Tools

Preparing small tabletops or irregular-shaped tops for finishing can be difficult with handplanes. If the top has a lot of mass, you can usually count on friction to help hold...

I consider myself fortunate to share the Popular Woodworkingshop with two world-class woodworkers , Christopher Schwarz and Glen D. Huey. After many years of working mostly by myself, it’s [...]

Whenever I get into some serious handwork, I always try to boil down the processes so that I can 1) remember it myself and 2) occasionally explain it to others...

I know it might be hard to believe, but some days I’m glad I’m not a pirate. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been discussing the role of your dominant...

Let’s talk about the historical and controversial scrub plane. First a little history, then the controversy. Whenever I talk about the fore plane, the handplane used to get boards to...

You have a dominant eye and a recessive eye (assuming you still have both eyes , and not three). And that fact can make your life as a sawyer a...

Most woodworkers I know aspire to cut their dovetails by hand. It is, for many of us, a self-imposed rite of passage to good craftsmanship. I’ve always tried not to...

This year at the AWFS show we saw several new table saws with new guard systems that include riving knives. I wrote about it here on the blog and the...

In all hand aspects of hand-tool woodworking, how you begin an operation with a hammer, plane or saw greatly influences your chance of success. Maintaining a proper strike, stroke or...

To most handplane users there are three principal ways to adjust the cutter in the tool: You can use a Bailey-style adjuster made popular by the U.S.-made Stanley planes, you...

Riving Knives , Not Just for The Europeans Anymore Of all the new things appearing at this year’s AWSF show, the most exciting is the sudden appearance of true riving...

Some manufacturers require a thousand square feet of booth space to show you the new tools they are going to introduce before the end of the year. Others require you...