Using the Walls Properly
I spent thirty years on site and another ten in a classroom, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a cluttered bench is a cluttered mind. Most people think they need to go out and buy a stack of expensive, plastic modular bins to get organized, but that is a load of […]
A Sharpening Station You Will Use
I remember standing in my first workshop forty years ago, sweating over a dull chisel that felt more like a blunt wedge than a cutting tool. I was trying to force the steel through a piece of oak, fighting the grain and cursing the day I ever picked up a tool, when I realized the […]
Ten Minutes of Tidying Before You Stop
I spent thirty years on site and another ten in a college workshop, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you don’t need a fancy, multi-thousand-pound modular storage system to find your tools. Most of those catalogues try to sell you on the idea that organization is about buying more plastic bins, but […]
A Dust Free Corner for Finishing
I spent thirty years watching young lads ruin a perfectly good piece of oak because they thought a high-speed orbital sander was a substitute for a clean workspace. They’d spend hours buffing a surface, only to watch a single speck of dust settle and turn their hard work into a grit-filled mess. Most people think […]
Finishing Without Breathing It
I remember a lad I taught back at the college, a bright enough boy, but he thought he could just crack a window and call it a day while spraying lacquer. Halfway through the job, he was leaning against the workbench, face pale and eyes watering, looking like he’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight. […]
Storing Solvents Safely
I remember a lad I taught back in the college days who thought he could save a few quid by keeping his oils and spirits in a cardboard box in the corner of a damp, unheated shed. I can still smell that sour, rancid stench when he finally opened the tins—a complete waste of good […]
Oily Rags Can Start a Fire
I remember the smell most of all—not the sweet scent of fresh pine or the sharp tang of cedar, but that acrid, choking stench of burning sawdust and melting plastic. It was a Tuesday afternoon in the college workshop, and a pile of shavings left too close to a faulty heater had turned a quiet […]
A Workshop First Aid Kit
I remember standing in a workshop back in '88, staring at a lad's hand after a chisel slipped because we didn't have a clean bandage in sight. Most people think you can just buy one of those pre-packed plastic boxes from the supermarket and call it a day, but that’s a mistake. Those kits are […]
Mask Ratings and Which Matters
I remember standing in a dusty workshop back in the late eighties, watching a young apprentice try to clear a fine layer of oak sawdust with nothing but a loose-fitting rag tied around his face. He thought he was being clever, but I could see the fine grit settling in his eyes and the way […]
Hearing Damage Is Cumulative
I remember standing on a site in the mid-eighties, the air thick with sawdust and the relentless, bone-shaking scream of a circular saw that hadn't seen a service in years. I watched a lad, barely out of his apprenticeship, working away without so much as a bit of foam in his ears, acting like he […]