The techniques I use to make woodworking by hand efficient and fun.
Good chairs stay together forever if the chair maker understands what wood does. They know it will move, and use this to their advantage. Bone dry legs going into a slightly wetter seat. The seat drys over time, the legs take on a tad of moisture and everything stays...
I've said it many times (though I'm sure I'm on the wrong page). I believe that hand tools are the most efficient set up for the individual maker. And not just the hobbiest. If you're building one-off pieces for clients then hand tools are still where it's at. Most...
https://youtu.be/EmszTUmQUgc Looking To Cut Fine Dovetails? Choose the best dovetail saw, (with the right TPI, length & quality) Learn what makes a good chisel for dovetailing The above video is a short extract from our Hall Table Build. For the context -...
A video version of this post has been added to our sharpening series. All 'Get Sharp' customers can LOGIN to watch now. Or You can Learn More about the Series here. We've all done it. Turned a smashing chisel into a left-handed skew! Getting a 90 degree edge on narrow...
Twat... ...nothing happens. Twat….nothing happens. Slightly harder twat... ...And the iron's sticking half inch out of the sole of the plane. Wooden planes look good. They are good. But they ain't half got awkward sod written all over them. Since hand tools became a...
...why can't you make thick irons laminated? Why is it that my Grandad doesn't grind. My Dad doesn't have a grinder. And up until me buying swanky tools, I never had to grind? Hard steels and thick irons. It's a combination which wasn't found in my Grandad's workshop....
https://youtu.be/OSEOrttE2Ac Our latest video series is all about sharpening edge tools. But it's not just about getting sharp. It's a detailed yet entertaining look at the perfect edge, right from the very concept of sharpening, through to optimising precisely...
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...
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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...
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...
Are hand cranked grinders the toy that we all want to work? Now honestly, I've never had any success with them. I can't make much sense of them as a sharpening tool at all, so perhaps I've never given them a fair trial. I avoid grinders altogether until it...
