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Hand Tool Shortcuts

Match Planing and Other Hand Tool Timesavers

Because the hand tool paradigm is taking the tool to the wood rather than wood to the tool, we have some flexibility in how flat our boards need to be.  You can't get kickback with a hand saw because the board isn't flat against a fence.  So over the years I've slowly shut off my power too upbringing and learned there are a lot of shortcuts I can take to work faster when working by hand.

  • Flatten faster by sawing to size first
  • Layout your joinery from the shoulder not the end of a board
  • Slave your joinery to the tool sizes being used
  • Match planing 2.0 ensures flat panels
  • Start your plane in a knife line and skip the fences

Learn More in The Hand Tool School

Everything discussed today and more has already been covered in The Hand Tool School. Match planing 2.0, shoulder layout, and more all have dedicated videos and projects demonstrating them.  If you want to up your hand tool game, this is the place to be.


So I have a deal: use "rwwlive" to save 10% at The Hand Tool School

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