The days passed quickly and tomorrow completes the preparation workshop prefacing the month-long intensive on Monday morning. Try imagining what an investment this is on every front, but then try, to imagine how it feels to walk home with skills you never thought possible coupled with your own newfound personal knowledge. For today’s woodworker this…
Our preparation workshop is a three day workshop that covers the essentials of hand tool woodworking in readiness to begin the three major projects I described in an almearlier post. It starts today with four people who will join the others on the month-long course this coming Monday. Much of woodworking is about joinery and…
NOTE:Just so you know, this is an older workbench series. Paul has a newer Workbench series. If you are interested in the updated version of Paul’s workbench please click the button down below. This page links to a cutting list, tools list, FAQS and much more. Click here to go to the workbench page
I arrived back in the US yesterday and things look quite wonderful at the New Legacy NY school. We are already progressing towards the month-long workshop that starts on Monday morning and I know everyone is very excited about it. I also know that the UK month-long in November is about full too. These are…
There is a thing about mortise cutting and chisel edges that matters. Robert Sorby mortise chisels (and most others) arrive with a micro-bevel on the cutting edge. In the pre 80s no chisel arrived with anything more than a ground edge. I think it’s a silly thing to send chisels out with honed edges, but…
Actually, they are not so peripheral It should now be obvious that in my view mass is less important when chopping mortises, especially for the cabinet maker and lighter weight joinery most woodworkers find themselves employed in. When you see the next video series on making the workbench on Youtube you will see how effective…
Mid-weight mortise chisels stand fairly and squarely between the massive heavy weights and the bevel edged chisels I have been using in the videos. There are many makers, from Lie Nielsen to Narex and Crown to Sorby, in my experience there is minimal difference between them. Some are well finished and some more crudely made….
Chopping the mortise–Bevel edged or traditional mortise chisel I recently saw a Youtube video put together by Lie Nielsen where it shows a mortise being cut behind glass; the idea was to show the progression of the traditional method using a traditional ‘pig-sticker’ mortise chisel and I understand it was Roy Underhill who came up…
Apprenticing Phil Adams Two weeks ago Phil Adams started his apprenticeship with me and quickly settled in at his bench making a range of spoons and spatulas to sell here at Penrhyn Castle. This supports him as he trains. Over the months to come he will progress towards becoming a woodworker and furniture maker….
…there is the life I lived and grew to love that goes beyond the words and opinions people pass. My lifelong work working wood as a lifestyle woodworker was decided in 1963. It was chosen not picked, planned not happenstance, directed as a vocational absolute. My experience, tells me that seldom do those I meet…