I first bought my bevel up Jack for planing end grain on thick workbench tops. I'd always been a normal steel, conventional plane kind of chap before building workbenches, but hand tools can moan and groan a bit at certain woods and I was building workbenches with a...
If you're going to build yourself a chest of drawers, what wood would you build it out of? You'd build it out of whatever you fancy building it out of. What you like, what's to hand, what's cheapest. Who, bloody cares? It's the same when you're building a workbench....
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...
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 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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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As you know, to become fast with hand tools you have to understand that perfection isn’t a thing. You need to learn where the inaccuracy can be hidden, and deliberately place it there. A good example of this, were those table legs in the hall table build. Getting them...
Our Retro Sideboard 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 This is an involved build, but it's broken down step-by-step. With Over 4 Hours of Footage, The Online Series...
I was having a good old rummage through the timber store the other day and found an old off cut from a workbench top. It's from one that I made when I was building them for a living. I used to keep these off cuts and put them to the test. Sun exposure, damp, all that...