Not every tip works in every shop. The advice that helps one builder can actively hinder another. We asked readers for their “anti-tips” – the advice they followed from trusted sources that turned out to be wrong for their situation, their skill level, or their shop. The results are instructive about the limits of universal advice.
“Always use a marking gauge instead of a pencil.” Solid advice for precise hand-tool joinery. Counterproductive for the reader who builds mostly rough furniture and needs to mark curved cut lines on irregular stock, where a marking gauge is useless and a pencil is indispensable. The advice assumes a specific type of work. Applied universally, it produces frustration. Know which advice is context-dependent before following it in a different context.
“Buy the best tools you can afford.” Good general principle, badly applied by a reader who spent his entire shop budget on hand tools before he knew which hand tools he actually needed and used. He now has a beautiful set of premium chisels in sizes he almost never uses, and he still doesn’t own a jointer plane because he spent the budget on the chisels. The correct version of this advice: buy the best tool you can afford for each specific tool you actually use, not the best tools across the category before you know what you need.
“Learn to sharpen with waterstones.” Excellent advice for someone who enjoys the meditative process of sharpening and is willing to invest time in learning the system. Terrible advice for someone who wants to spend time making things rather than sharpening things. For the second person, a guided honing system or a Tormek wheel that delivers consistent results with less skill investment is the correct advice. The right sharpening system is the one you’ll actually use. What advice did you follow that didn’t work for you, and what did you figure out instead?