On Sunday morning my students and I met at 8am to check out the local car boot sales. There wasn’t much there, but I found two squares for £1.00. As I sanded away the rust from the combination square the name of the maker emerged and I discovered a Rabone Chesterman square model 1812. The…
People often ask me where I source my wood from, whether it’s locally grown and how I make certain its dry. Reality hits here because there is no stock answer. In the US, wood is readily available in a variety of ways and so options are more varied for woodworkers to pursue. In the UK…
I am always going to address issues surrounding false impressions and information in woodworking because it’s an importan aspect of real woodworking. I have said this before and I’ll say it once more because it troubles me so. The purpose of a hand plane is not to produce light fluffy shavings that waft to the…
When I think of all the friends around the globe working wood, I wonder how trees keep up with supply. George is here from the USA with his friend John and they tell me of storm-dropped trees 4’ in diameter pretty much for the taking. People owning Woodmizer resaw bandsaws for resawing logs make short…
The class went well all day and from the start the enthusiasm was highly infectious even to the point of being contagious. My class starts always begin with sharpness. Without this, hand tool woodworking is impossible.WIthout hand tools in working woodwork, artisanship cannot exist. Here we are beginning something. Beginnings have a way of defining the…
Walking past the woodlands and fields this morning is pleasant beneath a mottled sky of blues and fluffy clouds. The leaves are about turned with bright yellows, russets and reds and once again the tide is in so the curlews are feeding in the fields with the cows and sheep. The turret above is adjacent…
I really liked this photograph of some of the planes I have used on my testings, experiments and research. All too often we are taught things by others and we cling to the teaching as rigidly as we grip the plane that could in many cases benefit the work better by…
I think that many people would like to skip the rote practice it takes to master anything, but then it wouldn’t be worth anything would it? Always remember that achieving perfection begins with a fault. If we were born perfect, why would we need ongoing refinement and development throughout our lives? Neither are we born…
I’m thankful for the work I do. I have been making the hope chest for a few days now and on Saturday I have a two-day workshop so I will postpone some of the work until next week. Sharing my workspace has become increasingly important as I grow older and whether it’s teaching, apprenticing or…
Rough hands in veined steel knots clasp the chisel’s smoothness yet once more to pare the frame and fresh-cut shavings falling to tumbled piles at my feet and ankles braced now upon the oak board floor. I strain, press, twist and the steel has my will at the edge that separates wood from wood…