David’s Walnut Bowl – Part 1
Last Memorial day weekend, I returned to Peters Valley School of Crafts to teach a Live Edge furniture-making class. Our class was on the short side; concise and intensive. My...
Notched Batten for Planing
A notched batten is one of the best jigs you can make to help in hand planning. This simple thin hardwood strip has a hoof-shaped notch at its end and...
Clamps for Delicate Work
Most of the clamps in our woodworking arsenal are designed to produce tons of pressure per square inch. While we use them to hold pieces over the workbench, close joints,...
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 4: The End of the Beginning.
The last two repair remedies this chair needed before its inauguration into productive service life were reinstalling it with the old leg brackets and creating and installing a set of...
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 3: The Right Honorable Screw Joint.
One of the more disappointing joining methods that miserably failed due to the traumatic fall (or jolt) before the chair had been placed in its shipping box was the leg-to-rail...
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 2
My course of action with any repair, restoration or conservation is: Do No Harm. That is, I try to deal with the essential structural, finish, hardware, etc. issues without forcing...
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 1
A few weeks ago, my spouse purchased two Faux bamboo Chippendale mahogany chairs for our dining table. The chairs were a reproduction of a Victorian furniture style and meant to...
A Solitary Bee Hotel and the Joy of Just Drilling
My son Asher likes gardening. He loves digging, planting, harvesting, and building makeshift bug habitats for earthworms, beetles, moths, and ants. A few weeks ago, he asked me if we...
The Return of the Great Brass Mallet
Five years ago, I wrote a blog entry about the brass mallets I use for joinery. I mentioned the Canadian-made Veritas Mallet, a compact tool that weighs 17.6 oz (500gr)...
The Handy Dandy Double Square
One of the first tools many get when embarking on our journey into woodworking is a 12” (300mm) combination square. This American innovation is one of our toolbox’s most versatile...
Fighting Rust with Brass and Bronze
The summer is here in earnest, and with it came the rising humidity. Humidity and ferrous-based metals such as carbon steel and cast iron don’t get along that well, and...
Flattening a Plane Sole, Part 5 – The Tools I Use to Measure Flatness
To conclude this series of entries about lapping/flattening the soles of metal planes (read them here #1, #2, #3, #4), I wish to share some information about the precision tools...
