Latest

Things come to us in the moment and then we leave it alone for decades and just use it ourselves. I've got so many it's hard to keep up with myself sometimes. Sometimes deep and flawed surfaces in our wood end up on the inside, underside

I have written quite substantially about the advantages of owning and using different bench planes. Bench planes are the most significant group of planes we use in our everyday bench work. It's that wonderful category of a handful of bevel-down planes we hand tool woodworkers rely on for

In some ways, this closing week was my best week in three months since the attack on me that resulted in a cowardly attacker breaking three of my favourite ribs. It wasn't just my ribs that were seriously damaged though, other injuries with the broken ribs ultimately and

People open them and leave them to slam, saying they closed the gate but they didn't close it. I think a well-made gate deserves respect for its maker. This gate, ageing now, has wear and cracks that tell me things that others miss when they pass through it,

It's really a superb thing, simplicity. It's not the same as nor is it anything like minimalism. Valuing simplicity is to dwell and thrive in the humility of being a maker. Politics and social standing dissolve at the workbench and I do it using ordinary tools

Here's another one you haven't seen either. In an emergency, for thicknessing just one thin stick, I set this up in a Black and Decker Workmate years ago and it worked. I thought you'd like it. And the great advantage is that it'

A friend nudged me for this post. Reminding me of making my tool chest back in 2013 or so, that was in upstate New York, he spoke of my card scraper setup for thicknessing cockbeading, inlay and such. I thought it would help others so here it is: You might