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Restoring a Shellac Finish
To read more about choosing a finish on our Common Woodworking site, click here. To read more about what finishes to buy, click here. My famous box got bashed about through the years of display and handling. Actually, apart from being dropped on concrete twice, it’s stood up very well, such is shellac. The coats…
Read MoreMy Favourite Sketchbook Journals
From Entry Monday 6th February 2017 My journal preferences I am often asked about my journals, where I get them from and so on. When I lived in the USA I began using these for two main reasons. One, the smoothness of the paper – I didn’t want texture in the paper to influence my…
Read MoreCutting Repeatable Dovetails to Perfection by Hand?!!!!
Yes, it is my method and yes it has worked for me for years. If you are making 30 same-sized kitchen drawers and you don’t like the mechanics of dovetail guides and router’s screams this could well be the method for you. I can make a hundred dovetailed sides using my guide and have them all…
Read MoreRebate Plane No 2—Bullnose Plane Part II
Setting the bullnose plane The # 90 bullnose plane is simple enough to use and setting is simple too. The plane can be used in one of two ways, which I have already mentioned in the first section on the bullnose plane. One is where we use the plane fully assembled and then the other is…
Read MoreOur Venture Into Pastures New
I am leaving today for a short break in France with my family. This week has been ArtWeeks in Oxfordshire and I thought it would be a great opportunity to give you all a tour of place that we are now working. Over the past few months I have made many new friends not the…
Read MoreMaking Jobs- A Working Environment
Recently the UK government announced more plans in creating 3 million apprenticeships. Whereas snake oil still masks the reality that subsequent governments (no matter the flavour) for decades sold off many more millions of apprenticeships and indeed closed down what they considered dirty manual work to other continents seems to now lie buried in lapsed…
Read MoreClass is over
It’s hard to describe changing lives and being changed. I taught my first foundational course in 1989. I developed it and copied nothing. No one helped me and it unfolded a strategy from a craftsman’s perspective. So I’ve done this course for well over two decades with 5,500 people. Tonight felt settled, very settled. The…
Read MoreTaking Unplugged Woodworking Seriously
Closing Out On My Bench Fitments
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…
Read MoreA Very Happy New Year Everyone!
Becoming a Lifestyle Artisan Is Up To You! In a few hours a new year will unfold its minutes to become hours and days into an unknown future and we will each step into its chasms and onto its mountains to overcome the obstacles we call simply ‘Life‘. I don’t tend to look back into…
Read Moreon Shameful Stanley UKLee Valley, veritas and like sure have suckered in the suckers,
on Life’s a Poem…I love the way Roy Underhill and Peter Follensbee can start with a log and end up with something of use. Lacking a ready supply of trees, it's dimensoned lumber for me. When I saw…
on Shameful Stanley UK" It’s not the materials, nor is it the production methods, it’s using unskilled and uncaring staff, supervisors and managers. Funny thing is though. They are not ashamed at all!"…
on Shameful Stanley UKI don't think people are necessarily looking for a bargain so much as a fair and honest product at a fair and honest price. This time of inferior products being made under what wer…