When I decided to start woodworking I chose do it with wooden planes. Perhaps this was heavily influenced by what Richard felt would be a good route to take, but also because I've always felt a great attraction towards them.Setting up a wooden hand plane is not intuitive. Not for me and not for … [Read more...]
Basic Hand Tools List, For Getting Started
Today I want to talk about basic hand tools, which are new, cheap and practical.There's been a huge interest in the second hand tool market in recent years. Second hand prices are variable, but on the whole they're popular because they're cheap.Cheap is an awful word, easily taken to mean … [Read more...]
The Ultimate Cordless Drill
I don't use screws often in furniture making but when I started building lots of benches I found myself in need of a good cordless drill for all of the vice fitting and particularly around the tool wells of the Little John's. I also needed something with plenty of power. Drilling 3/4" holes for … [Read more...]
Wooden Hand Plane Build & Updates
UPDATE - The Full Build Is Now Available! CLICK for details.We're extremely busy at the moment but I'm still finding the time to continue making my wooden hand planes in between (watch the Video Rant here). In fact I've become a bit addicted to making these planes and am impressed every time … [Read more...]
Wide Mouths
How wide is too wide when it comes to mouths on wooden planes? When looking out for a used one this could be one of your key areas of concern, but that worry might only be justified towards the finer end of the spectrum, and even then it's a quick and easy fix.A cap iron can control your tear … [Read more...]
The Right Plane For The Job
My favourite plane until now has been a very cute and tiny wooden smoother. It was small enough for me to manage the restoration, nice in the hand and just sweet. Time seems to get the better of me so I'm still very much at that stage of enjoying making shavings rather than much else, but with a … [Read more...]
User Made Hand Planes Discussion – VIDEO
UPDATE - The Full Build Is Now Available! CLICK for details.I've been making a few hand planes this week in preparation for an upcoming series we have planned all about getting in to wooden planes. I've trialled a couple of designs and here are my thoughts so far. To see a video of my … [Read more...]
Setting The Cap Iron / Chip Breaker – VIDEO
This is the last (for now) of three videos about cap irons / chip breakers. If you haven't seen the others then you can find them here: Cap Irons & Tear Out Preparing The Cap Iron / Chip BreakerI find a well set up cap iron to be vital for preventing tear out. It allows me to … [Read more...]
Preparing The Cap Iron / Chip Breaker – VIDEO
Following from the last video, we're looking at setting up a cap iron. This one's in two parts and the second video can be found here. … [Read more...]
It Happened Again!
It all started with a lovely sunny day and, ... just read this.Yep, basically that happened again. This time however I was prepared with a nice wooden floor, so there is no damage what so ever to the castings or any of the metal. It did crack the handle clean in two though. Rather than make a … [Read more...]