I will start this blog by saying I am a full-time woodworker and that necessitates much part-time metalworking for several good reasons. This extension from my last blog is to bring you up to date on taking charge of to-soon-dulling plane irons be they new or old and described as ‘vintage’ on eBay to give …
Actually, they mostly remain the same as when they were first made, hardened and tempered at the business end. Moving along from hardened steel at the first inch of the cutting end to the softer metal further away inevitably results in reaching soft and unhardened steel. Moving up the steel an inch or so from …
There will be a percentage of you promising makers who are looking for more than I am prepared to give you and an explanation might be helpful. In furniture making, there are many a thousand different styles and anyone studying furniture making will soon discover that there is the simplicity of vernacular furniture made in …
Someone asked if, “…Paul ever cuts any of his tenons to fit directly from the saw?” and I do, if or when I want to. Yesterday I did a couple like that out of the sixteen that I did cut and fit in reasonably quick succession. But when I cut several tenons of the same …
What’s an arris anyway? Some new to woodworking might be asking this to themselves and it’s a fair enough question simply because what’s common enough vernacular in our wonder-filled woodworking world is not common in the great big world beyond our workshop doors. I just asked two people working in the office what an arris …
Most of the time, once you’ve installed a new bandsaw blade and set it up correctly on the wheels, the bandsaw will just keep running trouble-free with little or no adjustment until the blade wears to dullness and needs replacing again. Unless something happens, it will generally keep running smoothly but the occasional need for …
It’s a wood you’ll never forget, mesquite! More than interesting, more uniquely different. As my handsaw slipped through a cross-gain cut the strong and sweet essence wafted up in a split second and I was translated to a 35,000-acre ranch in south Texas watching a rattlesnake sidle up by the handle of my now silent …
Sliding in a well-cut slither of wood will work better than wood filler and you are more likely to create a permanent fix with a match to existing wood that will change colour with the surrounding wood if you do use a wood slither. It’s not that unusual in our flawed thinking and humanity to …
There are many options for filling voids and defects, bad joints and more. Do they work? Should we? I think I have invented one or two of my own and then had a thousand recipes from woodworkers telling me what they do to give the impression of a perfect dovetail or shoulder line to a …
I see things I consider silly in woodworking magazines so a few years ago I felt it best for me to stop frustrating myself by reading them. I’m doing pretty well with it but sometimes I glimpse wonderment on pages somewhere and I become bemused by this or that. In recent editions, something new but …
