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I use a boot tray to hold my sharpening gear. That way I can keep my stones in the tray underneath my bench and then place the tray on the benchtop for sharpening. The low walls of the boot tray [...]

One tool that has been in my shop for decades is a little box of single-edge razors that I use as scrapers and – occasionally – as a save-your-butt tool when finishes go bad. Scrapers don’t have [...]

Welcome to the latest edition of the Anarchist’s Gift Guide, a yearly thing I do that recommends mostly small, inexpensive and useful shop items. These blog entries are great to email to family [...]

Every year with this gift guide, I recommend one tool that is just a little more expensive than the others but is definitely worth the money. This year it’s the Lee Valley Cast Masons & [...]

If were being honest, woodworking would be a lot more difficult in the winter months without O’Keeffe’s Working Hands. I have a container of this at my workbench and by my computer. It is the [...]

I love wooden tool handles. Their only downside is they break and need to be repaired or replaced. If you prefer to repair your tool handles, the inexpensive Clamptite tool is your best friend. [...]

If you build traditional drawers without metal slides, then “drawer tape” is something you should probably become acquainted with. Sometimes sold under the brand Nylo-Tape, this stuff is great [...]

There are a few things I keep at arm’s reach in the shop: an oily rag, some paraffin and a small sewing can oiler. Shown in the photo above are the four that I could gather in just a few …

Drawing furniture-scale curves – up to 48” or so – is a challenge to do by yourself. And many times when you use a springy stick and nails, you are so focused on holding things in place that you [...]

I’m a bit ashamed of how long it took me to buy an inexpensive block of rosin and put it in my tool chest. Rosin, also called calophony, is derived from pine sap and increases friction on [...]

The wire nails at the home center stink for making furniture. Don’t even think of them as nails. They are more like greased straws than they are fasteners. Once you try Rivierre forged nails, I [...]

Hand-tool woodworkers love mutton tallow as a lubricant for saws, auger bits and the soles of our handplanes. A smidge of the stuff will make your tool slide easier – and your shop will smell [...]