I recently saw three Youtube videos by Tom Lie-Nielsen, founder and President of
Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. His company makes some of the
finest hand (non-electric) tools available today. The are replicas of traditional woodworking
tools—better engineered than the originals. My only gripe about them is that they are
priced accordingly :-(>

The videos were about how to resharpen and otherwise maintain woodworking saws. Most people today
think of hand saws as a throwaway item. But in the old days (perhaps a century ago) this maintenance
was considered perfectly normal. So Lie-Nielsen is explaining (quite well, BTW) how to maintain
his product so you will not have to go back to him and buy another.

• Saws Part 1: Techniques and Sharpening a Rip Saw:
• Saws Part 2: Sharpening a Cross Cut Saw & Setting Saw Teeth:
• Saws Part 3: Jointing, Care & Maintenance:

He was using his own company’s saws for the demonstrations, but since they are are closely based
on traditional western saws the techniques are applicable to any such tools. I have several
old saws that I am trying to restore to good condition. I have read about saw
sharpening, but actually watching the process, even in a video, has been a big help.

In contrast to this there was recently a discussion of cordless electric drills on an e-mail list I
follow. It seems that the battery packs on these drills are good for only so many recharges. Then
they have to be replaced. For the cost of a
replacement battery pack you might as well buy a new drill. Planned obsolesence. You don’t have this
issue with Lie-Nielen’s saws.

Incidentally, I have several “cordless drills” that are at least 1/2 century old and still work
fine. A couple are pictured here: