When I started building workbenches, I pushed my way of working on to my customers. I wasn't aware I was doing this. But my cave's a small place, and I forget there's other people out there. Every workbench went out complete with sliding board jack, large planing...
Helen
Chisels For Dovetailing
No matter how quick and functional a build may be in everything we make, we should be aiming at clean, tight joints. I don't like excuses for shoddy joinery. For the most part my Marples bevel edge chisels are up to this task. But some joints demand a bit more...
Chisels For All Needs (Almost)
Chisels are a simple tool. Simple but useful. For hand tool woodworking, we really can't be without them, so your skills with a chisel should be built up early. But which chisels do you need? Traditionally, there was a different chisel for just about every job. But...
Completed With Ebonising
We're always stumped at how much to cover in our videos. But as usual, with our Side Table Series we decided to just give it our all, and make it priced for all with an interest. So along with the build, we used the last chapter of this Series to cover our two part...
Perfect Tracking & Japanese Hand Saws
I've been standing on top of my workbench again. Strangely I'm up there quite a lot. Sometimes I just lay on there... and think. I've been a long time obsessive of Japanese woodworking. I find it truly fascinating and have promised myself if I make it to retirement,...
To Trust Or Reinforce?
How confident do you feel trusting glue for edge joints? In traditional woodworking most of the glue bonds we do will have some mechanical strength, and a well cut joint will hold together without any glue at all - it's just there as a bonus. But when we're edge...
How To Make Wooden Pegs
A good peg, is a lot more than a roughly ragged out bit of round wood. When you're draw-boring, or just reinforcing a joint, you need a peg that's strong. A good wooden peg should be straight grained, slightly tapered and preferably made up of a series of flats. In...
Whining Is A Habit
Dear Helen, I know I'm difficult to work with, and my idea of business is not that of the rest of the world. But if you could listen I'd be most grateful. This evening I watched a car park pretty much on top of a restaurant, so they didn't have to walk far. A lady got...
Designing To Learn
Cutting joint after joint isn't the best way to learn. At least not in my opinion. After a lovely sunny, Sunday afternoon, all you've got to show is twenty-odd, randomly dovetailed corners. Some neat, some shite, some alright. You'll sit and think about these...
My Reason For Using Hide Glue
A Glue That Slides I get asked a fair old bit, why do you use liquid hide glue? People often follow up; so that it doesn't feel like their asking a daft question, by answering it themselves. Normally the most obvious answer is "so it'll be easy to restore later on"....
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Another Workbench Build Completed!
Our French workbench build is now complete. If you're interested in this build then have a look at the full details here. Or you can Click Here to Buy Now Your workbench can be a tricky thing to get right. Not so much because the build needs to be complicated, but...
Squaring Up Drilled Out Mortices
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...
Matching Drill Bits & Dowel Plates
Getting a nice looking pegged joint is all about compression. You basically want the peg to be a bit too tight for the hole so it cleans up without any gaps. But, that's not to say you can just whack a fat bit of dowel through a hole that's too small and expect...