The techniques I use to make woodworking by hand efficient and fun.
I’m always going on about how much I love a minimal tool kit, but in this post I’m going to rant on a bit, and give you a few pointers if you feel limited by the length of your hand plane. A Number 5, or Jack plane, will comfortably see you through most jobs, but as...
https://youtu.be/XhtD14Qn5pM References: Build A Hall Table Video Series | SIGN UP to watch the Free Hand Plane Build [Watch the video version above]. If you're cutting a mortice and tenon by hand then it's likely things aren't going to be perfect at the...
I don't hate much, but I do hate a scruffy looking pegged joint. You know, when the peg doesn't fill the hole. When you've only got the show face to get tidy, it isn't too troublesome, particularly if you follow a few procedures. Where things start to get a bit...
Fast, Efficient Sharpening. At the Best Price! You’ll find that the cost of your sharpening stones scales with the cost of your tools. More expensive stones won't mean they're better for the job if they're incompatible with the type of steel that you're using. If...
As noises go, there's nothing much worse than banging. About the only thing that's completed in my life at the moment is my workshop door. I spent far too much money to get it right. We focused on the acoustics to keep out the noisy world when filming, and put in some...
To become efficient in anything I find it's much better to specialise rather than use one size fits all. So how can a minimal hand tool kit become anything other than a set up for getting you started? The answer is in understanding your cutting edge. We can use...
Saw horses are a clat to get out and I'll only use them if I have to (perhaps I'm lazy). But of course they are extremely useful, and it’s nice to know there’s a couple stashed away ready to grab if needed. Whether you need something cheap and nasty, or a sturdy work...
Teaching and woodworking are two very separate skills. That's something I realised when we started making our videos. The big difference is, you can't work on auto pilot while you demonstrate. Everything has to be deliberate, almost exaggerated so it can be replicated...
Gluing up can be a frantic time. And if you're like me, it'll be messy too. But how much should we be planning ahead, before we get it all stuck together? When we glued up the top for our Hall Table build, we received a few questions on this topic. They were good...
I'm always whinging about something. So the thing this blog is good for is that someone always has an answer. And it shuts me straight up. When I was moaning about drill bits in the marking knife post, we got plenty of suggestions for bits that you find overcome my...
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Every now and then I feel like I see something with new eyes. I’m often blow away at the beauty of say the sea, or the sky with a pretty sunrise. It's as though my brain has had a system reset and deleted its memory so I get to see it again like it's for the first...
https://youtu.be/8F3WqXVmSIk [Video Post] The router plane is one of those rare tools that seems to always be in my hand despite not really being an essential in my minimal tool kit.In doesn't quite have the versatility of a chisel which can pretty much come in for...
Morticing has never been my favourite job. Depending on the size of joint I have various techniques that I use, and for hefty mortices like in our French workbench build, I prefer to drill out the waste rather than go at the whole thing with a chisel. But then I hate...
