Many beginners in hand-tool woodworking face the dilemma of choosing a first bench plane. Unfortunately, most resources attempting to provide orientation are unhelpful, to say the least, in that they…
A couple of weeks ago I taught my first class in Paul’s workshop; a one-day introductory class to hand-tool woodworking with a focus in joinery - one of the pillars…
Around September last year, Paul came up with a router plane designed to be made by woodworkers of any skill level using only basic tools and materials. This router was…
This workbench was made according to Paul's design, which is based on the traditional English Joiner's workbench. Paul encourages all beginners in hand-tool woodworking to make a workbench very early…
Tyranny: when a position of hierarchy is predicated on power rather than competence. I believe this has increasingly become the case in the last few decades with regards to woodworking…
As I wrote in my last post, I am making a workbench using reclaimed timber (rafters mainly) from the roof of Paul's house. The image at top of page exemplifies…
The greatest surprise awaited my arrival into the workshop Monday morning; Paul had his trailer parked outside and was stood with a couple of hammers and a crow bar starting…
I recently purchased a large, old, teak, two-man desk in order to dismantle and reuse the wood for other projects. It didn’t take long to notice how ‘hard’ the wood…
In Part I of this post, I addressed the problem of lever caps that have not been cast/milled correctly. I now wish to discuss the precise factors regarding the shape…
If you’ve been woodworking for some extended length of time and have had the opportunity to use a wide range of hand planes, you may have noticed that there’s more…