Worth Reading: Matt Bickford's New Blog
If you are curious about or struggle with moulding planes, planemaker M.S. Bickford has recently launched a new blog that will open your eyes: Musings from Big Pink. Using SketchUp drawings and [...]
Use the No. 95 Trimming Plane Upright?
I’ve always held the No. 95 edge-trimming plane like a block plane. The lever cap faces up to the sky. The fence of the No. 95 is then vertical. So I was surprised to see a little tip in …
Larry Williams and Don McConnell form Old Street Tool, Planemakers
Tomorrow, Clark & Williams, which has been in business since 1996, will relaunch as a newly incorporated business called Old Street Tool, with Larry Williams and Don McConnell as the owners [...]
Falling Off the Wagon in Style
Those of you who follow my personal woodworking blog know that I have been selling off a lot of my excess tools and upgrading my shop at home. Since August, I’ve sold more than 100 tools [...]
Do You Sharpen Too Much?
When I teach people to sharpen I notice a bad habit that many of them have: They think that rubbing the tool against a stone is sharpening. The more they rub, the sharper it gets, no? Well, no. I [...]
New Stanley 62: Better, But Not Yet Perfect
It looks like the folks in New Britain, Conn., want to get things right. After Stanley’s first generation of the No. 62 low-angle jack plane had some problems, including a fatal bed error [...]
Quick Update on the Stanley Chisels
Stanley’s Sweetheart socket chisels should be for sale in the United States in about six to eight weeks, according to a company product manager. The chisels are in the final testing stages [...]
Video: Stupid Shim Tricks
Some wide chisels and narrow plane irons don’t work well with the cheap-o side-clamp honing guide. They are too narrow to fit between the walls on the top of the guide. And they are too [...]
When Your Plane Iron Won't Retract All the Way
Reason No. 50 that I dislike chipbreakers: They can prevent your iron from retracting all the way into the mouth of the tool. Sometimes I think chipbreakers are a cruel joke on the woodworking [...]
The Power of the Pixel
People gripe that the vintage tools and books I write about often go up in price after I post an entry. I actually think the effect is mild and temporary, except in two cases: Robert [...]
File Under: Handplane Maintenance
When your handplane won’t create a perfect surface, there are several things to check. Here’s how I diagnose the problem when it looks like I’m making plane tracks in my work. [...]
Why I File the Corners of my Irons
Before After When setting up bench planes, the enemy is plane tracks – the ugly step created on a board when one (or both) of the corners of the tool’s cutter digs into your work. In my [...]
