The Minimalist Woodworker. Vic Tesolin

me) technique if I were woodworking for a living. I would have

       stuck with my same old techniques because you don’t get paid to experiment.

      HAND TOOLS—A LOVE AFFAIR?

      The majority of the tools in my shop do not have a motor on them. I do this because

       I enjoy using them. I’m not intrigued by the romance of them. I don’t care who made

       them or when. I pick tools that get the job done.

      Hand tools produce little dust and noise, which makes them perfectly suited for

       small, in-home spaces or for people who don’t want the constant din of motors

       running. After spending 14 years in the Canadian Artillery, the last thing I want is

       more noise.

      Many worry about the learning curve associated with hand tools. But believe

       me: If you can set up a router to cut a mortise you can use hand tools. What you

       do need to do, however, is practice using them. But once you produce your first

       gossamer-thin shaving with a well-tuned hand plane, you’ll find the time to make

       more. And then you’ll no longer have to sand machine marks out of your projects.

       I wonder if anyone thinks fondly about the next time they have to sand something?

       I doubt it. Your family will miss you but they will know where to find you.

      PROJECTS FOR THE SHOP

      The projects in this book were selected to help you get into using hand tools.

       There are jigs and fixtures, shop furniture, and storage projects that will help you

       get started. Each project has its own set of skills that will add to your repertoire and

       each skill is transferable to almost any other project you can dream up. The mortise

       and tenon joint you cut for the saw bench and bent is the same joints you will use

       time and time again to make furniture.

      The other advantage to starting with shop projects is if they don’t turn out with

       perfect-looking joinery, no one will see it but you. A small gap in a joint reveal or a

       bit of planing tear-out can be tolerated in a shop project. The key is to learn from

       those oopsies and do a better job next time.

      Please note that this is not the only way to woodwork. This is the way I woodwork.

       But I feel that my techniques will get you good results. The techniques and projects

       in this book come right out of my own shop. These techniques are not new; in fact,

       many of them are thousands of years old, though we all but abandoned them a

       century ago when machines became all the rage.

      Over years of practice I separated the wheat from chaff and have come up with

       a way to woodwork that makes it easy and enjoyable. So let’s stop talking about

       woodworking and head into the shop to make something.

      In order to understand, you must do.

      A SPACE

       TO WORK

      W

      hen you think ‘wood shop,’ you normally think of a fairly big space with

       lots of tools on the walls, machines on the floor, and wood everywhere.

      This is just one type of shop but it’s the one we see all the time in books and

       magazines. My shop used to look like that until I started to go the Minimalist route.

      There are plenty of us out there who don’t install the table saw first and then

       try to cram everything else in around it, especially when space is a premium.

       What if I suggested starting with enough space for a 20" x 60" workbench and

       some hand tools? Would you have enough room then? My first shop space was

       40 square feet located under the basement stairs. I wasn’t able to stand erect in

       the first third of the shop but I had a pegboard wall and tool storage under the

       bench. I wasn’t making large things but I was making something. Now when I

       look at my 170 square foot shop, in comparison, I feel like I have tons of space.

      So what am I trying to say here? You don’t need a big space to make things

       out of wood. The truth is you can woodwork almost anywhere. Whether that is a

       basement, garage, pantry, or spare room, embrace the space you have and work

       within it. You may have only a stout kitchen table and an understanding spouse.

       That will work fine. The point is that a lack of square footage should not stop

       you from woodworking. There are always two things a woodworker wants: more

       clamps and more space. However, if all you’ve got is 100 square feet, use it.

      We’ll talk about tools in more depth and why I chose what I did in the next

       chapter. For now, let’s take a look at a few different minimalist shop layouts. If your

       space doesn’t match one of these, you can likely draw from these ideas to create

       your own home workshop.

      MY HUMBLE GARAGE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH

      I’m fortunate to have 170 square feet of space to house my shop. When I started in this

       garage space, I had all the power tools and machines I thought I needed. Things are a lot

       different now, after I’ve realized that most of those machines are unnecessary to the kind

       of work I enjoy. The few machines I still have fit easily in the space and do come in handy.

       But the truth is that the power tools I do have don’t see nearly as much work as my hand

       tools. The layout of my own shop is pretty straightforward, which helps keep work efficient.

      SPACE UNDER THE STAIRS IS ALL YOU NEED

      Many multi-floor homes—be they traditional houses, downtown condos, or rented rooms—

       feature little alcoves under the stairs. Jeff lives in a loft-style downtown apartment. Under

       the stairs to the top floor is an area that was free so he put a workspace there. Jeff

       works with hand tools so this space is perfect. Hand planes and saws make fairly coarse

       shavings so he doesn’t have to worry too much about dust getting flung into the other

       areas of his apartment.

      SIMPLY WORK IN THE LIVING ROOM

      Whether in a cramped