The class went well all day and from the start the enthusiasm was highly infectious even to the point of being contagious. My class starts always begin with sharpness. Without this, hand tool woodworking is impossible.WIthout hand tools in working woodwork, artisanship cannot exist. Here we are beginning something. Beginnings have a way of defining the…
Walking past the woodlands and fields this morning is pleasant beneath a mottled sky of blues and fluffy clouds. The leaves are about turned with bright yellows, russets and reds and once again the tide is in so the curlews are feeding in the fields with the cows and sheep. The turret above is adjacent…
I really liked this photograph of some of the planes I have used on my testings, experiments and research. All too often we are taught things by others and we cling to the teaching as rigidly as we grip the plane that could in many cases benefit the work better by…
I think that many people would like to skip the rote practice it takes to master anything, but then it wouldn’t be worth anything would it? Always remember that achieving perfection begins with a fault. If we were born perfect, why would we need ongoing refinement and development throughout our lives? Neither are we born…
I’m thankful for the work I do. I have been making the hope chest for a few days now and on Saturday I have a two-day workshop so I will postpone some of the work until next week. Sharing my workspace has become increasingly important as I grow older and whether it’s teaching, apprenticing or…
Rough hands in veined steel knots clasp the chisel’s smoothness yet once more to pare the frame and fresh-cut shavings falling to tumbled piles at my feet and ankles braced now upon the oak board floor. I strain, press, twist and the steel has my will at the edge that separates wood from wood…
“The rails be trimmed fair and fettled to size with smoothness ‘neath my wood sole” Well, friends, it’s a fair test though not truly scientific. I tested a series of equally lengthed planes including #4s, #4 1/2s. #5s and #5 1/2s to true the flat faces and edges of my Hope-chest rails, which measure 7/8″…
Talk about planes with most people and the issue of plane chatter raises its ugly head time and time again. Whereas I try to offer a balanced view, those presenting articles on plane irons, planes and so on tend to be resolving an issue that’s more of a rarity than the norm, unless what they…
Walking to work, the sea below is at full tide and so the swans and geese remain in the fields until it retreats. Curlews in flocks forage the fields also, but as soon as the tide changes they will return to the sand of the beach surrounding the estuary of the Ogwen river to feast again. I…
My hope chest has several rails to interconnect at the corners. Tough wood being made from solid oak, but I’m planing them by hand quite easily using hand planing methods I’ve used for 45 years and the same methods used by woodworkers for centuries. Old fashioned? No, not really. These methods are ideal for developing…