. . . it takes 57 years to perfect a dovetail. Of course, it doesn’t take anywhere near 1% of that. I sometimes post a video or a picture showing a perfect joint I just made, a dovetail, a mortise and tenon, or a saw sliding and gliding effortlessly through the wood in perfect alignment. …
It happened in a flash The grain crunched, concertinaed into a cram-jammed throat so tight it jarred me. Would it happen with a heavyweight? Some other make? A bevel up? York-pitch-frogged version? Most likely one and maybe not the other but then no one predicts its happening in time to change plane type to avoid …
I contracted COVID sometime around 27 July 2022. From where I have no way of knowing. Over the previous week, I had travelled to Vienna and Saltzburg, eaten in restaurants and did the usual touristy things there as well as my usual inquiries into things wood culture and so on. For four days after my …
It does seem that those new to woodworking are a little intimidated by the thought of making the workbench they need yet they definitely need it to get started. My workbench is a dead simple workbench to make. I designed it in the face of the massive behemoths woodworkers in lofty realms seem ever-wont to …
I ordered in a piece of O1 flatstock 3mm (⅛”) by 15mm (⅝”) by 500mm (19 ⅝”) just in case. That way, when I need a piece of tool steel it’s there ready. Today, I needed it. You never know when you might need a new cutter, customised 1/16″ chisel or maybe a small knife …
I bought my first square, a combination square, in 1965, 90 or so years after Laroy S Starrett invented the tool for engineering machinists. My combination square was made by Rabone Chesterman here in England. I still have it, use it daily, and it is still fully working and accurate despite its daily use of …
Making small and simple woodworking projects can sometimes take as much time to make as something big. In my workshop, the designs are never designed and thereby governed by whether it can be geared up for being made using machines, handheld or freestanding, both, I never think in those realms anymore although at one time, …
My task in reviewing issues woodworking is mostly met very favourably. There is more to my reviewing things than simply looking at things critically, that’s less than helpful, searching through texts for truth though often reveals the attitudes of makers as much by what they miss out as what they say. I think it’s true …
I’ve written about marking gauges from time to time. It’s a general term, marking gauge, and includes the various mortise gauges, combination gauges and the marking gauge singular with its lone pin. Through the years the single pin has generally been called the marking gauge and twin-pinned gauges with one fixed pin and the other …
. . . depends on your regularity. It’s often a regularity that woodworkers most generally neglect. In fact, tool sharpness reflects who you are. As an apprentice, George said sharply across the bench, “Sharpen up and don’t be lazy!” As an adult, such things are unsaid to you. Or are they? Does not a still …
