HOCK TOOLS'
PHOTO ALBUM:
Handmade Tools for Handmade Work
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We had a good time at the Lie-Nielsen Handtool Event in Oxnard, CA, in mid March. L-R: Ron Hock, Kevin Drake of Glen-Drake Toolworks, and Ron Goldman, editor of Woodworker West.
Customer Bob Baker dropped by with two planes he'd built and housed Hock Tools plane blades in them. Bob designs his planes with
personalized shapes that provide him a direct relationship with the handplane and therefore the work.
 A sweetheart of a wooden handplane. A sweetheart of a blade and breaker, a Hock Tools Plane Assembly. Thanks Bob!
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PROUD & UNPLUGGED
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No plug, no noise.
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a well-tuned handtool, and the rhythm of work on a nice piece of wood.
The best surface is produced
by a hand plane.
No amount of sanding can get you there.
You can see it.
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And, there is nothing like that feel of satin
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Greetings!
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Ron in the
Hock Tools' Shop
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I am glad to report the new Scratch Stock has been met with enthusiasm and that we've had a busy winter at Hock Tools. All thanks to woodworkers such as yourself. And, by the looks of it, our spring will be busy, too. Woodworking handtools are definitely experiencing a renaissance and renewed relevance at the workbench. Please read Linda's interview with Christopher Schwarz; it was so long we continued it on The Sharpening Blog. Raney Nelson of Daed Toolworks provides a thoughtful comment on making tools in our Guest Contributor column. You might imagine that I relate rather strongly to what he has to say. As always, thanks for your interest and please, keep those photos of your handmade planes and handmade tools with Hock blades coming! Sincerely,
Ron Hock
Hock Tools(888) 282-5233
(707) 964-2782
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P E O P L E P R O F I L E:
LINDA'S INTERVIEW WITH
CHRISTOPHER SCHWARZ
Christopher Schwarz, well-known woodworker, publisher, editor, woodworking instructor and all-round handtool enthusiast, agreed to be interviewed by e-mail. And though I would have loved to sit over coffee and look around his shop asking,
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Christopher Schwarz and his wife Lucy May, are two of the three founders of Lost Art Press (publishers of the popular Anarchist's Tool Chest), a small publishing company working to restore the balance between hand and machine woodworking. Christopher is the former editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine, where he worked between 1996 and 2011. He is now a contributing editor to that magazine, serves as a contributing editor to The Fine Tool Journal , and has produced several DVDs in conjunction with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks on traditional skills.
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"what's this and what's that," Chris's facile writing and conversational style enabled us to come up with a revealing exchange. Please read on:
Linda: What is Christopher Schwarz up to these days? It wasn't that long ago that he was a big-time editor bringing new attention to a special interest woodworking how-to magazine and enjoying the fruits and demands of fame. Why the change and how's it working for you and how would you describe the difference in your day-to-day?
Chris: Well it is a surprise to me that I lasted as long as I did at Popular Woodworking. Editor-types in the magazine business as a whole are regularly shown the door. Plus, I've never been keen on working for a big corporation. Before I came to Popular Woodworking I ran my own newspaper, which eventually failed, by the way.
So Popular Woodworking was a great job, probably the best one I've ever had. But after becoming editor, I realized that I didn't want to move up the corporate ladder anymore and become a planner and a delegator. All I wanted to do was build, write and publish stuff on traditional woodworking. And I wanted to do things in the best way possible. So Lost Art Press was born in 2007, as an outlet for those urges. It grew a lot faster than we ever intended - we were putting the brakes on it to keep from upsetting Popular Woodworking.
The coup de grace came in May 2011 when my Uncle Tom West died (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_West).It hit me in a surprising way. I decided to leave the magazine and do my own thing. Despite the fact that it is my "own thing," my life is pretty much unchanged. I build, I write, I research, I teach. But I do it from my house, at all hours and in decidedly non-corporate clothing.  | |
Cover and DVD of Lost Art Press's The Anarchist's Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz, 2011
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A place to do one's own thing. Schwarz's shop, including a view of real-life Anarchist's Tool Chest in the far right corner.
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Click here to continue reading interview...
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G U E S T C O N T R I B U T O R:
The Siren's Call of Making Useful Things
Sometimes I'm asked - often by myself - what on earth would make someone leave a perfectly good-paying and not-quite-mind-numbing professional career to make tools for a living.
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Raney Nelson
of Daed Toolworks
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One day I hope to have an answer to that, one that makes sense - but until then, please allow me to share a few of the rationalizations I've come up with.
First, there are some benefits to self-employment. I work from home, surrounded by heavy and often sharp metal objects - a plus when your children outnumber you. And of course there's the fact that, though my boss is an idiot, at least he has good taste in music. Second, and perhaps more importantly - since the first moment my hands touched Legos, I've suffered an irresistible urge to make things. And rather than abate over the years, the impulse has grown, and grown. For whatever reason, it seems there's just a battery of neurons in my brain that spit out feel-good chemicals at the mere thought of turning stuff into things.  | |
Daed Toolworks CS2 Coffin Smoother with Rawhide Adjusting Hammer
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I enjoy making all manner of things - but I've found that the satisfaction is highest when I make things that are both useful and beautiful. Furniture fills that bill quite nicely for me - and I still build furniture quite regularly. I imagine I always will. But in the process of making furniture, I also discovered the dirty little pleasure of making tools. Because if making things that are useful is good, then making things whose very purpose is to make more useful things... well, that's like a pyramid scheme of making; and I just can't say no to that particular little siren's call.
So, getting back to the question posed back in the first
sentence. Truth is I quit my job to start Daed Toolworks because one day it occurred to me that I could. And who knows - maybe I will actually get away with it.
Raney Nelson daedtoolworks.com |
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