Archives

Here's a great gift idea for the beginning wood carver! Have you ever needed a very small carving tool for working in limited access or on very small pieces of work? Finally, Two Cherries [...]

Exotic woods don’t blow my skirt/kilt/skort up much. In small doses they can look beautiful, but for the most part I find them oily, difficult to work and far too wild looking for full-size [...]

When I inspect an antique tool – especially one that hasn’t been messed with much – I always take a look at the cutting edge. How was it sharpened? What is the shape of the edge? Did they do any [...]

Shannon Rogers interviewed me a few weeks ago and in the interview I mentioned my disdain for certain chisel sizes. Specifically, I said that students who come to woodworking classes armed with [...]

When sharpened steel knocks into anything else, the result is usually dull steel. That’s why woodworkers protect sharp edges by wrapping our tools in canvas or leather tool rolls. Or we stuff [...]

Quick reminder: I’ll be in southwest Michigan this Saturday (June 4) giving demonstrations and generally mopping up the drool in my vicinity at the open house of tool collector John Sindelar. [...]

Carpenter and woodworker Carl Bilderback never flattens his oilstones. And they are both dead flat – I couldn’t get a .00125” feeler gauge under a straightedge that I laid on the stones. His [...]

The best sharpening advice I ever heard was from Tony Konovalov: Grind, hone and get back to work. Or, to put it another way: Which is more fun? Making your tools sharp or making your tools dull? [...]

I finished setting up the eight new Stanley chisels this morning and will put them to work on some dovetails on Thursday morning. After re-grinding the three chisels that had their backs rolled [...]

I finally found the time (it was between the couch cushions) to set up the new Stanley socket chisels. I’m working on the backs today, and here’s the news so far. Of the eight chisels, I’d rate [...]

Many woodworkers fear the act of grinding. And “fear” might be too kind a word. I’ve had several woodworkers send me tools to grind for them (please don’t do this). Other woodworkers spend [...]

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 I’ve [...]