I’m not a hand tool guy. There, I’ve said it. If I can find a way to use a power tool, I will. That said, I, like most woodworkers, do use hand tools on a regular basis. My experience has been that most woodworkers who have an aversion to hand tools (like me) weren’t taught … Read more
Tag Archives: Hand Tools

Hand Tools, Routers, Japanese Joinery and More – New on DVD
From mastering hand tools to router basics, 18th-century joinery to Japanese hand tools and joinery, you’ll find it all among the five new DVD selections now available to order at ShopWoodworking.com (and four of them are on “pre-sale” which means you save 20 percent if you order before the DVDs arrive in the warehouse). “Handsaws: … Read more

New: ‘Mastering Hand Tools: Basic Skills for Balanced Woodworking’
If you read this blog, you are probably interested in hand tools. And if you are at the beginning of your journey, this blog entry is for you. Popular Woodworking Magazine commissioned me to make a series of 10 to-the-point videos about hand tools that try to strip away the confusion so you can get … Read more

That’s Not a Holdfast
Christopher Schwarz and Lucy May are pleased to announce the newest addition to their family. Length: 18”. Weight: 9 lbs., 4 oz. Birth date: Feb. 15, 2012. Delivered by: Peter Ross, blacksmith and white smith. After more than seven years of searching, I have finally found a bench holdfast that works effortlessly with a French-style … Read more

New Sawmaker Builds Ancient Saws
Anyone who has ever read Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises” (1678) has puzzled over his pictures of saws. There are some frame saws, a whipsaw and a fancy handled saw without a back that Moxon, as far as I know, doesn’t discuss in his text. That fancy saw has always caught my eye. What was it … Read more

The Lie-Nielsen Crates are Here! The Lie-Nielsen Crates are Here!
Last year when we moved the crates for the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event into our former shop, it was a half-hour production with a lot of grunting, sweating and jerry-rigging to get the 3,000+ pounds of Lie-Nielsen goodies off the truck, through inconveniently narrow gates to the “loading dock” outside our doors, over the annoyingly … Read more

THURSDAY SHOP SPECIAL – ‘Hand Tool Essentials’ for Only $10
Learning to work with hand tools takes a little guts, some basic dexterity and some background information. In today’s shop, you supply the guts, anyone can learn the dexterity and the background is best gotten from a crusty German master cabinetmaker.[...] Read more



