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The first time I ever visited Frank Klausz (on the cover of our August 2006 issue) it was to shoot some photos for an article on dovetailing, for which is he is a well-known savant. The photographer, Al Parrish, and I flew into Newark, N.J., late that afternoon and Frank graciously insisted we come by his shop for a visit before the photo shoot the next day.
Frank’s Cabinet Shop is a large, clean and efficient commercial shop. The walls are covered in hand tools (many are for display; many are for use). And the machinery is well-cared-for. In the middle of the shop that day was a stack of cabinets that were obviously intended to be built in to a space in a home. Those, he explained, were for a customer on an island. He had to build them to a certain size to get them on the boat to ferry them out there. Now that’s an unusual installation. No going back to the shop for a tool or piece of forgotten hardware.
After a tour and some chit-chat, the photographer asked Frank a question that took me by surprise, mostly for the fact that I don’t ask it myself more often.
“Frank,” Al asked, “what’s your favorite tool?”
Without hesitation, Frank started striding to the back of his shop. “Come,” he said. “I’ll show you.”
With Frank’s reputation as a dovetailing and his traditional training, I was expecting his answer to be some sort of traditional tool, perhaps something from his native Hungary, perhaps something handed down to him by his cabinetmaking father.
Nope. Not even close. Instead, we stopped at a stroke sander, a huge piece of industrial machinery. Frank launched into a speech about how much time this machine saved him. How much labor. And how he could use it to sand curved surfaces like no other machine.
I was surprised, but only for a moment. Sometimes the personae of a person gets filtered through the media in a way that’s basically right, but not quite the whole story. Frank loves his hand tools and is a master at hand-dovetailing because he teaches it everywhere he goes. But when it comes to the day-in-day-out work…¦.
That got me to thinking about my own favorite tool. Though most of my friends think of me as a hand-tool guy, too, my favorite tool isn’t a a hand tool, either. It’s my Powermatic 8″ jointer.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
For a very amateur woodworker with limitied time, anything that plugs in and cuts fast is my favorite tool.
Dwight: What is this tool you speak so highly of? Enquiring minds (and hands) want to know. And what are French dovetails?
Jon: I agree. I plan to start asking each of the people I visit this question. It’s better than asking them "If you were a tree, what sort of tree would you be?"
Chris
I think Chris has opened the door for a series of columns or sidebars (or even a feature) describing authors’ favorite tools in Pop Wood. How about it, Mr Editor?
Isn’t it amazing that with the dozens of power tools and literally hundreds of hand tools we have in our shops that we can even have a favorite at all! Yes, I have one too – its a joinery machine that makes the best French dovetails ever – and makes perfect mortise and tennon joints with ease.
-Papa D