Some thoughts on different perspectives Periodically I’m surprised by people who say or are advised that you can’t make a living from being a furniture maker and woodworker today. Mostly it’s the belief of several things not the least of which is the belief that all machine work is faster and more effective instead of…
The new Joiner’s toolbox filming is done My days are filled with different but interconnected events where I research and develop ideas, restore many things, design furniture pieces for training woodworkers around the world, write and blog, photograph and draw, work with film makers filming our work and with other men, friends that operate behind…
There is always the challenge of changing someone’s made up mind once the mind is indeed made up or someone has already perhaps invested time and money into something or, even more, taken offence. It’s natural to defend a stance we already agree with, after all. We all do it to some greater or less…
In considering my thoughts on sharpening stones I should point out that this does not include sharpening plates because they do retain acceptable flatness tolerances throughout their life and cut steel well too. Sharpening stones of every other type on the other hand have the same inherent problems resulting through varied levels of wear. My…
…Hollows, Blind Curves and Pits After the recent posts on sharpening, the first one really, I received comments and emails from people stating that the reason the stones were concave was because they were used for knife sharpening and not sharpening planes and chisels and such. That’s occasionally the case but the ones I am…
The title of this post seems almost a contradiction of terms. Sharpness and abrasion; how does that work? Sharpening most cutting tools and cutting blade edges is not particularly complex but it will take practice to establish patterns of guaranteed success for the freehand sharpening methods that make you expertly fast and effective. Oftentimes we start…
I thought these questions I asked John might be interesting as well as helpful and especially to any young and aspiring woodworkers around the world. I learned many years ago that when any young person captures a vision for his and her life, a unique mechanism engages and all the synapses somehow begin to form…
I thought that this might pique your interest no matter where you are in the world. Small businesses are important to every economy and we should keep pursuing a return of craft education into schools, alongside design and technology, but encourage educators and politicians to consider craft and art more deeply than ever before. I…
Every newcomer to woodworking soon begins to see that there are tools used for working the wood and then there are tools and related pieces of equipment for working the cutting edges of the tools themselves. This equipment makes them cut the wood to greater and lesser degrees of effectiveness. Whereas it’s all to easy…
Ash Chisel Handles Are Still Great Wooden handles are always preferred to plastic ones, at least that’s how I feel and that’s how most people feel, and and yet manufacturers of mass-market chisels seem intent on supplying only plastic handled ones with metal caps to protect the plastic from hammer blows. Plastic does of course hold…