With the holidays on their way, everyone around here is starting to think about what new tools would really enhance our workshops if we were to receive them as gifts. Lee Laird’s wishlist clearly shows a preference for hand tools, but wouldn’t you expect just that from the guy who writes about and demonstrates hand […]
I was working on a house rehab last week with my Habitat Chapter and a group of 20 High School students from two of the local high schools. The kids were great and the instructors were outstanding. These kids are really into this carpentry stuff and they are well trained. I am so happy […]
This month’s issue of Wood News is out – click here to start reading! If you’ve been thinking about updating your shop, you might want to take a look at the first part of Mike Smith’s series My Last Shop, in which he goes through the process of building his workshop from the ground up. You […]
Now that the tenons are done, time for matching mortises. Now, I could just scribe and chop them out by hand, there are only two. However, I want them to be pretty tight and being risk-adverse at this stage in the project (I can’t get two more crotch walnut legs if I really screw up!) […]
There’s been some buzz around the internet of a video showing the effect of moving a hand-plane’s chipbreaker all the way to the front (within thousands of an inch of the iron’s tip). Even Chris Schwarz had a post on it. Pretty interesting stuff, and I decided to try it out myself. I won’t go […]
The Violin Maker’s Plane (A.K.A. the #101) is one of Lie-Nielsen’s newest planes, and the smallest to use a captive nut adjuster, which is such a bonus when dialing up the perfect shaving. This plane is based loosely on Stanley’s #101, but Lie-Nielsen has made a number of improvements to the original design. The body and cap are made […]
I’m ready to final-size the legs which means using the template I created awhile ago. I first traced the curve onto both sides of the workpiece. Then over to the bandsaw to remove the waste. I try to cut about 1/16″ outside the lines so that there’s not too much material to remove with the […]