a half-set of Clark & Williams (now Old Street Tools) hollow and rounds. That is total overkill, but that was the “frugal” option offered in the 1990s for people who didn’t want a full set. I use my No. 6s, 8s and 10s for the most part. The other planes lie dormant. I’ve been giving away unused planes from this half set to people who need them.
For beading planes, I still have a 3/16” beader that I use all the time (also from Clark & Williams). I’ve tried out 1/8” and 1/4” beaders, but they really aren’t necessary for my work and aren’t in the chest.
But I’ll never get rid of my Mathison 1/2” square ovolo. I love this tool. I also have added a 1/2” ogee plane from Caleb James to my set. It’s another winner.
Years ago I sold off my Lie-Nielsen No. 48 tongue-and-groove plane. That was a mistake. I now have the Nos. 48 and 49 in my chest (I hate buying tools twice, but there you have it). These are essential for making back boards and bottoms for casework.
For router planes, I have the Lie-Nielsen large and small router planes. I own all the extra accessory irons, but those aren’t necessary unless you do specialty work. I never use them.
I still have the Lie-Nielsen No. 73 shoulder plane.
The big addition to the tool chest was the Lie-Nielsen No. 51 shooting plane. The Veritas version works just as well (John Hoffman owns one). But the Lie-Nielsen came out first, so that’s what ended up in my tool chest. The good news is that it fits in the chest (barely).
Three things I avoid: debt, overhead and employees.
That’s the mantra Lucy, John and I follow. And I probably should just end this blog entry right there. The practical side of running a small business like Lost Art Press plus my personal household is complex enough to write a book about – thank goodness I have John as the other half of the business and Lucy here at home. Partnerships are tricky. I am extremely fortunate to have people who view money and work through the same lens.
So with that said, let’s start with debt.
When my wife, Lucy, and I were 23 we made a solemn vow while sitting on the washing machines in our apartment complex: We would avoid debt at every turn.
Within a couple months we paid off a few thousand dollars of debt we had on our credit cards and since then have – with the exception of buying a house – never carried debt on credit cards or consumer loans or anything.
I know there are people who will convince you that debt is good, but I’m too stupid to buy that argument. And so we buy only what we can afford and we save whatever we can. We live in an inexpensive city outside Cincinnati, Ohio, which allows two low-paid writers to raise a family and live fairly well. I cannot image making this life work in New York or Chicago.
Once you get rid of debt, the rest of the bills are easy to manage, even with a inconsistent salary like mine. The following are some of the things we do to make the numbers balance every month. But before I delve into this, it’s important to say that money does not occupy the center of our lives. We think of it as water from the faucet: It is there when you need it, but for Pete’s sake don’t waste it.
Utilities and Other ‘Fixed’ Costs Costs are like fingernails. They have to be constantly tended to or you’ll end up looking like that creepy guy in the Guinness Book of World Records. So every spring Lucy and I review our household costs.
The review isn’t about figuring out which TV channels we can live without on cable. It’s about checking in on the utilities themselves. Years ago we discovered our phone bill was creeping up every year even though we weren’t using the phone much. After 10 minutes of digging we discovered that the phone company had long ago discontinued the “package” of services we were using and offered packages with more services at half the cost.
We felt like suckers.
Now we check the websites of our cable company, phone company, internet provider and insurers each spring to make sure we’re getting the best published price. We’re not trying to whine and get an artificially lower rate; we just want the best rate they offer to anyone.
Hint: Try this with a magazine subscription. When they call you to renew at $36.95 per year, simply ask for the best price they can offer. Most magazines will immediately give you the introductory price with no arm twisting. This can save you 50 percent.
With our insurance carriers, we ask for a “rate review” every year. It’s a quick 10-minute phone call that usually results in them saying: Hmmm. You pay your bills on time so we’d like to offer you a discount to stay with us. Another good tactic with insurers: Ask them what you could do to save money on your rates. You might be surprised. We saved more than $1,000 a year by agreeing to have a dumb monitoring device installed on our cars for 90 days. Yeah, it’s creepy Big Brother stuff, but I’ll play along if that means I have an extra $1,000 for lumber and good food.
With Lost Art Press, John does similar reviews of our expenses and does them quite regularly. This has saved us thousands on on our phones, credit card processing fees and the like.
On Overhead Have none or almost none. Use your house as long as you can for your business. At one point we had boxes of books packed under every bed in the house. All of us – both my family and John’s – packed parcels for customers until we could afford a warehouse service.
Even when things seem stable, try to trim overhead. Lucy and I recently bought a building in Covington, Ky., which might seem like we’re doing a dumb thing and increasing overhead. But we’re actually reducing it – we’re going to sell our current home and move into the Covington building, which is worth about half of our current house and is smaller with less maintenance. This is a multi-year plan, but it will pay.
Don’t buy equipment thinking it will help you get work. Buy equipment because you absolutely have to purchase it in order to complete some work you have on hand. But when you buy, buy the best you can afford.
Don’t go into debt for equipment. If you don’t have the money to buy it, then you can’t afford it. You might have to turn down work as a result, but growing slow is better than having to be a slave to a machine and its monthly debt service.
When you do buy equipment, keep your accountant in the loop (see below) so you can amortize it. When you get rid of equipment, let your accountant know, especially if you live in a state that taxes personal property (I do).
Considering Incorporating Get an accountant who specializes in small businesses. Ask to talk to him or her about your situation and assist with tax planning – if you make this phone call right before you quit your corporate job it will help you sleep at night.
Our society isn’t set up to encourage small businesses. So you need to deduct everything allowable and legal. You can make your vacations deductible if you are smart. Learn to track all your expenses and mileage to reduce your tax burden. I know this sounds tedious and antithetical to living free of “the man,” but we are never free of “the man.” Once you set up a few spreadsheets and manila folders for receipts, you’ll do it automatically, like brushing your teeth. It makes a difference.
You might ask your accountant about incorporating as a limited liability corporation (LLC), which has some tax advantages once you start to make money.
Making Money & Marketing Unlike every other generation before, we have a huge advantage when it comes to marketing a tiny business: the Internet. Every person on the planet has access to free tools that allow them to communicate anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection.
If you aren’t using free social media tools – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and old-school blogs – then you are making life more difficult.
Using these services is like learning good hygiene. The first time you floss your teeth, it sucks. Eventually, you feel weird if you don’t do it.
Document your work with the camera on your phone and put one thing out there every day on some channel – even if it’s just a photo with a caption. (Warning: Putting 20 things up in a day could hurt you. Instead, think about the best thing you did that day – it could be an image, an idea or a dumb/clever joke. Post that on the channel it is best suited for. Then get on with the rest of your day.)
As you get started in social media, the best way to grow your presence is to interact with others. Add meaningful comments on their channels. Contribute. Be thoughtful and honest. You will generate a gravitational field and people will find you.
How does this make you money? It doesn’t. But if you are a talented, consistent and reasonable voice in your community – whatever community that is – eventually people will want to hire you. This is where it gets sticky. People will ask you to work for free or almost nothing. It’s tempting to do this a few times for “exposure.”
Here’s a typical example: Last year a guy in our town asked me to build a custom garden bench to put in front of his yard for runners and walkers to rest. He said I could put my company’s name on it and I would benefit from the exposure. Other people would see my work and want me to build furniture for them. Bullcrap.
Don’t work for free. If someone asks you to work for free, ask them to do something of equal value for you. That’s as close as I get to working for free.
Getting paid is the hardest part of living apart from a corporation. A regular paycheck is a seductive thing. But after a few years away from corporate life, you will have this epiphany: The regular paycheck is like a drug that can be snatched away at any moment. You can be fired and have the rug pulled out from under you, leaving you to scramble and make bad decisions.
If you are a freelancer, you never depend on one source of income. When one source dries up, another one can take its place. Eventually you’ll understand that this makes you far more resilient than someone with a regular paycheck that can disappear with a pink slip.
Do Your Own Work Lost Art Press now makes enough money to have an employee or two. And some days it is tempting. I’d love to offload some administrative work on hired help. But we won’t do it. When you hire people, you have to manage them instead of doing what you are good at.
And, I hate to say this, but most people who are looking for a job are not the right sort of person to work with an independent entrepreneur. What you really need to do is to clone yourself. You can’t do that (yet), so don’t assume you can find someone who cares as much about your work as you do. As a former manager, I can say this is a rare quality.
John and I know we could expand the business if we hired people. But then we’d just be managing people all day. And that’s not what I love, like or even tolerate.
When we need help at Lost Art Press, we hire contract work and use other independent artisans.
There are about 10,000 things I could add to this entry, but the above points are the most important ones to me. And there are areas in which I have gotten lucky. Lucy has health insurance through her business, so that’s not been something we’ve had to wrestle with, such as utilities or overhead.
If this all sounds daunting, it’s not. If you have the passion and work ethic then the administrative part of life will fall in line.
During the last five years, a lot of students, readers and friends have asked for advice on how to leave the corporate world – and avoid starvation in the process. When I get asked this question, I take a deep breath. I hate to give advice because what worked for me might not work for you.
But after five years of this, I have learned a few little things that might help you if you ever dare to step to the edge and look down. I’m going to start with the philosophical stuff first and move into the practical stuff in a future post.
Focus on One Thing, But Not Really I have a variety of semi-useful semi-developed skills – writing, editing, graphic design, teaching, photography, website building – that I’ve honed during my 47 years. And when I left my job in 2011 I decided to do all of those things to make money, but to make woodworking part of all of them.
So I write and edit freelance stories, but only about woodworking. All my website efforts are on woodworking sites only – no dog groomers or moss enthusiast sites. By tying all my skills up with a long wooden shaving, the work I do in one area (writing a woodworking book) helps feed the other areas (writing woodworking articles and teaching woodworking classes).
I’ve had lots of offers to work outside of woodworking – editing fiction novels, writing for encyclopedias, editing home-improvement websites – but I’ve always said “no” to those offers. Not because I am rich (I can always use the work) but because it’s not a good idea long-term.
Stools Need Three Legs The corollary to the item above is that life is easier if you have more than one leg to stand on. If I only built custom furniture, I’d struggle a lot more. If I only wrote articles or just taught classes, ditto and ditto.
When I stopped teaching last year I had built up enough work that I’m surviving on writing, editing and building furniture. I do miss the income from teaching – don’t get me wrong – but because I had a lot of options, I didn’t need to take a job at Rockler to make ends meet.
Always Work; Never Work This isn’t the first time I left a corporate job. In 1993 I left a cozy editing job to start my own political newspaper with a partner. I threw in the towel on that newspaper after a few years because my heart wasn’t in it, though my body was. I worked seven days a week. I slept under my desk at the newspaper. And I was miserable because politics was not (and still is not) my thing.
Today I work seven days a week. While my eyes are open, I am pretty much working on something. But I love what I do so much that my only regret is that I have to sleep at night.
It’s still work. Staring at the screen gives me a headache. Humping hundreds of pounds of wood my myself makes me sore at night. Dealing with manufacturing books and posters gives me a stomach ache.
But – and this is important – I’d do this even if it weren’t my job.
Lots of hobbyist woodworkers who have turned pro have told me that going pro ruined their woodworking hobby. My answer to this common statement is that woodworking isn’t a hobby. It should be an all-consuming obsession that frames your identity and existence (and has for many years). I started woodworking in earnest in 1993 and haven’t quit. I love it even more than when I started.
Try Not to Be a Hypocrite During the last 20 years, I’ve talked business with a lot of professional woodworkers all over the world. A common gripe goes like this: People just don’t buy bespoke, quality furniture anymore.
And they are saying this while dressed entirely in imported clothes made in questionable manufacturing conditions, with a shop full of Harbor Freight Tools and a house filled with plastic disposable junk.
While none of us is perfect and pure, I try to use local small businesses for everything I can – such as printing, design, T-shirts and scanning. It costs a bit more, but it has opened up opportunities that have greatly expanded my business and what I’m capable of.
I wear clothes and shoes that are made domestically and designed to last. They don’t cost that much more, but you won’t find them at a Wal-Mart. And I buy my food from the local butcher and green-grocer – it’s actually cheaper and better.
And I like good tools.
If you aren’t willing to embrace a world of custom, well-made objects, then maybe you shouldn’t peddle them.
If the above is obvious and not-at-all helpful, I apologize. The second installment will deal with nitty-gritty stuff: utilities, insurance, marketing, taxes and getting paid.
My bench planes are little changed. I use a Lie-Nielsen No. 8 as my jointer. I still have the same Stanley No. 5 (a Type 11) as my jack plane. My smoothing plane is a Lie-Nielsen No. 3 in bronze with a 45° frog, improved chipbreaker and a (gasp) Veritas PM-V11 iron. I am a huge fan of this steel. It takes a wicked sharp edge that lasts a long time.
