Where the Money Goes in a Chisel
I remember sitting in the workshop back in '84, watching a young apprentice tear into a piece of expensive oak with a tool that cost more than my first car. He was convinced that the brand name on the handle was what mattered, but he was struggling just to get the steel to sink in. […]
A Shelf That Holds Books
Most people think that building a shelf requires a garage full of expensive, battery-operated gadgets and a mountain of plastic components that'll end up in a landfill by next year. They spend more time hunting for a charger than they do actually working the wood. I've spent forty years on site and ten years in […]
Fixing a Chair That Racks
Most people think that when a dining chair starts knocking, you need to go out and buy a new one or reach for a heavy-duty power drill to force it back together. They’re wrong. I spent forty years on site and another ten in the classroom, and I’ve seen more people ruin perfectly good timber […]
Rip and Crosscut and Why It Matters
I remember standing in a dusty FE college workshop thirty years ago, watching a lad struggle with a cheap, mass-produced saw that wouldn't cut so much as a piece of soft pine. He was sweating, cursing, and trying to force a blunt piece of steel through a joint, convinced he just needed more muscle. That’s […]
Honing a Plane Iron in Four Minutes
I spent thirty years on site watching young lads reach for a power sander the second a piece of timber looked a bit rough, thinking they could just grind their way out of a problem. They don't realize that a blunt tool is just a way to make more work for yourself. I remember an […]
Inspecting a Plane in Your Hands
I remember standing in a dusty second-hand shop back in the nineties, watching a lad spend half his paycheck on a shiny, brand-new plane that arrived with a sole so bowed it wouldn't have sliced through butter, let alone oak. The salesman was all smiles, talking about "precision engineering," but he was selling him a […]
Sharpening a Chisel So It Cuts Endgrain
I remember a young apprentice back in the nineties, sweating over a piece of seasoned oak, trying to force a blunt chisel through a mortise like he was hacking at a tree root. He was exhausted, the wood was splintering, and he was convinced he just needed a bigger, more expensive power router to get […]