. . . is in the lives of its maker hosts! Things changed with COVID. Life. No masks now, freedoms back, but something did shift in every culture like a swelling sea that never settled back to the same levels past. We lived through extreme extremes of different kinds with effects that affected all people …
It looks like an English king-size is the equivalent of a US queen-size.* Probably to do with the sizes of US homes often being larger in size compared to the UK versions. We all face new changes and challenges with heating bills in the coming months and years. The work we did on the house …
We have finally caught up on demand from an initial group who said they wanted a router plane kit, and we have a small stock available. If you want a kit rather than building from scratch you can purchase them by following this button: Remember though, we have given you all the details you need …
My weeks have always been filled with making wood work in the building of pieces, they still are after 58 years of making every day of those years. The wood usually doesn’t make too much difference; each stick and stem I see of it represents possibilities no matter how big or small. I’ll buy a …
Something that I think is important to new woodworkers is understanding their wood and learning about the species they work with early on in their woodworking. For the general carpenter working in construction, he will generally be working with softwoods like pine and fir, spruce and such. Trim moulding modular homes mass made in factories …
I plane 99% of my end grain freehand, accurately working to my knifewalls on four sides I can’t remember the last time I used a full shooting board. I use that more for mitring. Wide boards of six inches and more end-grain planing is of course the easiest to do. You have a long runway …
When I had hoards of school children come to visit me in my workshop, 7-10 year-olds, several days a week, I developed many ways to show how tools worked on wood to true and trim, smooth and shape. We counted saw strokes together and felt the wood fibres before and after planing and sawing. If …
The steeper the bevel is on a plane or chisel the more resilient the cutting edge will be but depending on how you use the blade will affect how it feels in the wood. Bevel down and with the blade elevated as in a bevel-down plane will make no difference. Bevel up, as in bevel-up …
Was it cost-effective to reharden the plane iron after its many years of service? Of course, it was! Of course, it wasn’t. What made it well worth it is nothing to do with a financial cost but something I see as an intrinsic yet immeasurable value: imprinting. I consider imprinting yourself into an object you …
This is my prototype, though it fully mirrors my final version to a tee. This one was finished last week but it stood there as a box for three weeks glued up, planed, sanded and finished with shellac. In preparing for a final rub down ready for waxing with furniture polish I noticed a slight …
