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...
My most well used tools are like mates; I accept them warts and all, and they're dependable without needing to be pampered. I'm careful not to cross the line though, and some job's around our building site of a home would be plain abuse of a good friendship. For those...
Hand planing wood by hand requires us to choose a technique that's suitable for the specific job at hand, and doing this requires us to understand the wood, the tools and the project in question. New To Hand Planing? Learn About The Different Types Of Hand Planes...
We've listened to many a sob story of how you despise PayPal, so I'm pleased to say there's finally an alternative for purchasing our Online Video Series. On site payments are now up and running and will allow you to complete a purchase with Visa, MasterCard or...
Since ranting about using the cap iron for dealing with tear out, the question 'why do you only use it when smoothing?' comes up a lot. This question is best answered by me asking you to go and do something. Go and set your hand plane up to take a shaving with the cap...
I'll be prototyping a few pieces over the coming months and I recently put in an order for some redwood to knock them up in. Our usual merchant can normally supply nice wide boards of redwood easily, but this time I wasn't so lucky. As an alternative tulipwood was...
Related Posts:
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...
https://youtu.be/P4mwbEpTKr8 Follow Step-by-Step with our French Workbench Video Build This Series Is Now Complete! The series can be purchased by Clicking Here If you're already a Member then you may need to Login first The Bench Design The French workbench is...
You can sharpen owt on the humble old oil stone, but that doesn't mean that you’d want to. In our sharpening trilogy, I go on quite a bit about how your choice of tool will tell you what kind of sharpening method and set up you'll need. I’m very firm on how...