It was the tap-tapping of the tails into the recesses between the pins with the end of a one-inch chisel I remember the most. George had shown me this but did not leave it there. He’d explained Newton’s Third Law that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. When…

Toolboxes as actual boxes would once have been more tool chests. The portability of tools from workshop to customer was essential to most makers and indeed to the old men I worked with who spoke of handcarts loaded with wood and their tool chests, stepladders and sawhorses to go to work on a house or…

Today I made again and yesterday the work took on yet another full, unfaltering day in an exchange of all the hand tools I use. Work parcels itself out into tasks with starts and stops to embrace each diverse function. The tasks are all distinct and though different, they each flow seamlessly into and out…

In this thing called ‘progress‘, we often consider the lower price to be our gain. That would be called progress in many camps, maybe most. In the reality of life, what’s now called the shrink-economy would have at one time been called simply a con. Why we don’t name it for what it is I…

There can be no doubt that finishing is an art form and gaining mastery in the application of the different types takes time. That said, manufacturers have gone to great lengths to give us products that ease the process. No one should be afraid of ruining their great and labour-intensive project by the finish any…

I’m never quite sure. I used to think Record’s steel sash clamps of old for joinery were the best but my mind changed through the years and I wouldn’t really want them near my furniture these days. Then, living in the USA, I used US Jorgensen pipe clamps for my making and they worked fine…

Last week was a lead-in week to more full-time working where I tested different parts to my body to see what could and would not work and to see what I could and could not do. This was all in relation to pain surrounding my ribs being broken and the breathing issues that followed. During…

I often think that the many things we are drawn to as children may well indicate what we will embrace in our unfolding future. Several things jump out at me that became integral and cohesive elements of adult life for me, woodworking, artwork of several types but especially pencil drawing, nature and the study of…

. . . shadows of the past. Some of you have known, some have noticed and some have no idea. I’ve skirted around it a little with an occasional nod and nudge to a part of my life living as what is called a Resident Alien migrant in the USA––Texas in particular. I arrived for…

For me, my pencil point is very much the same as a chisel edge and saw teeth, they might need to, can be and should now and then be sharpened slightly or majorly differently––sharpened to task, as it were. Legalism has always choked off creativity. I think it always will. Following fixed and rigid rules…