My buddy's basement woodshop taught me more than any youtube video ever did

I've got a rocking chair I started carving back in 2019, just sitting in my garage collecting dust. Last weekend I was over at my friend Dave's place in Milwaukee and he's got a full woodshop down there. He pointed out that I was using a cheap chisel set from Harbor Freight and said 'you're fighting the tool, not the wood.' That hit different because he's right, I spent 3 years blaming myself for bad cuts when the tools were junk. I ended up borrowing his Lie-Nielsen chisel for 10 minutes and it cut like butter. Has anyone else had a project stall because you were using the wrong gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

sethb4511d ago

Wait, you were trying to do carving with a Harbor Freight chisel? Those things are basically sharpened butter knives... I bought one once and it chipped on the second cut. A bad tool will make you feel like you forgot how to use your hands. I had a similar thing with a hand plane I got from a flea market, spent two years thinking I just sucked at planing. Then I tried a buddy's old Stanley and suddenly stuff was actually flat.

miabennett11d ago

Oh man, I feel this so hard. It's wild how a crappy tool can make you doubt your own skills for years.