Archives

We’re received the much-anticipated new planes from Stanley Works and are beginning to set them up for a review in a future issue of the magazine. In the meantime, here are some of the [...]

A curved cutting edge is critical to most operations with your bench planes. The curve prevents the corners of the iron from digging into your work, and it allows you to correct the flatness of [...]

The little side-clamp honing guide is my favorite bit of sharpening equipment. But it frequently is criticized for two shortcomings: – It is poorly made and sloppily painted. So you have to [...]

As a hand-tool woodworker, I try to avoid bookmatching my panels. Bookmatching creates a panel where the grain in one board runs one way and the grain in the other board runs the opposite. When [...]

Instead of writing about the flatness of plane soles, perhaps I should talk about something less controversial, such as religion or politics. When purchasing a vintage plane, the flatness of the [...]

Cincinnati is not a tourist destination like nearby Big Bone Lick, Ky., So when people come to visit our shop I try to accommodate all their requests so they consider their journey to [...]

Whenever I teach a class on handplanes, I’m amazed at what the students bring to set up and use. I’ve seen Holtey planes and Harbor Freight planes in the same class. And there’s [...]

Sometimes it seems like there are 100 things that can go wrong with a handplane before it will do one thing right: Eject a perfect and fluffy shaving. Lately I’ve been using a lot of [...]

The vintage Stanley No. 48 plane was one of the most gizmo-tastic planes in the company’s arsenal. It’s a single tool that can cut both the tongue and the mating groove. All you have [...]

If you have been putting off buying an insert from toolmaker Paul Hamler that converts a bench plane to a scraper plane, you might want to start checking your couch cushions for change. Hamler [...]

The most miserable aspect of hand work is setting up the tools for the first time. Removing the coarse manufacturing scratches from the unbeveled faces of your edge tools can be grueling, boring [...]

I spent most of this weekend on my knees, and it had nothing to do with a lengthy visit to Chicago’s Hopleaf gastropub or the large cooler of Julius Echter wheat beer that a reader brought [...]