I have written often enough about preparing for a project from time to time, but thought then to put together something more cohesive, to help others to see what I actually go through in prefacing a project. I am still not done after eight episodes. Who would have thought it could take eight substantive blog …
Finally, we arrive at the workbench with wood. The sawhorses get stowed, wood is rough-cut to width-cut and length-cut and stacked alongside the bench. It’s here that I pull out four planes for possible use in the next few minutes and then for hours. My diamond sharpening plates are to my left hand on a …
In my covering going to the wood suppliers and the need for planning and observance, I have been able to obviate the attempt we must make to minimise wasting our precious time, money, and then too wasting that sense of positivity our searching for wood seems always to begin with. Disappointment of any kind is …
It’s all go at sellershome.com . Join me on the journey as we build a houseful of furniture pieces together with other woodworking projects you will need when you make and build all of the pieces you will need for a growing family home. It’s not new to me and I did learn a lot …
I reach for the hand plane I made the handle for and it’s sized to my hand and to the task for which I use it perfectly. I reach for another that looks identical because I made the handle for that plane too. Both totes and knobs were made by hand, by me and without …
I was at a show 20 years ago, sitting with the audience, when an English guru of woodworking told his watchers that they must always set the so-called chip-breaker (he really meant the cap iron but didn’t know it) as close as it was possible to the cutting edge and so close you could scarcely …
You may recall that I was teaching my classes on a regular basis from 1995 through to two years ago. Throughout those years I was always a maker and a designer involved closely with my own work and the work of other craftsmen working alongside me. Often, I didn’t even make some of my designs …
Choosing the wood we use in any project precipitates wood on the benchtop. At the timberyard, we search the racks and flip each board to try to preempt any possibility that what we buy might cause us problems after we’ve left the store. We consider everything that could go wrong with a particular board if …
I have visited this many times in classes, on my blog and in a variety of venues ranging from Monterey, Mexico to Canada, England to Israel, and then Wales to the USA. This one came by way of a question from a genuine enquirer not seeking to be argumentative but to understand the reason why. …
I have built three outdoor projects at sellershome.com since we bought the house for this next phase in our online training. Since we took over the house two years ago, I have worked to establish a garden to keep up my ethos that whenever and wherever we can we should grow at least some of …
