Tools

One of the first projects I built for Popular Woodworking was an adaptation of Benjamin Seaton’s tool chest. The chest is most notable because of what its owner did not do, which was to use [...]

Sometimes a craftsman-made tool surfaces that is just plain mysterious and wondrous. Today I spent the morning with Carl Bilderback, a semi-retired Chicago-area carpenter who has an astonishing [...]

I’m frequently amazed at what happens when I hand a sharp full-size handsaw to a fellow woodworker for a test drive. Nine times out of 10 they clamp something in the bench vise and then [...]

At least once a week I’m asked if I prefer handplanes that have the iron’s bevel facing up (like in a block plane) or facing down (like in a traditional Stanley/Bailey-style bench [...]

Some days it’s overwhelming to think about all the woodworking and toolmaking knowledge that’s been lost. Last weekend at the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association national meeting it [...]

I sometimes shudder to think about all of the chisels and plane irons I’ve set up in the last 10 years. Every review has involved hours and hours of setup time, most of that flattening the [...]

This old method of holding work is one of the best. We tell you which holdfasts work and which don’t. But figuring out ‘why’ is more difficult.

My boss at my last job had a test he gave to all job applicants. He simply asked them: “How many hours do you sleep at night?” If they answered “seven” or anything less, [...]

The first handplane I ever bought was a Popular Mechanics block plane I purchased one night at Wal-Mart. There was no blade-adjustment mechanism. No adjustable mouth. And the iron was so soft [...]

The scrub plane is unusual in that it doesn’t fall neatly into the traditional English system of classifying bench planes. Rough stock was prepared first with a “fore plane,” [...]

Question: Hi, quick question. I recently finished smoothing a table top with my #4 smoothing plane and if the light hits the top right, I can see lots of planing lines. I tried to camber the [...]

If you use a miter plane for a lot of shooting, then you’ve probably lusted after the so-called “hot dog.” This hollow casting screws onto the side of your plane and makes it [...]