Finishing Furniture Projects

I recently found myself with that most fortunate of situations – a whole day in the shop. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: get some furniture projects finished....

Portable Tool Box Build

After posting this image of a tool box on Facebook, I soon had many comments such as, “Made one of these 30-odd years ago at college during my apprenticeship,” and...

Stock Preparation By Hand

I decided to avoid giving a written comprehensive lesson in how to prepare stock by hand (although I did record a video for you to watch – see below). I...

Making a Joiner’s Mallet

  I’ve wanted to make a new mallet for a while now and at last found a bit of time to take the project forward. I knew I’d want to...

2 x 4 Handplane

The concept of the “transitional plane” has piqued my interest for a while. Both off-the-shelf and user-made versions by their relative scarcity in my neck of the woods create intrigue....

Super Easy Bench Hook

Popular Woodworking already has a comprehensive guide on making and using a bench hook full of good information, so I hesitated for a moment before adding my particular version. However, I...

Shaker-style Bench

Making the tool tote in my previous post and this Shaker-style bench has been very satisfying. It’s been a while since I’ve thought about these simple projects using highly accessible...

Simple & Quick Tool Tote

This post is less about the virtues of building a tote and more to do with some personal navel-gazing. Let’s deal with the tote first. I don’t think I’ve broken...

A Week In Our Shop

I thought it might be fun to share just a few of the projects that have been running through the GS Haydon & Son workshop this last week. Our bread...

Cheap Saws – Part 2

In Part 1, I discussed my reasons for owning disposable saws. Here are some other considerations, including cost. First, please don’t assume this is a knock at quality saw makers....

Cheap Saws – Part 1

I like to be honest about sharing what works well for me, even if that view might be unpopular: I sometimes recommend saws of the disposable type. And this and...

Upsetting ‘Upsets’

Wood, being a natural product, is not without its defects. Many are obvious and some (such as the upset above) can be harder to detect. I’ve always known them to...