It seems that we have succeeded! Aldi have finally brought their chisels to the US and are either available now or over the next three weeks depending on region. A friend of our work is sending us a set over to test and make sure they are the same quality we have here in the…
I think it’s important to understand that amateurism is very alive and thriving in lives that so defy external pressures others impose with business plans, commercial-isms and faceless partnering with sharks and rogues in suits, ties, enforced dressiness and all else. These artisans invest great portions of their free time to develop and grow their…
We should never really rely on the professionals for keeping woodworking alive or passing on the skills because most of them do use dumbed down methods to make their work work. There is more to it than that. personally, I am an amateur because i have never done it just for money but for the…
I’m often asked how to create sliding dovetails. I mean people who want to make an immoveable joint across the full width of wide boards with as near flawless accuracy as possible. Now I have seen many sliding dovetails thought my lifetime of working wood but the flaw levels in one part or another were…
My first thoughts on making the dining table a few weeks back now was that there were features to it that were unique yet perhaps not obvious really. So I put the design together with that in mind and wrote down the details, made drawings and cutting lists. The design is out there now for…
I’m never sure about some things but this week I was restoring an older Stanley enjoying myself seeing the rust disappear and helping the students to see the process and the results. Everything went well and the iron was slightly bellied on the flat side and was bent near to the top so we took…
I can’t really say that I like or dislike carving spoons with special knives and I suppose it has something to do with who I am as a furniture maker working in a workshop at a bench. I’ve made and sold thousands of wooden spoons and of course I’ve also taught hundreds if not thousands…
This question comes up fairly often and this is the how-to that works best. It works on the modern versions of blade-as-sole spokeshaves equally well. It’s not a difficult task but the tangs get in the way of conventional bevel-up sharpening, as you might with planes and chisels, so it’s is easiest to be done…
In mastering hand tool work I learned early on in the 1960’s that there’s a rhythm to the life of lived craftsmanship that’s governed by internal chemistry, muscle memory and reflex actions. We don’t need to understand how they work but we must allow their governance to give our bodies the rhythm that paces our…
It’s obvious from your responses to different posts which ones appeal to a larger percentage and one of the highest is working with your hands and earning all or some percentage of your living from being a woodworker. I know the goal is to make your living which of course is important, but dismantling the…