What a New Plane Needs Before First Use
Most people think that when they buy a decent plane, the work is done the moment they unbox it. They’re wrong. You can spend a fortune on a shiny new tool, but if you don't know how to set up a new hand plane properly, you’ve just bought yourself a very expensive paperweight. I remember […]
A Bench Strong Enough to Stand on
Most people think that if you want to build a sturdy piece of furniture, you need to go out and spend a small fortune on a garage full of loud, vibrating power tools. They think the more electricity they plug in, the better the result will be. But I’ve spent forty years on site and […]
Working Out Your Bench Height
I spent thirty years on site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets under my skin, it’s the nonsense you see in those glossy woodworking magazines. They’ll try to sell you on some complex mathematical formula involving your exact skeletal measurements and a dozen variables just to tell you […]
Sharpening a Saw Instead of Replacing It
I remember a lad on my apprenticeship back in the seventies who thought a dull saw was just part of the job—something you worked around by leaning your whole weight into the cut. He’d spend half the day sweating and fighting the timber, convinced that if he just pushed harder, he’d get the job done. […]
Filling a Hole So It Does Not Show
I remember a lad I taught back at the college, a bright enough boy, but he had this habit of reaching for a tub of ready-mixed, watery filler the second he saw a knot or a nail hole. He thought he was saving time, but he ended up with a patch that looked like a […]
A Workbench That Does Not Move
I spent thirty years on site watching lads rush into a project, buying some flimsy, pre-fabricated trestle table from a big-box retailer because they thought it would save them time. They’d spend more time fighting the wobbles and the vibration than actually working the timber. If you want to do proper work, you need to […]
Laying Out a Workshop Around the Bench
I remember standing in a college workshop back in the nineties, watching a bright-eyed apprentice spend three hours trying to figure out how to plan a workshop layout using a fancy computer program, only to end up tripping over a power lead the moment he picked up a chisel. He had all the expensive gadgets, […]
Allowing a Tabletop to Move
Most folks think that if you want to learn how to build a dining table, you’d better head straight to the hardware store and load up on every loud, vibrating power tool they’ve got on the shelf. They think more electricity equals more progress. I spent forty years on site and another ten in the […]
A Side Table as a First Project
Most people think you need a workshop full of screaming, vibrating power tools to figure out how to build a side table, but they’re usually just masking poor joinery with a thick coat of veneer. I remember a student of mine back at the college who spent three days fighting a router to get a […]
Making a Shed Usable in January
Most people think that learning how to set up a workshop in a shed means rushing out to buy every shiny, cordless gadget the local hardware shop can throw at them. They see a catalog of vibrating, plastic-cased junk and think that’s the secret to productivity. I spent forty years on-site and another ten in […]