Stanley’s New 750 Chisels Have Landed
After a number of delays and revisions, Stanley has released its long-awaited line of 750 series of chisels for woodworking. One of the first sets arrived on my desk on Monday, and...
Buy it Now: Blue Spruce Tool Roll
I dislike using other people’s tools when I travel. And I dislike it when all my tools fall tips-first into the concrete. Oh, and I also dislike all of the...
Help the Jeske Family (and Yourself)
If you’ve ever met Dave Jeske at Blue Spruce Toolworks, then you don’t have to read the next sentence. You already know he is one of the nicest, most honest...
Do You Sharpen Too Much?
When I teach people to sharpen I notice a bad habit that many of them have: They think that rubbing the tool against a stone is sharpening. The more they...
Quick Update on the Stanley Chisels
Stanley’s Sweetheart socket chisels should be for sale in the United States in about six to eight weeks, according to a company product manager. The chisels are in the final...
Rehandling a Chisel
For the last week or so I’ve been researching the science of smacking the snot out of things. I’ve been reading lecture notes from a Harvard course on “fracture mechanics,”...
Video: Stupid Shim Tricks
Some wide chisels and narrow plane irons don’t work well with the cheap-o side-clamp honing guide. They are too narrow to fit between the walls on the top of the...
Review: English M-Power Chisels With Replaceable Tips
When it comes to powered machinery, I’m a fan of using carbide inserts in the cutterhead instead of traditional straight knives. The cutters last longer, they do a better job...
The Science of Rented Mules (aka Chisels)
Sometimes when I write, I come to a question that paralyzes me – and I cannot continue until I get it answered. As a newspaper journalist, I was trained to...
Yuppie Tools: A True Accounting
In a bar outside Philadelphia, Thomas Lie-Nielsen, John Economaki and I are having a drink and talking about the people who are getting rich selling tools. I’m on my second...
Stupidest Tool Ever: The Chrasp! or The Risel!
About 10 years ago I was at The Hardware Show in Chicago visiting manufacturer’s booths to see what new stuff they had coming out for Christmas. Some of these tools...
An Unprofitable Morning
After last weekend’s orgy of tools, woodworking and back-breaking workbench moving at Woodworking in America, I decided to take a break today and buy some tools and old woodworking books...
