It’s been a good week overall. Special in some ways. I visited with my new granddaughter four times and it’s been so enjoyable getting to know her. I finished her first cot, the pine one that goes to my house, and will hopefully finish the second one for filming this coming week. That’s the oak […]
A weekend project If you have a weekend free then make this lovely tray. Perhaps you need an additional Christmas gift that will hone your skills at the same time. It has many obvious and not so obvious uses ranging from small tools tray to pocket dump container or tea-for-two server. I use one for […]
…Once upon a time… …when I looked back to an era knowing that hand planes and saws, chisels, draw knives, braces, things such as that, were more artistically and creatively created by what might have been called artificers using their hands to make, I was pulled into thinking to myself, ‘What happened?‘. Fact is, that […]
Woodworking by hand is purely sensory. I read someone who said he bought chisels in and used them as his “beaters”. Shameful! Such careless statements sadden me because though I know what people mean and where they’re coming from, it’s a highly disrespectful way of referring to what was indeed a violent act. I’m not […]
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the USA! […]
I’ve gathered some tools to my bosom over the years. Special ones in some cases, some simply beautiful in art form and then those that will never be made again. Some are more rare than good looking or even particularly old. I do like the rarer ones though. I’m not interested in collecting for collecting’s […]
“You have never been able to resist taking an otherwise useless hand tool and making it work, nor a vise or any other piece of woodworking equipment.” Rusted scissors are lifted from the bottom of an old basket in a junk shop and the name searched out with a scratch of a thumbnail. I had […]
It’s the strangest thing. As far as I know I’ve never advocated that people not use machines, except perhaps in the odd situation where it was unnecessary and it might have stunted their growth in mastering a skill. Something like that. Neither have I ever said I don’t use them either. What I have always […]
I have put out an introduction to bandsaws video to help people who might seriously consider using a bandsaw. The reason is probably obvious but I have used one for five decades now and feel that owning will be helpful to others for a variety of reasons. I know it’s often said that I don’t […]
There are good but perhaps somewhat hidden reasons that we use stepped housing dadoes that may or may not be obvious, especially not to a new woodworker. Actually, many seasoned woodworkers are more likely not to know than know. There are three types used mostly and then variations on the theme that are scarcely used. […]
