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Carpenter and woodworker Carl Bilderback never flattens his oilstones. And they are both dead flat – I couldn’t get a .00125” feeler gauge under a straightedge that I laid on the stones. His [...]

With Andrew Lunn’s announcement that he’s leaving the sawmaking business, the No. 1 question on all our minds is: Who will have the guts to pull a prank on Jameel Abraham from Benchcrafted at the [...]

For years now, Lie-Nielsen has made 55° frogs for its No. 4-1/2 bench planes. I’m a big fan of higher planing angles, but I’m not as big a fan of the No. 4-1/2. I prefer the smaller smoothing [...]

Among all the important historical woodworking books out there, Peter Nicholson’s “The Mechanic’s Companion” does not get enough notice. Perhaps that’s because it wasn’t the first [...]

Andrew Lunn, who made the finest backsaws I’ve ever used, has decided to stop making saws, though he is not hanging up his shop apron entirely. Lunn made the announcement to his customers today [...]

The best sharpening advice I ever heard was from Tony Konovalov: Grind, hone and get back to work. Or, to put it another way: Which is more fun? Making your tools sharp or making your tools dull? [...]

I made some cavetto moulding for a version of The Schoolbox I’m building. And because a cavetto is one of the easiest mouldings to make with a round plane, I decided to demonstrate the basics of [...]

In the fall of 1996 I was running my own struggling newspaper with a partner in Kentucky’s capitol city. I was sleeping under my desk. I was working every weekend. I was not paying myself much. [...]

My obsession with food is almost as all-consuming as my love for woodworking. I’ll eat almost anything, except the junk served by large chain restaurants. So if you are thinking of a way to lure [...]

When a young Mary May returned to Minnesota from a backpacking tour of Europe she was intoxicated with the cathedrals, castles and carvings inside them. “I remember talking to my friend about it [...]

Forget tax day. Or better yet, we recommend you spend your hard-earned tax refund at the free April 15-16 Lie-Nielsen Toolworks show in our offices here in Cincinnati, Ohio. As usual, we pull out [...]

I’ve always preferred diamond plates for flattening my waterstones and oilstones. Though a coarse or extra-coarse diamond stone does a fine job, the sharpening stones are pretty hard on the [...]