With the world’s economy taking a nose dive in 2009, we saw a lot of things happen to the tool-making community. Many of the major manufacturers, which were pummeled by the housing market, played it safe this year. Either they held out on introducing new tools that would require a big investment in the factories, or they diverted their resources elsewhere.

However, some toolmakers, particularly individual makers, small companies and lean manufacturers, kept going. And as a result we saw the most unusual crop of new tools and machines in a long time.
Many of the machinery makers were cautious in 2009, but Grizzly Industrial and SawStop in particular still seemed to be firing on all cylinders. And their efforts definitely show in this year’s list of our 12 Best New Tools.

And on the hand-held power tool side of the market, Makita seems unstoppable when it comes to continuously refining the products in its strong areas (as least as far as woodworkers are concerned): cordless drills and miter saws.

But the big story is the number of the amazing hand tools we saw across the board in all price ranges. Check out the list. You’ll see what I mean. And if you want to see reviews of our runners-up to this list, visit our web site at popularwoodworking.com/dec09.

— Christopher Schwarz, editor

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BENCHCRAFTED Tail Vise

For years we’ve watched the quality of vise hardware decline as old-school factories closed. This year we’ve had a renaissance with some new vise makers coming onto the scene, including Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.

One of the most delightful newcomers  has been Benchcrafted, a small Midwestern company that makes a simply awesome tail vise. I installed the tail vise onto my workbench and was blown away by how smoothly it moves and how firmly it grabs the work. Plus, unlike a traditional tail vise, this unit won’t sag.

Everyone who visits our shop wants one. This is a lifetime vise.

BENCHCRAFTED  ■  benchcrafted.com

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BLUE SPRUCE Round Mallet

Few tools in our shop get universal acclaim, but the new resin-impregnated mallet from Blue Spruce Toolworks sure comes close.

Since I purchased one of these mallets from the Oregon-based company, two of the other woodworkers in our shop followed suit.

The mallet is almost impossible to resist. It’s the perfect weight (1 lb.) and size (81⁄2" long). It’s beautifully finished. It’s perfectly balanced. But what is really astonishing about the mallet is how it can take a beating without getting beat up.

Most wooden mallets (round or square) become dogmeat in short order – no matter what sort of wood you use. The Blue Spruce sidesteps that problem by using an acrylic-infused head. Every pore is filled with plastic, yet the mallet feels like wood to your hands and responds like wood when you hit something. That is, it doesn’t bounce like a rubber mallet.

It also has a lot of punch for a mallet of this size, though it’s definitely not a wrist breaker like a cast-iron mallet can be.

I’ve had this Blue Spruce mallet since February, have been using it just about every day and have yet to make a dent in it. It still looks as good as when I got it out of the box.

We think this plastic technology could be used in other woodworking tools. Blue Spruce already uses it in handles for bench chisels. It would be great for the handles of mortise chisels – those receive a whupping. It also could be used in the totes for saws and planes – these are notoriously fragile. How about a wooden try square made from it? (I assume the acrylic reduces or eliminates the expansion and contraction process.) Hammer handles? Stay tuned.

BLUE SPRUCE TOOLWORKS  ■  bluesprucetoolworks.com

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SAWSTOP Contractor Saw

By now everyone knows about the patented and effective sawblade-stopping technology that is the heart of every SawStop machine. But what everyone doesn’t know is just how good the contractor version of this saw is.

When equipped with the company’s T-glide fence and solid cast iron wings, this is a serious woodworking saw. The fit and finish is outstanding and the guarding system is excellent (SawStop was among the first to embrace the new guards). And I don’t think we’ve ever had a contractor saw in here that was as easy to assemble.

In working with the saw, we found it to be stable and powerful – it has a 13⁄4-horsepower  motor like many hybrid table saws.

If you spring for the saw, we also recommend the excellent mobile base, which lifts the saw with ease and is quite stable.

To be sure, the SawStop costs more than other contractor saws, but it’s a no-compromise machine. Not on quality. And not on safety.

SAWSTOP  ■  sawstop.com  ■  866-729-7867

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VERITAS NX60 Block Plane

Veritas has a well-earned reputation for making excellent hand tools at reasonable prices, so some people thought this Canadian company had gone off the deep end when it introduced a $279 block plane.

We, however, love the thing. It is quite possibly one of the most curvaceous and beautiful block planes I’ve ever seen. The level of fit and finish (check out the elliptical knurling) is off the charts.

And we are also wild about the nickle-resist ductile iron in the plane’s body. This makes the plane both durable and extremely corrosion resistant. And some of us like how shiny it is.

We now think that Lee Valley Tools sells the most complete range of one-handed planes, from its $39 “Little Victor” plane on up to this masterpiece of design and engineering. If you want the coolest-looking block plane in your city, call Lee Valley Tools.

VERITAS  ■  leevalley.com  ■  800-871-8158

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ECCENTRIC TOOLWORKS Backsaws

This year I picked up a dovetail saw and carcase saw that blew me away. They were, compared to peers, the first among equals.

The backsaws from Andrew Lunn’s Eccentric Toolworks are super-tuned jewels. They start more easily than any Western saw I’ve used – much like a Japanese saw. They fly through stock with ease. They are extraordinarily balanced and leave but a whisper of a kerf behind.

And on top of all that, the saws have beautiful handmade touches (such as carving on the tote) that make them as nice to look at as they are to use.

Yes, these saws cost more than your typical premium Western saw. But the Eccentric saws are a bargain when you compare them to blacksmith-made saws from Japan, and they really do cut in that league, in my opinion.

Each saw is hand sharpened, set and tuned by Lunn until he is completely satisfied with its performance. There’s a bit of a waiting list for Lunn’s saws now that the word is out. You might want to get in line now because it’s only going to get longer.

ECCENTRIC TOOLWORKS  ■  eccentricwoodcraft.com

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GRIZZLY G0636X Band Saw

In the 14 years I’ve been with Popular Woodworking, we have been through more than a dozen band saws of all sizes and all makes. Though there were many good saws on that list, there was never one that we wanted to keep in our shop forever (like our old Powermatic 66 table saw).

This year, however, we brought the Grizzly G0636X band saw into our shop at the magazine and we are in heaven.

This 17" saw outclasses and out-cuts many of the more expensive saws out there. And – here’s the important part – the saw stays in alignment better than any of the other saws we’ve tested over the years. One of the biggest flaws of many band saws is that you need to fuss with them a lot to really unlock their potential.

This saw’s cast iron wheels are massive, the bearing guides are robust, the rack-and-pinion tilting table is a joy. Everything that should be overbuilt, is overbuilt.

The saw has plenty of guts thanks to a 5-horsepower motor, has a 16" resaw capacity, a real monster of a fence and all the niceties you’d expect from a first-class machine: foot brake, rack-and-pinion guide adjustment, quick-release tension, and lots and lots of steel. The sucker weighs 675 pounds.

I doubt this bear will ever be allowed to leave our cave.

GRIZZLY  ■  grizzly.com  ■  800-523-4777

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BIG WOOD VISE Classic Vise Screw

We’re a bit obsessed with good vise hardware, and we think you should be, too. A good vise makes every operation easier. Good workholding allows you to focus on working instead of pondering, “How am I going to hold that?”

Woodworker Joe Comunale has taken his metalworking skills and machines and used them to make amazing wooden vise screws, something that hasn’t been available to purchase for a long time.

Wooden vise screws advance faster than metal ones, never mark your work with grease and hold as tightly as you’d ever need. Comunale’s company, BigWoodVise.com, makes wooden vise screws with the fit and finish of a piece of furniture. And they are both a joy to install and use. He offers several versions for different benches, including one with a Shaker-style hub. We installed his Classic Vise Screw on the bench on last month’s cover and couldn’t be happier.

BIG WOOD VISE  ■  bigwoodvise.com

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FOURTH FIELD Red Tape

This winner is from the category of: Why was this not invented before? Yes. Adhesive clear tape printed with an inch scale.

Called Red Tape and invented by a Georgia entrepreneur, this cool product allows you to put a rule almost anywhere, then remove it without hurting the surface below. It’s a 55'-long roll of clear adhesive tape with a continuous ruler printed on it in red.

The tape can be stuck to your workbench then removed if you please. It’s great to have a ruler stuck to your bench that allows you to quickly ascertain how long or wide a piece is by simply shifting it over the tape.

You can stick the tape to the curved arm bow of a Windsor chair and use it to lay out the spacing of the spindles. Or you can even stick it to your computer monitor to pull dimensions from a photo or use it to size objects in CAD or a photo-editing program.

I used Red Tape on my monitor to pull dimensions off a photograph of a Shaker hanging cupboard. It was very handy and easier than holding a ruler up to the screen or even working from a print-out.

The tape is marked in 1⁄16ths, repeats every 12" and does not stretch, as far as we can tell. The printing job is quite accurate.

FOURTH FIELD  ■  redtape1.com  ■  706-405-5031 

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VERITAS Dovetail Saw

Veritas shocked a lot of woodworkers when it introduced its new dovetail saw for three reasons:


While most premium Western saws are easily $125 or more, this new Veritas saw opened up the Western saw market to a new range of woodworkers who might have considered buying a Japanese handsaw (or none at all).

Or, even worse, they might have tried to make do with a cheap home-center saw and given up dovetailing altogether.

The Veritas saw is a remarkable combination of old technology and new. The old: the handle shape comes from a vintage saw and it is attached to the saw with a bolt like a handplane tote – very clever. The new: The back of the saw is made using stainless steel powder, glass fiber and a polymer resin.

How does it cut? Brilliantly. Thanks to a slightly relaxed rake, the saw starts easily in end grain and is smooth in the cut. The company also makes a fine-tooth version of this saw and a crosscut version. That means you can buy two saws for a bit more than you would spend to purchase a single saw from a competitor.

VERITAS  ■  leevalley.com  ■  800-871-8158

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MAKITA LS1016L Miter Saw

Here at work, we get to try every brand of miter saw available. And when we go to our shops at home, a lot of us have Makita miter saws waiting for us there.

This year we brought the Makita LS1016L dual-sliding compound miter saw into our shop, and the entire staff has been overjoyed with it. It has guts. Sure, every miter saw says it’s a 15-amp tool, but Makita’s motors squeeze an astonishing amount of oomph from a wall socket. And the saw features electronic feedback to keep the rpm up under a heavy load.

Also great: This model features four steel rails. Why should you care? Accuracy. Many two-rail saws can deflect. And when mitering, even a little deflection is a disaster.

This saw has great capacity, both vertically (up to 43⁄4") and with your work flat on the table (12"). The laser is a nice bonus. And the saw comes with a blade you won’t have to replace as soon as you open the box.

Once again, Makita has won our hearts with a world-class miter saw.

MAKITA  ■  makita.com  ■  800-462-5482

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MAKITA BTD144 Impact Driver

Makita cordless drill-drivers have long been a favorite in our shop, and so it was a bit of a surprise when an 18-volt cordless impact driver became an object of envy.

There is a lot to like. It’s compact, powerful and capable of great finesse – not something you hear a lot when discussing impact drivers. By pressing a button you can vary the tool’s torque to deal with soft, medium or hard materials.

Add to that Makita’s reliability, battery technology and a useful task light (that we love) and we knew we had a winner.


MAKITA  ■  makita.com  ■  800-462-5482

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KREG Beaded Face-frame System

There are lots of ways to make mitered beading in a face frame that require expensive machines, some serious hand skills or a master’s touch with a table saw.

Now Kreg Tool has invented a way for the rest of us to make these eye-catching frames. If you incorporate beaded face frames into many of your projects (or you are a professional kitchen cabinet maker and want to set yourself apart) this is a clever system to consider.

Here’s how it works: Thanks to a special sliding fence you can plunge your stile material straight onto a special notching bit (included with the kit). This bit easily plows out the mitered section in the stile, a cut that many woodworkers struggle to make.

Then you just move the fence’s stop, notch the ends of your rails with the same bit and add your beading. The system is ideal for those who use pocket screws to assemble face frames. PW

KREG TOOL  ■  kregtool.com  ■  800-447-8638