The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 8
Like last year, I am ending this gift guide with a tool that is a little expensive but will change your work to the core. (Last year is was an EasyWood Full-Size Rougher turning tool.) This year [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 7
You do not need a complete set of 11 chisels from the 1/8” up to the monster 2”-wide chisel. Sure, the part of you that also collects Hummel figurines really wants a complete set, but most of the [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 6
I have owned several plant sprayers since Harrelson Stanley of Shapton USA introduced them to me in 2003 as a great way to keep your waterstones wet. Of all the sprayers I’ve used, this sub-$10 [...]
When Your Tool Chest Needs to Be a Tank (or a Boat)
When tool chests suffer damage, it’s usually in three places: the top rim of the lid, the lower skirt around the carcase and the bottom boards, which are rotted. The rim of the lid gets dented by [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 5
It is not always the screw’s fault. Yes, home-center wood screws are too soft. Some off-shore screw manufacturers use substandard materials and manufacturing processes. But sometimes it’s your [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 4
Woe is the poor glue scraper. There are no toolmakers crafting these tools with rosewood handles and German silver accents. No annoying forum threads that debate the merits of the different [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 3
If you read this blog regularly, you should be sick of this suggestion: Buy Pégas coping saw blades. Hoard them. I do – and I’m not generally a hoarder. I have about 150 stashed away in case [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 2
It’s easy to be skeptical about the polissoir. Could a bundle of broom corn radically change the way you finish some pieces of work? All of us who worked on the translation of A.-J. Roubo’s [...]
The 2014 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 1
Full disclosure: The following gift ideas are 100-percent unsponsored. I bought all these tools myself and would buy them all again – that’s why they are on this list. First on my list for 2014 [...]
A Faster Way to Assemble a Roorkee
Roorkee chairs are great fun to show customers – until they ask me to take it apart and put it back together for them. For the first year or so, I was pretty slow at putting them together because [...]
2 Ways to Warm up For Dovetails (Without Cutting One)
My dovetails are always at their best if I warm up before sawing. But I’ll be honest – when I am pressed for time I have no patience to cut an entire joint, much less prep the wood for a …
How to Impress the General Public with Your Woodworking
The following blog entry might seem snarky. I assure you it is not. I’m interested in what impresses people when they view a piece of furniture. In fact, when a fellow woodworker shows off a [...]
