Techniques

  Two mistakes, one after the other.         When I cut the shelves for the base cabinets of the hutches, I omitted the sub-top shelf on which the top shelf will be screwed [...]

A curved cutting edge is critical to most operations with your bench planes. The curve prevents the corners of the iron from digging into your work, and it allows you to correct the flatness of [...]

I like a good carcase saw in the same way I like to eat most parts of the pig. I like the way that its well-tuned crosscut teeth slice into the grain and leave behind a glassy smooth cut. I …

I remember the first time I saw a picture of the clock at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C. It was a reproduction in the Stickley catalog. I looked at the picture of the clock in the catalog [...]

The little side-clamp honing guide is my favorite bit of sharpening equipment. But it frequently is criticized for two shortcomings: – It is poorly made and sloppily painted. So you have to [...]

When I build a frame-and-panel assembly such as a door, face frame or back, I almost always add “horns” to the stiles. As a result I almost always get the stink eye from the others in [...]

While I own an electric plunge router and all manner of bits and guides, I tend to cut my stopped dados using hand tools for a couple reasons. One: I’ve found that it doesn’t take [...]

As a hand-tool woodworker, I try to avoid bookmatching my panels. Bookmatching creates a panel where the grain in one board runs one way and the grain in the other board runs the opposite. When [...]

Instead of writing about the flatness of plane soles, perhaps I should talk about something less controversial, such as religion or politics. When purchasing a vintage plane, the flatness of the [...]

Cincinnati is not a tourist destination like nearby Big Bone Lick, Ky., So when people come to visit our shop I try to accommodate all their requests so they consider their journey to [...]

Whenever I teach a class on handplanes, I’m amazed at what the students bring to set up and use. I’ve seen Holtey planes and Harbor Freight planes in the same class. And there’s [...]

Sometimes it seems like there are 100 things that can go wrong with a handplane before it will do one thing right: Eject a perfect and fluffy shaving. Lately I’ve been using a lot of [...]