If you own a saw that has a “nib,” a decorative nipple-looking thing on the toe of your saw, someone will ask you what it’s for. The best answer is: It’s decorative. But that doesn’t stop woodworkers from coming up with uses for it. Here are two good ones. 1. As a place to tie … Read more
I swore on a stack of “Mechanicks Exercises” that I’d stop writing about coping saws. It’s not healthy, and I know that. But at Woodworking in America last weekend in Pasadena, Calif., I ran into Lee Marshall from Knew Concepts. He was holding a big red saw that was too big to be a fretsaw. … Read more
There are still millions of excellent vintage saws in the world, and the only thing standing between them rusting or chewing through wood is a good sharpening. Many beginning woodworkers are intimidated by sharpening their saws. That’s OK. When you are ready, buy these two DVDs from Ron Herman (“Sharpen Your Handsaws” and “Handsaws: Tune-up, … Read more
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
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
In the great battle to make the best router plane (what, you weren’t aware of the war?), Lie-Nielsen has raised the stakes by introducing two new closed-throat routers. For those of you who don’t follow router plane minutiae like I do, the throat of a router plane can be either open or closed. Closed-throat routers, … Read more
Attention woodworkers in and around the Great Falls, Montana, area: Have you noticed a curious lack of vintage handsaws in your flea markets and antique malls? Well there’s a reason that greater Great Falls is the black hole of vintage saws. The saw painters have made a 22’-high mechanical shrine to the craft using 208 … Read more
