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On vacation in Poland, I found a cabinet shop using only hand tools
I was traveling through Poland and stopped at a small cabinet shop run by a family. They build everything with hand tools, no power equipment at all. They showed me how they cut mortise and tenon joints using just saws and chisels. One specific trick was using beeswax on drawer slides to make them glide smoothly. I tried their method on a small box I was making, and it worked really well. Now I think more about using hand tools for detail work. You should check out places like this if you travel, they have so much to share.
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nora_park6mo ago
28% of my hand tool projects end with me accidentally hitting my thumb with a mallet, so you're way ahead of me already. Glad the beeswax trick worked, @harperr30 - I'd probably forget and use it on my toast by accident.
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christopherg978mo ago
NO WAY, my friend Alex had a similar thing happen in Vermont! He met an old guy who made chairs using only a drawknife and spoke shave. The craftsman showed him how wetting the wood before carving cuts down on tear-out. Alex came home and his green wood projects got SO much smoother after that trick.
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harperr308mo ago
Seriously, I tried that trick last winter and it totally fixed my splintering problem.
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adamk958mo ago
Check out what happens when you use too much water, though. It can swell the fibers too much and cause warping as it dries. I've seen guys ruin good stock by over-wetting before planing. Maybe test on scrap wood first to find the right balance. Has anyone tried this with oily woods like teak?
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