The art in all crafts is more about our ability to flex in the moment and the motion of working according to sensitivities we were born with or that were developed through rote persistence to master our work and working. Rigidity rules doesn’t work too well for us, we must relax into most tasks and…

After I reshaped my saw handle, the one on the new-version, inexpensive Spear & Jackson resharpenable saw I recommend to just anyone and everyone, the one shown above in its original state from the maker, I felt all the more in tune with it! yesterday I crosscut 20 boards with it running my saw plate…

Experience tells me not to crave the past and what was, but to embrace the unknowns in an unknown future can sometimes be difficult. The future, for me at least, will always be the adventure I enjoy — the future to unknowns that seem all too often to defy predictions. In my world, changing the…

Working Accurately If you know anything of me by knowing me or reading my musings, watching the uniqueness of our videos and then through social media too, accuracy is one of my favourite words. Of course, accuracy isn’t so much mere spoken and written words, it is that too, but for makers and doers of…

I make no apology for this my friends. Lots of lonely people self-cooking and lots of diabetics needing lower carbs than others. I have cooked many a breakfast during the lockdown periods and this is I put together and so it is one of mine. I adjusted things to suit me because I mostly wanted…

It’s often hard to see the future with certainty. We have all lived with and through attacks and threats of attacks reaching back through centuries and some indeed have lasted centuries long. The important thing to see is that we, as individuals and nations, have lived through them and come out the other side. Yes,…

This is one of my COVID-19 videos where I filmed ten full-length (rather long but still interesting) videos to encourage everyone to make with hand tools only. Really, it goes with the plane tote handle video I put up a couple of weeks ago as many people have no lathe, no turning tools, and no…

“Where do you get your wood from?” the man asked, as he wandered through the workshop, his eyes searching through the different colours for identity. My answer? “Well, anywhere and everywhere I can!” It was a truth I can now describe in a fullness many can’t. In some ways, I consider myself more an opportunist…

The river Thames flows deep in its current quietness, skirting the centre of the small town where I live. It somehow feeds life to the streets of Abingdon when my morning cycle ride takes me through the town for my morning exercise. Of course, it’s still much quieter than five months ago, and I like…

I found two plasterboard pallets (USA sheetrock) set aside and discarded. They were strong, heavily built from solid stock, in good condition. I retyurned with my trailer thinking they would make the roof and floor for my stud framer shed. I bought the studs and then used them for other things. A sandbox came as…