Since our first fuzzy sounding project videos that we made for Youtube a few years ago, we've enjoyed receiving photos of clinched together chests and small cupboards with all manner of door styles. The best part of course is always the story that's...
I have a few jobs coming up that require turnings, turnings that are quite a bit bigger than my little compact bungee bench lathe. Some of the turnings are also out of the heavier stuff, so my little compact bungee wouldn't only need more length, but it would need to...
I don’t normally regrind. It's something I've always reserved for when setting up old tools or re-setting knackered edges. But since moving to water stones for my sharpening (I'm still on with that water stone experiment), my usual methods have somewhat let me down. I...
Despite writing my sensual spiel about the whys of the bandsaw, I haven't actually used it since closing the workbench business. That's because I discovered the frame saw (that thing that the savages use). Prior to four months ago, the most experience I had with one...
No, you don’t. As a hand tool woodworker you are fully self sufficient without a bandsaw. At least as long as there's tea in the pot. But if there's one machine that can aid the hand tooler the most, this would be it. When I shunted out my machines at the close of the...
The day is Sunday, at least it is as I write this. The sun is also really shining. It’s also my first day off in quite some time. I’m sat with my notebook on a bit of beach that may as well be Mars. I come here quite regularly to write, think, sing? And in the...
I'm in a unusual position for a learner. I can observe Richard working, then pick up his tools and try for myself. I know the tools work well, and you could envy that. But the thing is, it takes away the one excuse that all novices need. I can't blame my tools. When...
I've wittered quite a bit before about about my troubles with goblin hands and small knobs. In particular, plane handles. Normally anything that trys to be a handle makes a rubbish handle, and as a rule the most un-restrictive handles make for the best. A wooden...
We don't do many reviews. That's because I'm human and that makes me biased. But sometimes, something comes along that's quite special, it's then that I find it hard to shut up. I discovered this hand plane when looking at commercially made frame saw blades for some...
For most pieces I don't prototype. It's something that often isn't necessary or which time has not been allocated for. So normally I isolate prototyping to areas that I consider to be particularly troublesome or unusual, and make a mock up of those bits alone so I can...
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This surprised me. After tarting up some benches recently I had to check and flatten the tops. They all needed just a little skim, which is what I'd expected.What I didn't expect though, was just how stable my 12ft English bench top was. This is a big bench, and the...
Finally… after taking a bit of a handful on, I've now got my old workbench ready for sale. Most of you will know this bench well. It's been used in most of the videos and has also been the bench that I built 99% of Maguire Workbenches on. It's the bench that built...
The workshop stinks of nuts at the moment. I'm also tripping over big wooden vice screws and having to breath in to squeeze by the massive slabs of ash that are sitting there on my trestles. This all feels familiar. It's because I've just finished tarting up some...