Tools

A couple weeks back we were up to our armpits in finishing work. Two projects were in the finishing area awaiting completion for photo shoots this past Wednesday. (I’m happy...

Our 2008 crop of Best New Tools includes a dozen offerings that are unique, innovative or look at an old tool in a whole new way (or sometimes all three).

Handplanes with corrugated soles vex many woodworkers. If you find them on a vintage plane, should you grab it or should you shun it? If you order a bench plane...

A lot of people ask to see my tool collection. I tell them I don’t have one , I’m a user, not a collector. If I say that again, however,...

What hand and power tools does the serious beginner need? Here’s our best list.

Several years back I was fitting some 1/4″-thick mullions and muntins into a door and needed to plane the little suckers to remove their sawmarks. Planing thin stock can be...

One of the most powerful things about hand tools is that they allow you to work on small areas of a board with ease. Instead of running the whole board...

Reader Tim Williams writes: I have a number of old Stanley planes that I’ve spent a lot of hours cleaning and refurbishing. I’ve read multiple places about how when tuning...

Almost every day I get an e-mail or a phone call that goes something like this: “I’m a beginner. I want to buy some handplanes. But I have no idea...

If you ask me, the first backsaw you should buy should be a carcase saw. It’s handy for all manner of crosscuts when building furniture. But you never see reviews...

If there’s a tool out in the woodworking arena that garners more attention these days than SawStop, someone please bring it to my attention. I see scads of responses on...

Without fail, every week readers ask me where to get their saws sharpened. I’ve run into some great saw sharpeners in my day, and I’m always happy to recommend their...