Many people ask me about block planes. No, not the 8″ wooden coffin smoothing planes of old, but the more modern versions with the bevel up cutting iron and fine adjustment wheels that set the iron so precisely. (Pics coming soon) I find students often buy the block plane as a first plane, before…

More related to Creative Workspace Well, back to work today when all others are taking their rest on Bank Holidays. As if the banks need holidays. Yesterday’s visit to Woodfest still resonates with mixed feelings. Here are some more thoughts I wanted to share: A timberframed building comprises many parts fitly framed together with each…

My creative workspace   In a field or a tent I sometimes shudder because rain, grass and people damage fine workmanship. Twenty stroking hands on a newly finished pintail duck can cause irreparable damage to weeks of hand work. Master decoy carver Gerry Sanger creates texture to his feathers in the paint surface and not…

Woodfest 2011 North Wales Today I made it to the 2011 WoodfestWales at Kinmel Estate, St George, North Wales. A woodworking event I’ve looked forward to for months. I chose not to be a demonstrator this year and being on my own meant I could sit and talk with my fellow craftsmen and women more…

I don’t think many know the origin of the bow saw. By that I mean the first date a man bent the sapling stem of new growth to stretch a steel saw blade between two extremes. My gut feeling is that the stem was already bent in growth, as a bowed branch if you will,…

I have worked in workshops with massive machine tenoners large enough to cut both sides of the tenon on an 8″ x 12″ beam in one pass and it comes out perfectly parallel with shoulders perfectly square ever time. Truth is that I really detested the whole set up thing and the separation from my…

  Pine, spruce and fir I’ve worked with many different types of pine throughout every one of my 48 years since I picked up my first piece of Russian redwood to carve a boat from. Whereas people generally consider pine (and other such softwoods) second-rate soft wood, or, worse still, junk wood, I consider pine…

Well, these tenons are 8″ long, 7/8″ thick and 11″ wide in oak. These are practical steps for low budget making and without table saws and crosscuts or radial arm saws. It took me 13 minutes per side which is less than 1/2 and hour per tenon. The are accurate to within a very small…

Well, in answer to questions about which saws to buy, which planes I recommend and a few other such questions, I will try to answer them here. I have used old and modern hand tools for almost five decades. Some that I still use I bought as an apprentice somewhere around 1965 from Mr Cheapy…