The most embarrassing jig I’ve ever owned has been photographed, measured and pondered more than any single piece of fine furniture I’ve built. It’s a stupid little block of wood with stops on it for many common sharpening angles I use with my side-clamp honing guide – sometimes called the “Eclipse” guide because that was … Read more
I built my Roubo clone frame saw many years ago after seeing a similar one in Colonial Williamsburg’s Hay shop. With my version, which is a closer approximation of the Roubo saw in both style and blade geometry, I attempted to improve on some of the slow cutting attributes of the Hay shop’s saw. … Read more
These traditional tools are a throwback for a thoroughly modern maker.
By Christopher Schwarz
Page 14
Perhaps the last tools I ever expected to come out of the Blue Spruce Toolworks are the most traditional set of modern bench chisels I have ever used.
After all, Dave Jeske of Blue Spruce has spent all of his toolmaking career building gorgeous tools that have a definite modern and West Coast flavor. His knives, chisels, awls and even his mallets are about as close to contemporary sculpture as you can get (and I mean that as the highest compliment imaginable).
Video: Watch Dave Jeske sharpen a marking knife so it tracks better. Read more
By Steve Shanesy
Page 16
In the world of routers and routing accessories, it seems that small is big these days. The popularity of trim routers has been growing for some time; in fact, it’s now been a couple years since we praised Micro Fence’s plunge router base for the Bosch Colt, and we recently reviewed Makita’s compact router.
Video: Watch a short video on line-and-berry inlay using a router. Read more
By Megan Fitzpatrick
Page 16
Spear-point marking knives are my favorite marking knives because they’re a good all-around choice for most layout tasks in the shop. Because a spear-point knife has two bevels and a flat back, it can easily register against a guide on either the right or left side – very handy when marking dovetails. And the flat back means you don’t have to rotate the tool to use it up against a guide (as you do with an X-Acto knife); that means you can sneak a thin spear-point into the smallest of spaces.
Article: Read our article of spear-point marking knives. Read more
I don’t generally think of power tools in the same reverential, (perhaps) overly romanticized tones that come to mind when I consider hand tools. I can stare at my grandfather’s 8 oz. Kentucky Bluegrass claw hammer for hours daydreaming about what may have caused the nicks and wear. Or imagine the unknown maker who’s hands … Read more
When I was taught to sharpen in 1992, the flat back of the iron was holy ground. We were taught to flatten it completely and polish it like a mirror. Never mind that none of the old tools we were buying at flea markets looked like that. With the old tools, there was rarely much … Read more
