Wow, a hand saw AND a block plane? That's insane. I can barely build a decent drawer box without a tracksaw and a router sled these days. I mean, I get that people back then had mad skills, but doing all your joinery and face frames with just those two tools sounds like pure torture. I'd probably end up with a pile of firewood and a lot of swearing.

Used to think the same way honestly. I figured scratching the rod on the metal was just the way it was done and it worked fine for me for years. Then an old pipe welder showed me the drag method where you barely tap the rod to the metal instead of scratching it. He explained that scratching can drag slag into the puddle and cause weak spots you can't see. Tried it his way for a week and the welds were cleaner with way less spatter. It's one of those little things that doesn't seem like a big deal until you see the difference yourself.

Is a dead starter really that dramatic, though?

Oh man, this is such a good point faithb76 and I honestly think most people miss it. The unspoken time sink with cold emails isn't just sorting through junk, it's the mental energy of chasing ghosts. With Upwork, even if 50 people apply to a job, you can filter by things like "verified payment" or "client rating" in two clicks. Cold email outreach though? You're stuck reading each one, sometimes doing a tiny background check, then waiting days for a reply that never comes. Plus there's the hidden cost of feeling bad when you ignore someone's perfectly nice but irrelevant email (I know, weird guilt but it's real).

Man, @aaron845 put it perfectly - having the right tool just saves you all that frustrating guesswork.