Can a basic plough plane create what you want from your woodworking? A moulding plane, perhaps? A #78 rebate (rabbet) plane, or a side rebate plane? I’ve been using them alongside machines throughout my life but it was only when I saw how easy machining is in not just replacing them but more displacing them …
When I was a boy, men, being what they are, mocked me when I admired grain, shook the planks of oak to break me from my admiration and shook me back to working. But George stepped in and let me be and took up the slack for me. He knew I saw what he saw, …
Or does it? For many years I have faced it and tried to counter some issues as I came across them if I felt it might be important enough. From laying a plane on its side to workbench work heights, micro-bevels on cutting edges and skewing planes and spokeshaves this way or that as you …
An offcut of quartersawn oak lay at the end of my bench for two weeks and I couldn’t throw it away. The angled cut reminded me of the days when my geometry squares were all wood and stamped with the angles and the name Helix in blue. Then I was sent the most beautiful scale …
I own many moulding planes but less for use as my primary reason, so much as just having owned them for replicating moulding in my work, restoring pieces and making new. In my view it is still worth owning some well-chosen moulding planes for various profiles we might need and owning a handful is usually …
My Madox moulding plane came from the eBay seller well packed, padded and wrapped with secondhand but good quality materials. Overall, the condition of the plane was excellent, with no staining, evidence of mistreatment, watermarking, etc. There was some evidence of changes made but all in all the seller gave good pictures and enabled me …
Currently, there are 11,500 moulding planes listed for sale on eBay UK. There are a couple of Japanese versions and a half a dozen from the USA, other than that, they are all UK made between 1750 and 1950. In some ways they are collectable and in some ways, they are not. The demand for …
My hand router plane seems to have been well received. I am glad because it is a solution to the real problem of owning a good router plane, which I consider to be an essential woodworking hand tool. I have a few posts in the pipeline that will help you along the way and the …
When I returned to live in the UK after living in Texas for two decades, I was surprised to take over a huge room in the National Trust’s Penrhyn Castle. I began teaching my hands-on classes there and then began outreach online from the same place I taught one-on-one. There I had bags of room, …
. . . but only half the number needed by crisscrossing the cross rails using a simple halving joint to level the top field ready for the tabletop. The crossing of the unifying top rails allows for added potential we don’t always see or realise. Seller’s home allows me to explore and share things that …
