No matter how many times I do it, every class on building a workbench is remarkably different. Different wood. Different tools. Different students. Different country. I don’t know how I got talked into teaching a workbench class at a hand-tool school in Germany. OK, that’s a lie. I know exactly how. I was drinking beer … Read more
Last Friday, I skipped out of the office for a trip down to Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, Ky., (the most bucolic woodworking school I’ve had the pleasure of attending) to visit with Kelly and Larry Williams and Don McConnell of Old Street Tool. I arrived just in time to cadge a piece … Read more
I have always disliked chipbreakers, which clog a handplane all too easily. But tonight I dislike them a little less. After the recent spate of discussions about a series of Japanese films on chipbreakers (here is the complete and translated film) and some encouragement from woodworker David Charlesworth, I decided to experiment with the position … Read more
John Sindelar’s Michigan tool museum will close its doors in a couple weeks when Sindelar moves his woodworking business about five miles down the road. Sindelar is one of the most public tool collectors I’ve ever met, and he opens his amazing collection in Edwardsburg, Mich., to anyone who asks nicely. He also opens it … Read more
In the August 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (which mails to subscribers on June 13), you’ll find a review of the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Violin Maker’s Plane (also called the 101), which is based loosely on the Stanley 101. I filmed the short video below to show how the plane comes apart, goes back together, … Read more
While I do most of my work by hand, there are two machines that I refuse to do without: a thickness planer and an old Delta 14” band saw. These two machines remove the drudgery from reducing boards in thickness and long rips. So I baby these two machines. When it comes to band saw … Read more
One of the sure signs of getting old is finding out that the kid who works in the next cubicle never heard of the TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati.” Another sign is remembering something that is taken for granted today was at one time brand spanking new. Our web guy wasn’t even born in 1982 … Read more
