I was thinking about this recently, but a couple of years ago, I thought that I should do my part and support YouTube channels that practiced proper safety protocols in woodworking and I almost immediately realized that if I did that, 95%+ of them would have to go away. Hardly anyone uses blade guards on YouTube. Half the channels don’t use pushsticks. I’ve seen channels that purposely removed the guards from their jointers, which is one of the stupidest things ever because if you touch that, you don’t just lose a finger that can be reattached, you produce hamburger, which can’t.

Why are people so stupid? I don’t know!

Now I’ve been woodworking in some capacity or another for 45-50 years and I do not have a single scar on my body that came from woodworking. The worst thing that ever happens in my shop is splinters. Why? Because to paraphrase Norm Abram, I read, understand, and practice all the proper safety procedures for my tools. Not once in a while, not when I remember, every single time. I don’t make a cut without considering the possible ramifications.

Yes, there are times when you can’t use a table saw blade guard. You can’t use it if you’re using a sled, which is why my sled has an integral blade guard built in. I would have to try really, really hard to get my fingers close to that blade.

For dados? No guard at all, but the blade is buried in the wood. You don’t really need a splitter or riving knife either, since there is no chance of the wood binding and producing kickback. That’s another thing that never happens in my shop. I can’t remember the last time I had any kickback because I don’t do stupid stuff.

People actually say “I’m lazy!” as if that’s a defense. Laziness is never a defense. If you’re too lazy to do things right, then you’re too stupid to work with potentially dangerous tools. You need a padded room where you won’t be able to harm yourself. The laziness defense is utterly idiotic. “I’m too lazy to look both ways before I cross a busy street!” Yeah, screw you. I hope you die because you’re an impediment to human evolution.

Then you get the people who buy SawStops and the first thing they do is take off all of the guards because they think they’re now safe to be idiots. I don’t have a SawStop, I don’t want a SawStop and I still have all of my fingers and toes. Why? Because I don’t do dumb things! I don’t take chances! I don’t work when I’m tired or distracted. I am not an idiot.

I don’t have anything against the quality of the saw, even though I’d never own one, just based on the actions of its founder who actively tried to stop any other company from producing similar products and then tried to force the entire industry to buy his technology through force of law. That was 15-20 years ago. Now they’re trying to do the same thing by petitioning Congress to force all table saws in the U.S. to be equipped with flesh-sensing technology, although SawStop isn’t trying to make a buck off of it anymore, mostly because their patents are expiring and they wouldn’t be able to. Fuck them.

Safety comes from your head, not from a tool. It’s not up to your tools to keep you safe, it’s up to you to use them safely. If you can’t do that, then you shouldn’t be using them at all. Suggest that to any of the lazy morons out there right now, though, and they’ll freak. They have bought into the lie that it’s the job of the tool, not the user, to ensure safety. It’s too much work to actually think for yourself and take your own rational precautions.

It’s no wonder the world is so screwed up. Everyone has lost their minds. I don’t know what to do anymore. Stop the planet, I want to get off.