The first saw donkeys I made were done in january of 2016 which surprised me. I would have bet the ranch they were done this year. So I've had them for almost 2 years but they don't have a lot of mileage. They work very well for this intended purpose but they have a few negatives. They are big, heavy, and take up a lot of real estate in my phone booth shop. I didn't use them much after their initial ... read more

On a recent trip to the Philadelphia area for a wedding, I had a chance to visit some of my favorite antiques dealers in South Jersey. At one of them, I came across this rather ordinary bench: Door on the right and vise on the left are missing. This bench has a tool tray and a tool rack on the back: Rather wide breadboard end with dog holes in line with the missing vise. Drawers have machine cut dovetails: It ... read more

I’ll be writing a longer post about the craziness with the install. How I broke a No 4 plane handle just planing. How I had to shim to fix the gap from miss marking the holes, the 3 different sets of screws I had to use to get the rear jaw fom wobbling and the hole in the apron that is too big because I can’t measure. Even with all that I wasn’t done plaining the jaw liners flush for ... read more

I received a comment today from Kevin Brehon. He is also building an infill plane, and he has posted some very interesting considerations regarding his design and the building process as a whole.You can read his blog post here.My project is moving forward at a steady pace: The blade, the chipbreaker and the screw all cleaned up nicely after being soaked in vinegar for a day. A really fantastic thing is that the black crust/scale on the steel bar also ... read more

I have posted on eBay a vintage Fales'1884 Patent Combination Plane. Click here to see the listing. For those of you who follow my blog you may remember an earlier post about this plane and in that post I said I would not sell it. I have changed my mind. If you are a collector and looking for a fairly rare combination plane, this Fales' plane is for you.The plane is in used condition. 55%-70% of Japanning remains on metal ... read more

The other day I noticed an unsightly gap in the binding around the soundboard of a dulcimer I am currently working on. Small gaps are not uncommon when binding an instrument and there are several methods for filling them. This gap was large enough to cause me to consider removing the binding and starting again. The gap was about 2 inches long and barely open enough to catch a fingernail (my default tool for checking gaps) but I would ... read more

A teacher in the Netherlands pulled a blog post I wrote about the beginnings and outcome of following my passion in woodworking here and I am not altogether sure why what I wrote altogether mattered except, well, I got something that matters to me off my chest. It happens all the time that things left unsaid … Read the full post Who You Are Matters, Everyone! on Paul Sellers' Blog. ... read more

The body of Brendan’s mandolin is now together and the Macassar ebony is looking really very good!The next step is the purflings and bindings. First, however, I have to make the bindings; doing custom builds as I do, means you have to be willing to make one-offs and if that means making your own ebony with red line bindings, so be it.You have to use prime quality ebony for the bindings,the grain has to be straight in order to bend ... read more

Another saw Carcass saw kaerlian Masur birch. Und noch eine : Eine Schultersäge aus karelischer Maserbirke. ... read more

Some of my pieces are utility furniture that could easily be purchased at an IKEA or Bed, Bath & Beyond.  And those store-bought pieces would serve their purpose just fine for a modest price.  But instead, I choose to make these things by hand.  “Why?”, you ask.  Three reasons, really. The first reason is probably […] ... read more

Just thought I’d share some progress. I’ll write a whole post on the start to finish when I’m done. Yesterday I laid out the hole for the vise as close to my left bench leg as possible. Also, the whole looks low, but my top is 5.5 inches thick and I didn’t want to cut into it, so rhe vise sits lower. It’s another reason I went with a record 53 clone. Since the 10 inch vise is so big ... read more

Finished a saw. First for 10 weeks. ... read more

Finished a saw. First for 10 weeks. ... read more

This is a big tenon saw with a plum sahs saw handle. This high hang angle needs some correction in filling (adding rake) but it works now. Eine große Zapfensäge mit einem Griff für eine Kleine. Dass der Angriffswinkel so hoch liegt führt dazu, dass ich etwas mehr Rake feilen musste. Aber jetzt läuft sie. ... read more

My saturday started way before oh dark thirty. I did some OT and going in early to do that kind of killed any motivation to do anything today. Part of that is I don't have a project to occupy my attention that involves wood. I have a quite a few tool rehabs that have been simmering on the back burner that I could do. But I convinced myself that I didn't want to get my hands dirty working metal.I could ... read more

I lost my shop knife while we were unpacking at Handworks this spring, and I have been on a quest since then to find its replacement. (The company that made my now-lost knife no longer exists.) I am dang picky about knives. I’ve carried one every day since elementary school. So it is no small thing when I say this: I am glad I lost my favorite knife at Handworks because now I have a Kershaw Link drop-point knife ... read more

I have more or less decided that the overall size of the plane will be something like a Stanley No 3 or a No 4.There are many different designs of infill planes out there, but I don't want to make anything too wild. Nor do I want to make a direct copy of someones plane. But given the many planes that exist, it is quite possible that mine will look like some other plane after all. But that is OK ... read more

Friday morning was the first day of fall and, boy, did it feel like it. The characteristic crisp nip in the air, the breeze, and even geese migrating overhead: All of it was right on cue. John had to head back to Vermont and Mike went to the Common Ground Fair with his family so Luke, Isaac, Matt, and I attached the roof sheathing to the rafters. We spent all day nailing these gorgeous 200-year-old hemlock boards in place. ... read more

There are always paths not taken. Corollary to that idea, of course, is that we won’t ever know with any certainty what those paths would look like. There are glimpses. My childhood is littered with sets of toys like those above. Two tractors, nearly identical in every way. One pristine and barely used; the other beat to hell. This is the archeological evidence of two brothers. One who lived and one who died too young. It is the proof ... read more

It's done. After sitting unloved for months and with relatively few calories expended, I have a miter box. I also have a Stanley 358 miter box but that one is missing a lot of parts. It was also used and abused, and put away wet. Needless to say, it has a few issues. The big plate saw I have came with that miter box. Now that I have a functioning miter box we'll have to see if I use or ... read more

I’ve been waiting 4 years for this vise. It’s the same size as my dream Record 53. Tonight I took off the crochet and marked out the opening. Tomorrow we cut. Wish me luck. It’s like Christmas eve. I can barely sleep. Ain’t she pretty. ... read more

We have lots going on at the storefront now, so if you wanted to pick a good weekend for a visit, Oct. 14 would be ideal. Here’s a short list of stuff to see: I’m building my reproduction of the Saalburg workbench right now. It should be complete (or nearly complete). Come check out the workholding and let us know what you think about our experimental archaeology project. I’m also making a crazy dugout chair – a style of ... read more

Today I got smart and worked on this dugout chair before I took a shower – genius. Also, I found an easier way to remove the inner bark – with a chisel. Last night after dinner I went out to look at what one blog commenter has called “about the ugliest thing in woodworking history” and decided to see how easy it would be to chisel the inner bark away […] The post Dugout Chair Part 8, The Inner Bark ... read more

"My rabbet moves further into the vertical wall with every plane pass," said daddy woodworker."My rabbet gets further away from the vertical wall with every pass, creating steps," said mommy woodworker."My rabbet is juuuust right!" said baby woodworker.I've been doing some practice work with mouldings.  And when you use hand tools, that means cutting lots of rabbets.  When using a rabbet plane or a shoulder plane to cut rabbets, the iron should be just a little proud of the right ... read more

You may look at the photos and say wow dude that looks like crap. Sure does and intentionally.  I purposefully made some gaps in these dovetails as an experiment to see if Hot Hide Glue would fill up the gaps. I filled the gaps with saw dust first and then covered the surface with the glue.  It took somewhere between 30-60 mins before the glue hardened.  I know from experience with liquid hide that it should remain gummy for a ... read more

Why is it that the simple things always give the most trouble? ... read more

It was a good vacation, not too many squawks on the motorhome, the WX in Northern CA. was perfect with temps in the 60F to mid 70F range and the only rain was as we were leaving Ft. Bragg. It couldn't have been better except for the fires and smoke in Oregon keeping us in North CA.The portable bench worked well and I had almost all the tools needed, not bad for a proof of concept trial.Waiting for me at ... read more

Yesterday we completed the frame. Matt suspended the ridge into place while Luke, John, and Isaac began assembling the round cedar rafters from one gable end. Luke said the first pair of rafters is the hardest, especially when they have diagonal braces and a collar tie to be installed along with them. After that gable end was secured, though, the rest popped into place without issue. As they worked through down the ridge, the manual lift help stabilize it ... read more

Precious. ... read more

As I was watching my buddy, Sam, poke his head into the kitchen through the cat door as he often does, I got to thinking about v-tools.  Sam’s problem is also the problem of many v-tools: his bottom is too wide.  In Sam’s case, too wide to follow his head through the cat door; in the case of a v-tool, too wide to follow the cutting edge deep into the groove. From the workshop, the problem is clear. Unless ... read more