Tools

I sharpen all of my plane irons and chisels at 35°. Here’s why: I do this to keep my sharpening regimen as simple as possible. I don’t want to pick...

During the last few months I’ve been revising “Handplane Essentials,” an out-of print book that we published while I was the editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine. The revisions, additions and...

I suspect this will ruffle a few feathers, but so be it. I’ve been asked a lot lately if one really needs a jack and a jointer plane. Several well-respected...

I know how hard working in a small shop can be. My shop is squeezed into a one-car garage that also serves as a storage area for most of the...

If you ever work with wood from unreliable or unusual sources, such as one-person sawmills, it pays to own a moisture meter. I slip mine into my pocket whenever I...

Sometimes I feel the need to test myself, particularly when it comes to crap I say and crap I do. For many years I’ve contended that using handplanes is faster...

This inexpensive compact saw performs surprisingly well. Click here to read the full review. Web Site: Craftsman.com Online: See the other saws in this line from Craftsman. From the February...

Making “stop shavings” – where the plane cuts only one part of the board – is one of the keys to better edge joints and lots of other handplane techniques....

The trick to becoming fast at handplaning is to never pause during stock preparation. No matter how you prepare your wood for a project (with machines, handplanes or some combination...

American folk art meets the world’s most collectible hand saw. by Ralph Brendler from the June 2004 issue It’s easy to understand why folk artists love to paint on saws...

Lightweight but solid, this two-knife model is a decent starter machine. Web site: grizzly.com Blog: See the inside of a straight-knife planer and a helical-head version. Blog: Get the skinny [...]

There are two woodworking tools that we have forgotten the most about in the last 50 years: the steel framing square and the handsaw. The steel framing square is essentially...