I know that mid-January is a little late to be making my New Years Resolutions, but I had to think for a bit about these ones. Woodworking is still a very new craft for me, and I want to advance my skills, but not set goals that are unrealistic. Here is a first shot at […]
Our sincere thanks to all of you who entered our Lie-Nielsen hand tool giveaway that just ended. More than 500,000 entries were submitted through Dec. 31, 2010. Congratulations to Chris Benner of Lebanon, Ohio, the lucky winner of the five Lie-Nielsen hand planes and set of 5 Lie-Nielsen bevel-edge chisels. Chris is the proprietor of […]
This month in the January Wood News I wrote about a few of “My Favorite Things” in the Down to Earth Workshop. Some of these things are not necessarily the things you might imagine – my band saw and my No. 4 smoothing plane are critical components to the shop, but my electric cup warmer […]
I think I finally have in my head what Chuck Brock is talking about when he refers to hard lines and soft lines. A hard line is what you end up seeing when a flat meets a round for instance, and you make sure that the junction line between the two surfaces is well defined and visible.
I have a lot of customers who want to discuss which one of our planes will ultimately leave the best final finish on flat wood. Most of them are anticipating the comparison of our Low Angle Block plane v. our Low Angle Jack plane v. our 4 1/2. Many are surprised when I bring out […]
Once you know your way around the basics of using a scroll saw, you can get some great inspiration from a large selection of scroll saw pattern books, many of which are available at Highland. The book that Ben recommends most highly for beginners in the video below is The Scroll Saw Workbook, which builds […]
One process I wanted to have nailed down in my scrollsawing toolbox was how to replace the blade. The Rikon 16″ Scroll Saw available at Highland is currently sold as a combination pack with an assortment of 86 blades. The first thing I had to learn was the difference between pin-style blades and pinless blades. […]