A day in work for me creatively unfolds into many options and I usually start early enough to answer emails that came in from countries in time zones ahead or behind mine. I like to keep on top of the emails even though the demands increase each week; that translates into an early start to…

To perhaps close out my workbench series on the bench I currently use I thought you might want some close ups of some things I particularly think makes my work easier. Many of you tell me that you want the inside jaw of your vise flush with the face edge of the bench and that…

Here is the video we made on making my mallets. My old mallets follow a copied pattern I took from a true beauty I discovered in a box of tools I bought back in the 1970s. When I saw nestled amongst moulding planes and a couple of Norrises, it it just impacted me so much…

It’s funny seeing how manufacturers change the art of what we crafting artisans are looking for by taking what exists and then manufacturing their translation of it rather than trying to understand the essence of something we really need. In the demise of British makers producing true quality goods, a void existed and an opportunity…

In my drawer are awkward to place tools I rely on just for a minute or two throughout the days of work. Pliers and thickness callipers, different pencils saw files. You can see that it seems jumbled but it’s really not at all a problem. I found it best to have one front cross divider that…

The drawers at the end of my bench, the ones directly adjacent to my vise, are really tills. Tills are narrow drawers for we woodworkers. They are handier than drawers for some things and we like them because they can be lifted to the bench top, looked into, kept there or put back. My chisels,…

The epicentre of real woodworking I’ve worked with many hand tool woodworkers through the years either in my own workshops, the workshops of others, my bosses in my early days and so on. I’ve worked with a couple of dozen and more other artisans too. Men and women who worked with their hands in blacksmithing and…

You come to a point in your life when you transition from being a furniture maker to becoming a man or woman or child who actually designs something from scratch to create an image you formed in your mind. When I was 25 years old, 40 years ago, I started my own business working for…

When a class begins, on the first hour of the first day, we walk through the processes of sharpening different tools. Inevitably, from the first questions asked, we must work through the modern-day myths and mysteries surrounding sharpening to restore sanity to an otherwise quick and simple task. Japanese stones versus oilstones and diamond powder…