www.inthewoodshop.org Woodworking Survey Results

August 15, 2002

Here are the results you have been waiting for. They were tallied in as scientific a way possible (yes, I was trained to do this professionally in University but it has been a long time). Some data were omitted as being too varied to be of any real value, and some I haven't yet figured out what to do with. There are, however, plenty of interesting things to be learned.

If you thought you answered a certain way and the data didn't turn up in the survey, that is probably because your response was deleted. Empty or mostly incomplete survey files and damaged files were deleted. Some answers, where it was obvious that it is a different way of saying the same thing (for example NYW and The New Yankee Workshop), were treated as the same answer. In cases where the variety in the answers was too great, the top, or most common, answers are presented. I tried to make the graphs as readable as possible but my graphing software is terrible.

Here we go....

Some General Stats and Generalizations:

• 208 responses in the first 15 days
• 187 were good
• 21 scratched (blank/screwed up)
• 95% of the respondants visit rec.woodworking (I expect this to drop over time.)
• 1-3% visit the turning or carving newsgroups instead of rec.ww
• 42% pf rec.ww users also use both of alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking/furniture
• alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking is 33% more popular than alt.binaries.pictures.furniture
• Note: I didn't advertise in the carving, turning or pictures newsgroups. I don't know why. Should I?
• Average Age: 44.4
• Average Experience: 12.6 years
• Most people get the bug in their early 30's?
• Average Shop Size: 495 square feet (a 2 car garage or half a basement?)
• Percentage of respondants that are retired: 18%
• Percentage of respondants that have injured themselves while woodworking: 10%
• Percentage of respondants that are professionals: 11%
• The variation in the type of professional work done by those who responded is staggering.
• Percentage of respondants that use the Scary Sharp(tm) sharpening system (abrasive papers): 42%
• oil stones are more popular than water stones for sharpening (27% over 20%)

Where did the surveys originate from?

Favorites

• Top 3 Woodworking Magazines Only three were included as there were piles of magazines tied for fourth.
  1. Fine Woodworking - 48%
  2. WoodSmith - 6%
  3. ShopNotes - 5%


• Top 3 Woodworking Books A lot of variation here but these three were mentioned more than any others.
  1. Understanding Wood Finishing by Flexner - 9%
  2. The Workbench Book by Landis - 7%
  3. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking Vols 1 and 2 - 6%


• Top 3 North American Woodworking Stores
  1. Woodcraft - 28%
  2. Lee Valley - 16%
  3. Rockler - 15%


• Top UK Woodworking Store
  1. Axminster - 65%


• The N. American Woodworking TV Showdown Since there aren't that many, I included everthing that was in the database.
  1. New Yankee Workshop - 76%
  2. The Woodwright's Shop - 9%
  3. Woodworks - 8%
  4. American Woodshop - 2%
  5. This Old House - 2%
  6. Hometime - 1%
  7. In the Workshop - 1%
  8. The Router Workshop - 1%


• Top Woodworking Websites There was a LOT of variation here but four were mentioned more than the others. I didn't make any calculations as they were almost exactly equal.
  • Badger Pond
  • Fine Woodworking Magazine
  • Woodworking.com
  • Woodshopdemos.com

Oh that infernal question - Normite or neanderthal:

Some Galoot Facts:

• 87% of galoots have some form of power tool or tools in their workshop
• the percentage of galoots who prefer Stanley or Lee Valley/Veritas tools is tied at 25%
• only 19% of galoots responding to the survey aubscribe to the OldTools mailing list
• 44% of galoots surved said they would in the future
• The top 10 tools every good galoot needs. These are your responses, so don't blame me if you don't like the list. Actually, in spite of some of the negative comments I have received, I think it is a pretty good list. Please note that some like items have been grouped together (for example chisel and chisels becomes chisel(s), and a plethora of different technical names for Japanese hand saws have been placed under the heading 'Japanese style saw'). This was done for clarity. Each vote was weighted based on where it fell in the respondant's level of importance (ie. a vote for chisel as first choice is worth more than a vote for chisel as a tenth choice). The numbers are representative of the number of points each tool scored.
  1. chisel(s) - 65 points
  2. square (either combination or plain) - 54 points
  3. jack plane (#5) - 48 points
  4. backsaw family - 41 points
  5. smoothing plane - 34 points
  6. Japanese saw family - 31 points
  7. marking gauge (includes mortising) - 28 points
  8. jointer plane (#7) - 28 points
  9. hammer/mallet - 25 points
  10. rule (includes folding) - 25 points

Some Normite Facts:

• Here is the lowdown on the tilting arbor table saw question:

  

• I wanted to have more graphs but the following will illustrate for you why that didn't occur this time. The data for the most popular woodworking machinery is as follows. I did not include the graph on this web page as it is too large. Click here to see the actual graph. Use your browser's back button to come back.
  1. Delta - 31%
  2. Jet - 25%
  3. No Answer - 15%
  4. Grizzly - 12%
  5. General - 4%
  6. Powermatic - 3%
  7. Ridgid and Craftsman - 2% each
  8. SCMI, Crane, Nutool, Walker Turner, DeWalt, Kity - 1% each
  
  
• When it came to portable power tools, I didn't bother friggin around with the stupid graph. Here is the ungraphed data. A few tool brands received such a low percentage I didn't add them to the list.
  1. Porter Cable - 38%
  2. DeWalt - 24%
  3. No Answer - 11%
  4. Bosch - 7%
  5. Makita - 6%
  6. Milwaukee - 3%
  7. Ryobi and Black & Decker - 2% each
  
  
• By the way, Normite types who believe in brand loyalty are in the minority; 23%.
• The top 10 tools every good power tool freak needs. Again, these are your responses, so don't blame me if you don't like the list. Not a bad list again. Please note that some like items have been grouped together (for example router, fixed-base router and plunge router simply becomes 'router', and a swack of different terms like SCMS, compound mitre saw, miter box, etc. have all been grouped under the heading 'mitre saw'). This was done for clarity. Each vote was weighted based on where it fell in the respondant's level of importance (ie. a vote for jointer as first choice is worth more than a vote for jointer as a tenth choice). The numbers are representative of the number of points each tool scored.
  1. table saw - 1051 points (cabinet saw in particular is responsible for 15% of those points)
  2. jointer - 635 points
  3. thickness planer - 611 points
  4. bandsaw - 534 points
  5. router - 514 points (plunge router accounted for 15% of those points)
  6. drill press - 458 points
  7. hand held drill - 360 points (half and half, cordless and corded)
  8. miter saw - 268 points
  9. dust collector - 162 points
  10. router table with router - 137 points

A last few tidbits about woodworkers and their shops:

• We'll skip the plans question.
• Here is some interesting information on dust collection from the survey. Due to the survey CGI script, the responses were sent to file as abbreviations and that is how they were imported to the database. None means exactly that. No official form of dust collection, other than maybe a broom and shovel, are employed in the shop. Vac means that the woodworker relies largely on a shop vac for dust collection. Cyc means that the woodworker has a cyclone dust separator in the shop. Dc means that the woodworker uses a single stage, bag and blower dust collector. Lid means that in addition to a dust collector, the woodworker employs one of those garbage can separator lids.

  

• The following graph compares the average age, average shop size, and average years of exerience of woodworkers in all of the countries that have responded so far. I know it isn't the best graph, next time I would divide it into two separate ones, but it is interesting. Note that the information may not be completely accurate for countries with a small number of participants. Hopefully this will change over time and we will get a better, more accurate idea. Each country has a set of three bars. The almost unreadable blue bars are the average experience in years of the respondants from that country. The oversized maroon bars are the average shop size in square feet. (I just got an idea! I should have made them reduced by a factor of ten, then the bars would be more easily discerned. Maybe I'll try it again!) The small yellow bars are the average age in years of the respondants from that country. Here is the graph...

  

Epilogue:

Howard Ruttan

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