Fred and Barney

Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern stone age fami -

Ah no, a different Fred and Barney. This pair were used by Bob "Good, Fast and Cheap Bench" Key to demonstrate a similar point to that made in the comments box below. Unfortunately Bob's site has expired, gone to meet its maker, joined the server invisible etc, albeit it lives still via the Wayback Machine. But I'm sure he wouldn't mind me copying it here, for the greater understanding of the populace, 'cos linking direct to it in the archive seeems to be problematic. Take it, Mr Key:

I have a theory: in woodworking, no matter what tools we start with, we end up with about the same tools if we stay at it long enough. Take Fred and Barney, for example:

Fred
Buys a table saw and a router
Makes some crude stuff
Buys a thickness planer and a power miter box
Buys a bunch of clamps and makes better stuff
Builds a router table, adds a band saw and a dust collector
Builds some nice stuff
Feeds tip of left thumb to his table saw
Buys a hand plane and sharpening kit to improve the surfaces of his finished work
Gets some offers to build serious stuff
Builds a workbench
Quality of work improves with knowledge of handwork
Adds a fine set of chisels, and some nice saws
Uses power tools less than he used to

Barney
Buys a Workmate and a few hand tools
Makes some crude stuff
Picks up an old manual miter box and a sharpening kit
Buys a bunch of clamps and makes better stuff
Picks up a few more planes, some really nice chisels, and builds a bench
Builds some nice stuff
Slices left thumb with chisel - six stitches
Buys a band saw to cut down on the grunt work
Gets some offers to build serious stuff
Adds a table saw and thickness planer to eliminate even more grunt work
Quantity of work improves with addition of power tools
Installs a dust collector
Produces more work than he used to


Me again. 'Course the detail will likely differ. Personally I've yet to need stiches from injuries of either sort so far - touch wood. The tablesaw remains an anathema to me and I think the dust collector should feature a bit earlier in both cases, but I did indeed start seriously by buying a router and table. Regretably though, I also differ in one quite annoying way. I don't ever seem to have reached the "produces more work than he used to" bit. ..