One of the best things about building old-style workbenches (like Andre Roubo’s bench above) is that there are little lessons you learn by using them. At times, you learn the...
Memory is a funny thing, especially in my family. But I swear that during my last days as a college undergrad there was a car dealership in Chicago that offered...
If you are one of the thousands of people who have taken a chair class at Michael Dunbar’s “The Windsor Institute,” then you have certainly used one of the travishers...
Kelly Mehler has opened the registration for his 2008 classes, including three classes that I’ll be teaching on precision handsawing, planecraft and building the Holtzapffel workbench from [...]
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Long-time toolmaker Paul Hamler has developed a new device that can turn many handplanes (both vintage and new) into a scraping plane that is easier to set up, tune and...
While my blog might pinch your checkbook on occasion, Konrad Sauer’s new blog is a mugger in a dark alley with a Bowie knife. Yes, planemaker Konrad Sauer is now...
