So Many Projects, So Little Time...
Here I talk about hand tools! What could be more fun? Whether it be a tool review, one I built myself, or just waxing philosophical about the tools I love. This is the place to be. Have questions about hand tools? Use the contact form on the right hand edge of your screen and I'll do my best to help.
Lately there is a movement towards smaller tool kits. I think this message speaks to the “anarchist” in all of us and certainly the smaller tool kit is easier on the wallet and doesn’t take up much space in a tiny shop. I’m a big fan of this dogma mostly for the skills that it [...] Read more »
I was asked by a Hand Tool School member recently to provide a list of good chisel brands to aid him in buying. That’s actually a pretty tough question to answer seeing as I don’t have more than 5 minutes of fiddle time with more than a couple brands. So I started to think about [...] Read more »
Chris Schwarz recently posted about his simpleton shooting board and it made me laugh as I have a similar shooting board that I made several years ago. I took great pains to make the fence adjustable for “all those times when I would need to tweak the fence angle”. That was probably because the fence [...] Read more »
I get a lot of questions about where to find old hand tools. Personally, I find a lot at flea markets and yard sales as well as the old tool shows that comes through town. I’m discovering through many of my Hand Tool School members who are spread all over the globe that this is [...] Read more »
Long bevels can be tricky whether cut by hand or by power. With so much reference surface, even the tiniest deviation can throw off the whole angle. Here is an easy trick you can use to fine tune the angle and get a gap free fit. I initially cut these bevels using a draw knife [...] Read more »
Sometimes despite all the hold fasts, vises, and bench dogs you need to improvise some work holding at your workbench. I run into this when using fences planes like plows on narrow stock. I present to you, the invisible vise. Google+ Profile Read more »
I was very fortunate to have a friend from my local SAPFM chapter loan me some of the new Veritas O1 bench chisels to play with about 4 weeks ago. I have been using them exclusively in the shop since then to see how they perform. I have long been a Lie Nielsen chisel devotee [...] Read more »
How many times have you started a project and had to set it aside to tackle something else only to completely forget about the original project? I was doing some Spring cleaning in my shop this weekend and stumbled across a container filled with vintage plane parts, blades and Evapo-Rust. Suddenly I remembered the old [...] Read more »
I recently took delivery of a Mini Panel Raising plane made by Philly Planes. It was probably my recent Tool Cabinet build where I had to raise 9 drawer bottoms by hand to fit into the grooves in the drawer sides that pushed me over the edge into wanting to find a Panel Raising plane. [...] Read more »
At work I was asked to clean up a piece of vertical grain Douglas Fir to be sent to a client as a sample. I know I have covered this before but I thought I would just turn on the camera and let it roll while I hand planed the board. Enjoy! Thanks again to [...] Read more »
