What Hand Planes are Good For

The difference between school and real life is that in real life the tests come first and then the lessons. This is especially true of woodworking; you never know how far you should take one step [...]

Chuck Brock & Highland Woodworker Web TV

Chuck Brock, host of The Highland Woodworker web TV show made to trip from sunny and warm Georgia to cold and snowing Cincinnati a few weeks ago, to film segments for upcoming episodes of the [...]

When Planing, I Can Be a Real Drag

I’m the first to admit that I have some bad habits. I drink beer. I occasionally curse. And I sometimes drag my planes back across my work on the return stroke. When you receive traditional [...]

Make Your Own Hand tools

I’ve turned hollow mortise chisels into square punches, refashioned chisels and their handles, made a number of scratch stocks, ground steel bar stock into embossing punches and a made a [...]

Planing Plastic?

Did you know that you can plane plastic? Me neither. I used my old Stanley #4. Its sweetheart era blade was razor sharp, though I’m not sure it needed to be. The “shavings” are [...]

More Experiments with Chipbreakers

This week I’ve been surfacing a lot of wood by hand, from pedestrian sugar pine to funky metals that have wood-like properties (e.g. purpleheart). And all the while I have been testing, testing, [...]