Tools Exist in a System

Just for fun, take a Western tenon saw and a piece of wood and try to cut a joint. You can't use any work-holding beyond your own body. How did that work out? I imagine you didn't get very far, and I wouldn't either because these tools can't be used alone. A tenon saw needs a bench, a vice, a hold fast, or a bench-hook. The work must be held steady and it must resist the pushing force of the tool. Without appropriate work-holding, the tool is useless.

Japanese work-holding is more subtle and relies more on the body, but it's just as present. The planing beam and planning board have built-in stops to resist the pulling force of saws and planes. The Japanese carpenter might throw a foot or a knee over the work, but every move he or she makes with a tool can be braced to stay steady.

To put it simply: all tools exist in a system. No plane or saw works on its own. They all require appropriate work-holding, and each woodworking tradition gives us all the solutions we need for the pieces we might want to build. So basically, it's not about which tool is better, rather it's about what you want to build.

Consider the green-wood chair-maker. He or she needs to split wood, rive it into sections, carve it, turn it, and mortise it. For these operations, the chair-maker has the block, the shave-horse, the lathe, the riving break, and perhaps a knee-height bench. No other fixtures are necessary. A traditional chair-maker might not even own a plane.

Every woodworking tradition is optimized for the objects it produces.