Tool handling guidelines

[Evans]

Anybody who has taken classes in any kind of hand tool usage has probably been told many rules to follow for proper handling of tools. I've been told some of these by multiple teachers, so I thought they were universal. However, I see many of them contradicted often by other teachers and by experienced and obviously skilled woodworkers. So, which of these rules are universal, which actually should be followed, and which are just superstition? I'm talking about rules like these:

• When resting a chisel horizontally on a flat surface, always lay the chisel bevel down. This protects the cutting edge from contacting the surface.
• When placing a plane on a surface, always lay it on its side. Resting the plane on is sole presses the cutting edge of the blade against the surface, possibly damaging the edge.

Any more similar "rules"? I'm probably breaking some of them. Are any of these actually worth expending the attention to follow, or are they all just "old woodworker's tales"? Of course, the main reason to follow a teachers rules is so you don't get tsked at in class.

[Brian]

I'll comment since you went out of your way in attempt to change my evil ways in my bed thread

My thoughts are that both of these infractions are likely harder on the bench than they are on the tool. I doubt your bending the blade by resting the tool blade down, more likely your making small cut in your bench top.

I rest the chisels in the way that prevents them from rolling off the bench and onto the floor....something that will actually damage them. I have serious doubts that anything is damaging the edge when I'm sitting them face down.

If they were so fragile the slightest misalignment in the cut would destroy the chisels and resetting short cuts without lifting the plane would hopelessly bend the plane blade edges.

However, if I'm offending everyone by the ww equivalent of dining with my elbows on the table here please forgive me as I'm self-educated and that is not without some error.

More importantly I think it's wise to hold the handle firmly when chopping with a bench chisel and do not lever a Japanese mortise chisel. Both of these things will damage the edge.

Edit to fix iPad related errors.

[Paul Atzenweiler]

I have been a wood worker for many years and like Brian am mostly self taught as it was YEARS before i had access to the internet. Like Evans I usually lay my planes (metal and wooden) on their sides. I have found I don't always do that nor do i always set my many chisels with the edge oriented away from other tools etc. I do care about my tools and am very diligent about maintaining all the edges. I have never had an "incident" involving damage on the bench surface. Like Brian said, keeping your tools on the bench is critical as dropping them always leads to edge repair and excessive cursing! My struggle is keeping my bench top neat and organized during a long project. I always keep edge protection on my saws and keep them on their peg whenever possible. Like Brian said (Brian thinks he's soooo smart) the bench is likely to suffer not the tool. I have also found that since i am doing more instagram and facebook i am noticing how cluttered my work area looks in photos and that has lead to my being neater.

[Matt J]

I think these rules are more like 'best practices' or good habits that may or may not be important depending on the circumstances. It would be most important to keep the blade off a surface if there was any grit or other material that would chip the blade or foul things up if it were transferred to the workpiece. If you're working in your own shop and have complete control over the cleanliness of your bench, do whatever you want. But if you're at a jobsite or in a class and there are other people around who may not keep things as clean as you do, it would be good to be in the habit of protecting your blades.

[Jon B]

I think Matt brought up a good point about the cleanliness of the situation in which you're working. I'm much more fastidious about how I set my tools when I'm working at a job site that I don't have as much control over, than when I am working in my own space.

I recently worked with a woodworker who was very careful about how he stored wood throughout the whole woodworking process. When we got fresh wood in from the lumber yard we would stand it up on the floor (which was already pretty clean) but before we would run the boards over the jointer and through the planer we would cut off the ends just in case there was any dirt/stones imbedded, to prevent the dirt/stones from damaging the blades of the machines. Once boards had been milled we always stored them in a way so as to keep them nice and clean. Seems like a no brainer, but it can be easy to stand a board up on the floor after cutting/milling, only to pick up a bit of dirt, and then when you start handplaning that board with your freshly sharpened blade you run the risk of nicking the blade.

[Evans]

I rest the chisels in the way that prevents them from rolling off the bench and onto the floor....something that will actually damage them.

True, that. Not a problem with wider chisels that have enough weight at the blade end, but always an attention challenge with narrow chisels. I usually wind up resting the blade end on a piece of scrap anyway, so bevel up or down doesn't matter in those cases.