I made a box with four dovetailed corners from pallet wood in 21 minutes. I eyeballed the angles, no guides are sliding bevels, and the sizes, nothing measured, to take out any measuring and did the whole in front of an audience of two I had engaged in a discussion and demonstration on economy of…

When is a rasp not a rasp? When it’s a series of saw blades strategically locked together to form an aggressive cutting tool for shaping wood. Sounds like a rasp but it’s not. Really it deserves its own title but then no one would know what it is because most of what we use is…

It looked rugged on the site, hence a cheaper price for so classic a saw made by wonderful maker. Half the plate has now gone through sharpening but there is still another 50 good years of dovetailing service in it I think. It will see me out. Anyway, I set to to sharpen the teeth…

Just so it’s said. The Preston- and Tyzack-style router plane is not worth any more than any Stanley or Record type and not worth as much as the Veritas or the Lie Nielsen router planes. Just saying, that’s all! They do no more than the others and in most cases they don’t actually do as…

This plant, a wildflower, is my favourite flower of all. I love all flowers, both great and small, tree flowers, shrub flowers and any other type I encounter, they remind me of the goodness of life. This blog may well annoy my critics because it’s not about woodworking nor is it related to wood in…

When it comes to making your own furniture, new woodworkers and makers can find it difficult deciding on a piece that ticks everything you want by way of design. As you grow in your craft ability to become a maker there are many elements affecting designs. Go into a furniture store as a buyer and…

Last week was hot for England, hotter in France though, thankfully , and by that I mean it stopped there and didn’t hit our shores quite so hard. What’s 32 celsius in old money? 90F. It’s an easy calculation: 32C x 9/5+32=89.6F. this evening is cooling of with small clouds scudding across the skies ahead…

Grundon is a national waste management company we pay to take away our general waste and recycled materials. This last week there was a little waste left in my waste bin that this general waste company refused to take. Why? Because there was a bucket full of beautiful curly wood shavings in the bin. Now…

I don’t really like the term “Thinking outside the box” so I won’t say that this book is one of those books that makes you do that but, really, it does. Upcycling, recycling, restoration, innovation and much more are all encapsulated here in a book I enjoyed looking through and reading. I thought that you…

I took another exploration into my Essential Woodworking Hand Tools book to look at the boring things of woodworking. I know, it should be belts and braces but I’m more talking about a safe practice than risk aversion. Brace and bit woodworking is a safe way to bore holes. It works at your speed and…