# Questions - Hand Tools Section



## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

I've been noticing more and more Q&A posters in the hand tools section. Some have been here forever and a day and got sucked into the dark side but I'm also noticing a lot of new names lately!

So tell me guys & gals how you are finding the forum... Is it from hand tool related searches that returned a thread here? Or was there some other means by which you've arrived here? 

The reason I ask is because I'm curious to know:
1. What are people's interest.
2. I'm lobbying for a division of the hand tools section into a few more specific genres... I think we've been blowing up that general hand tools section long enough.

Thanks!
~tom


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

firemedic said:


> I'm lobbying for a division of the hand tools section into a few more specific genres... I think we've been blowing up that general hand tools section long enough.
> 
> Thanks!
> ~tom



I think you are lobbying for a firemedic section.:laughing::laughing: If we break it up into more specific sections, that might be too much. For example, if the tool is a "screwdriver" section, should it be instead a section for phillips, one for slotted, one for wood handles, and one for plastic handles. Then there would be a question of which one to choose if you have a wood handle phillips.:laughing::laughing: Just a little levity.

A general hand tool section covers quite a bit. I found in forums that had sub forums, that it just gets to be too much. A single hand tool section may experience more activity, and create more interest than sections separate that get little activity. A plus is that just a hand tool section draws users to it generally, and just the screwdriver guy will get exposure to handplanes, handsaws, chisels, and neat tools like that.










 







.


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## DaveTTC (May 25, 2012)

I agree with cabinetman in general. I would like to see more members and more activity.

Dave The Turning Cowboy


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

The timing of this thread is interesting because when I cruised over to a metalworking forum last night they'd just done the same thing within the last 12 hours:
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/forum.php

They just broke out a giant area for specific brands of machinery, expanded the classifieds from one to four categories, and broke down the projects category into a dozen subcategories. I think the projects one was a mistake. I liked reading through the single category just to see what people were making, but I'm not going to check out 12 different ones every day.

So my vote, if I get one, is leave it alone - although I'd like to see a few sticky posts or an FAQ so I don't have to read another post about someone finding a plane that is 99% perfect but it is currently soaking in evaporust. Maybe something on sharpening, cleaning, recommendations on new/old brands etc.

Joe
PS: The original question I think was "where is everyone coming from all of a sudden?" I found the forum while looking for the answer to some question (which I can't find now but I do remember it was never answered.)


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## DaveTTC (May 25, 2012)

I found the forum when doing a 'wood' search in the apple app store, down loaded it and about 2 weeks later when i had nothing to do I decided to log in and been here regular ever since

Dave The Turning Cowboy


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

...firemedic blog...

Get busy, Tom.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

I did not find the hand tools forum. If I recall I was doing an internet search for something else, perhaps wood turning related and one of the results was a thread in the wood turning forum.

I made a mental note of woodworkingtalk.com and some weeks later came back to the site.

I browse through many of the forums on this site, including this one.

I agree with the others about maintaining a single hand tools forum. This site has more forums than many others.


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

I'm not a big fan of sub-sub forums. I think Cabinetman has a good point.

I don't pay very much attention at all to were a post is posted. I browse through "New Posts" or "Todays Post" and read what I find interesting regardless of wich forum or subforum it's posted in.


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

joesbucketorust said:


> So my vote, if I get one, is leave it alone - although I'd like to see a few sticky posts or an FAQ so I don't have to read another post about someone finding a plane that is 99% perfect but it is currently soaking in evaporust. Maybe something on sharpening, cleaning, recommendations on new/old brands etc.


+1 I tend to agree with Joe, but I know what you mean about separating some of the messages into a separate section.

-Tom, do you have something specific in mind for subsections? If you could make a proposal we could discuss something concrete instead of each of us trying to guess how we might divide it up. It might also direct the focus of this discussion a little bit.

BTW, I originally found this through a Google search while looking for some info on hand planes. I can't remember what info I was looking for but I must have been happy with what I found because I stayed.:yes:


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## lawrence (Nov 14, 2009)

I would like to see a separate section on hand tool use and implementation just if nothing else to separate it from the "finds" and other misc goodies. there is after all a very distinct technique to hand tool usage. another thing is I would love to see a place where I can throw up some pics and find out where the %$^& I'm messing up....lol

hand tools is always the first place I check when I get on so a few subs wont bother me....and from the way the interest is picking up we will need it sooner or later.....I supose that to a point Me and a few others are getting a bit more into hand tools than others so is just my opinion


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

lawrence said:


> I would like to see a separate section on hand tool use and implementation just if nothing else to separate it from the "finds" and other misc goodies. there is after all a very distinct technique to hand tool usage. another thing is I would love to see a place where I can throw up some pics and find out where the %$^& I'm messing up....lol
> 
> hand tools is always the first place I check when I get on so a few subs wont bother me....and from the way the interest is picking up we will need it sooner or later.....I supose that to a point Me and a few others are getting a bit more into hand tools than others so is just my opinion


+1 sounds good


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

I see what you all are saying in reference to one sub-section and it makes sense. I wasn't meaning it needed to be severely broken down I was simply thinking in terms of broadening this section to more entail non-gas/electric tools then 2-3 subs under that such as "steam/water" and "hand". In other words it would encompass lost technology as a whole then go from there.

Lawrence has a good point on "finds" and technique as well.

But again the opposition to that idea is sensible.

I was curious about the "how you found it" part simply because I see what appears to be a small resurgence of people interested in hand tools and I was curious if this was the reason we were seeing that... ie would support that perceived increase.


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## 65BAJA (May 27, 2012)

I found this forum while doing a search for forums relating to "woodworking". I'm building a small 11' speedboat. I bought my first plane and chisel set a couple of weeks ago. I was looking for threads on sharpening plane irons and chisels.


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