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Comment by blackguardx | Hacker News Reader

Why pre-WW2? I think the quality peak was in the 50s.

Because of fetish. Woodworking, blacksmithing, knife sharpening, hunting and fishing, and of course guns are often very fetishized hobbies. To make that cutting board really flat, certifiably flat, it has to be done with a set of Stanley hand planes that you can buy rusty for a mere $250 from eBay or CL and then spend 2 months restoring them.

I respect carpentry, woodworking and the skill required to rip a piece of wood with such a saw, but I bet most of medieval Japanese craftsmen would ditch their hands saws for a Harbor Freight table saw in a heartbeat. In modern times to spend 7 hours ripping one piece of wood has little to do with woodworking.

You're missing out on the most critical detail of Japanese culture that is lost by most westerners:

Speed isn't more important than having respect for your craft. If you have to go slower to produce a better result, you go slower. If you have to work harder to perfect an incredibly tight joint, you do that. You don't have to use traditional joinery to build in Japan today. But if you build something in a shitty way, it reflects poorly on you.

Efficiency is not the goal.

I am not missing out on anything. Modern steel and modern tools are good. A $500-$600 dollar miter saw with a good blade makes very tight and precise cuts, better than 99% of hand made cuts made in Edo Period.

The article is specifically talking about a large saw. A modern mill is gonna do a much better job ripping large pieces of wood, then 3 dudes sawing for hours and constantly resharpening their tools. A good joint is the one that holds the load well. A non-masochistic way of building things is not shitty, it simply means you are did get trapped in a cult thinking.

> Efficiency is not the goal. If you are into wood cutting, then sure. Go for it. Cut it in any way you want, with any imaginable tool. But then it's wood cutting, not building things.

In festina lente.

I think fetish is a bit strong, though maybe somebody gets their jollies from it. I just find hand work to be more rewarding. If I was making things for a profit, then yes, I would spend the money to get to something that does tasks faster and with less effort, but I do things like this to have fun, get blisters on my hands, nicks on my fingers, build strenght, realize that if it looks straight, it is, and make mistakes that only I will ever know about. I also don't have the budget for expensive things, or the room to house all the power tools. I have the back wall of a single car garage that I actually use to keep my car in.

It's not fetish. Unless you spend hundreds of dollars on a Lie-Nielsen or Veritas plane, this will be vastly superior to any other new plane: https://www.ebay.com/itm/116099802353

Made between 1933-1941, $69 plus shipping, and probably ready to start hogging away at some rough lumber.

It was what my teacher recommended. I think with the right sharpening technique you can make anything work for you, including a harbor freight plane. Just be prepared to do a lot of up-front work to make it work. Then be prepared to sharpen the blade a lot. Then upgrade your blade to something better, like a hock blade. https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/tools/hock-tools/hock-replac....

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