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...]
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...]
Cap Irons & Tear Out – VIDEO
Stubborn tear out can be a huge frustration. Particularly when you're just getting everything smoothed off and it shows it's ugly face.I'm not one for faffing about with my tools, and whilst I expect my hand planes to give a perfect result, most of them look dog rough.But getting to know … [Read more...]
Why Small & Sweet
Small Planes Are The Best For Smoothing When writing these articles I hope to provide an insight in to my ways of working. This is never to dictate, and if you read it as though what I do is the right, or the only way to go about things then you could end up confused. But through reading … [Read more...]
Smoothing Plane – Buying A Dedicated Plane
In one of the recent videos I was whining on about the jack plane, and how feel that the No 5 is the best all round, multi use bench plane. In another video I've also mentioned my love for a nice small smoothing plane, so I thought it'd be worth going through some of my reasons. Setting Up With … [Read more...]
Hand Plane Guide – With VIDEO
In this video I take a look at the different types of bench planes, and discuss options such as whether to have wooden or metal hand planes, which lengths of plane I prefer for different tasks, and generally have a good rant on the subject. Choosing & Using Bench Planes. Bench planes … [Read more...]
Planing Wood By Hand – Rough Prepping
Thicknessing with hand planes might seem like a slog. It's certainly physical work, and if there's a lot of boards to thickness, then it could soon become a workout. But with the right technique, planing wood by hand should feel more like a nice brisk walk, than an uphill … [Read more...]
Dirty Posh Scrubber
You wouldn't think to look at it but my scrub plane is rather posh - it's a Lie Nielsen which I've had from new so to many people (including myself) it may seem a bit extravagant for a roughing tool. Previously I've just converted an old Number 4 to serve this job and would never have considered it … [Read more...]
How Do You Hold Yours?
When we published our video last week about the Holdfast and the Batten I'd hoped that at least a few people would find it to be useful but I certainly hadn't imagined the huge response that we received. I've had heaps of emails alongside the comments letting me know that people have popped straight … [Read more...]