Would the Router . . .

. . . by any other name be as sweet?

Mention router to anyone and the mind immediately conjures up thoughts of a screaming, two-handed hand-held machine in Bosch turquoise, Dewalt yellow or Festool bright green and black. Additionally, that is with you the machinist wearing protective headgear like a gladiator ready to do battle. Sadly, this for most woodworkers might well be their everyday and even all-day workwear. In my world of making it really doesn't feature at all. I do own such a beast, but it's been encased in its black plastic box for more than ten years to date.

I love that it's like that. I find it important to focus on keeping fit and dextrous. Developing skills is equal to sports; we must use our bodies to a good maintenance level plus some. Teaching and training others, developing, inventing and designing a de-industrialised work life keeps me pretty time as well as very satisfied. I love to focus on the art where developing recreational skills features highly in my daily work. The demand for self-discipline and determination. are ever-present as a regimen for good physical and mental health.

The bed I just made came from my handwork with ten of the most basic hand tools. Wherever I can I use my hand router plane, the one I made and now sell the parts for in kit form. There is no question that this is still the best router plane I have ever used bar none. It's not a boast, just a reality. I didn't do this to shun modern makers or vintage versions but to come up with a less expensive and positively DIY version that made it available at a good price. Instead of people paying as much as £150 to £250, we got the price to around £36.

A router to me is another hand plane version. And now, taking my lead from woodworkers in the 1600s, I designed a very improved hand router plane that has all of the bells and whistles you need and you can make one yourself even if you are new to woodworking. I know now that well over 5,500 people have bought our boxed kit to make their own hand router plane according to our design. Additionally though, through our instructional videos and my blog, we hear also from an untold quantity of people who have made their own including the components they have sourced themselves. We decided to supply the special blades, fully hardened and notched, made by a famed Sheffield tool maker, together with all of the other metal components needed in a boxed kit form. We wanted to nudge people in that direction and we now ship the kits worldwide. Here is the link to get yours

Because of my teaching and training both new and seasoned woodworkers and then other woodworking teachers as well, the router plane has become as essential as a saw, a plane or a chisel. My router can be micro-adjusted with the simple twist of a thumbscrew and then it's powered with your arms, upper body and hands. Our cutter takes a pass over a surface and leaves a planed bottom to a groove, a housing and a dado. You can take off as little as a thousandth of an inch even over a wide surface area and be perfectly parallel and co-planar all the way across to any desired depth. with another surface. I cannot imagine woodworking without one.

What does it do? Well, you can use it for a wider range of woodworking tasks than you might think. I use mine for routing out housing dadoes, inlaying, para-levelling adjacent surfaces, levelling and deepening grooves as well as levelling and adjusting the depths of different half-lap housing joints, surfacing tenons cheeks and so more. What about hinge and hardware recessing? I use mine all the time as a marking gauge.

Today, we have a day or two each week when packing and shipping take place. Side by side my Essential Woodworking Hand Tools book and the Router Plane Kit often go out together. Make no mistake, the sales of these two items support our continued work in meeting an ever-increasing demand by those searching for hand tool woodworking instruction We support everyone with woodworking advice and the accumulated knowledge of an ace behind-the-scenes team so that others too can pursue their quest to take themselves off the conveyor be;lt..