I’m driving to work but taking a five mile detour to get my haircut and a couple of necessary errands to pick up a mirror plate for the project and look at wood. I try to combine trips all the more these days, conscious of the need to save all kinds of things. I always…

. . . and you don’t need to spend too much either! I have pulled this together to steer those who might think a £200 plane or saw or a set of chisels of similar cost is the only way to go or even the best way to go. But a little sweat-equity (investment of…

Drawing is very much a part of my life be that technical drawing with straight lines or freeform sketching to copy what I see. As a child, my drawings were just for me. Birds and animals came from my graphite tips where I copied images from books on rainy days. When I started working with…

On the 19th of June this year I picked up a few extra lengths of very nice European oak for my upcoming project which was a chest of drawers. Thank you, Europe. So glad we are a part of you still; no matter the Eurocrats and politics of it, the eye cannot say to the…

. . . better, more comfortably and more steadily! The beefy, muscled arms bulb up into massive balloons and the knuckles whiten the more stroke on stroke. The rest of the body as a whole locks on and tightens up, tuning in to the intent of a forced compliance to power through with the strokes…

I love the first views of each of the videos we make. I review them just to check for any glaring errors I might make but then too for faults that might be somehow out of sequence. I also want to ensure our videographers are supported fully and have confidence in their concluding each of…

If I can cut a gap-free six-dovetail corner to a drawer in 20 minutes it’s because I am not rushing it. It’s also because of the practised structure of my making, the sharpness of my tools that are sharpened before they become in any way consciously dull and because the tools I use are customised…

It was setting up the plough plane to cut the grooves that really struck me the most. I had timed myself in cutting the four corner dovetails and realised how quickly they came off the saw. I made two eight-inch deep drawers with dovetailed top to bottom to each of the corners in less than…

Resolve is something of an odd word. Generally, we use it in showing determination to overcome opposition of one kind or another be that with a resolution to kickstart each new year, win a game or take on a difficult situation that we feel cannot continue. But it’s a word with many applications and that’s…

This week I milled my wood from roughsawn oak and some poplar too to make a chest of drawers. Oak is my primary wood and poplar the secondary. The drawer insides don’t need oak, poplar is lighter in weight and for bedroom drawers it will last well enough. I planned out the chest on paper…