Archives

Recommending chisels for beginners is difficult. Excellent chisels cost money – or a lot of time searching for nice vintage examples and setting them up. Most beginners just want to buy a tool [...]

If you build chairs, staked furniture or anything that uses round tenons, this entry is for you. One of the greatest joinery tricks I know of is to cut your tenons slightly oversized – .010” or a [...]

Last week I discussed the Zona Razor Saw and how it’s the ideal saw for beginning dovetailers. It’s just $12 to $15 and cuts extremely well. This saw got me thinking about what other inexpensive [...]

Oh, if only Stanley Toolworks was this awesome all the time. This year, the storied company released a tape measure for its 175th anniversary that is awesome. No, it’s not high-visibility yellow [...]

All woodwork involves a little metalwork. Whether you are installing locks that need filing or working with a handplane that needs fettling, you need a good set of needle files. I’ve had my [...]

If you make wooden chairs (I make a lot) you might be missing an important accessory: a sheepskin. During a recent trip to Wales to study the country’s chairs I noticed a sheepskin on one of the [...]

I use a boot tray to hold my sharpening gear. That way I can keep my stones in the tray underneath my bench and then place the tray on the benchtop for sharpening. The low walls of the boot tray [...]

One tool that has been in my shop for decades is a little box of single-edge razors that I use as scrapers and – occasionally – as a save-your-butt tool when finishes go bad. Scrapers don’t have [...]

Welcome to the latest edition of the Anarchist’s Gift Guide, a yearly thing I do that recommends mostly small, inexpensive and useful shop items. These blog entries are great to email to family [...]

If you post content on the internet or consume a lot of it, you will encounter wankers of the first order. You already know this. But how should you respond to their insults? You shouldn’t. I [...]

There are a lot of companies spending a lot of money to get you to buy their stuff. I suspect you are probably thinking, “Duh, that’s called advertising.” But this blog entry isn’t about [...]

There are a lot of companies spending a lot of money to get you to buy their stuff. I suspect you are probably thinking, “Duh, that’s called advertising.” But this blog entry isn’t about [...]