The techniques I use to make woodworking by hand efficient and fun.
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...
Flattening Boards By Hand When prepping everything by hand, the start of a project can seem like a bit of a workout. I usually break up the task by planing up what I need as and when I need it, rather than all at once. The real key though is to make sure you're not...
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...
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...
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...
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'd seen a picture of this plane a while back and I was looking forward to seeing if she'd be taken along to the European Woodworking Show last weekend - I was in luck! The old and unassuming little plane has been named Rosie (there's a story behind that) and it's one...
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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...
