Category Archives: learning
Carving in Alder
Hope everyone had a great holiday season, and is looking forward to a grand year of hand tool woodworking! I am through the marathon that is my family’s Christmas and Birthday (3) bonanza, and putting my mind towards some woodworking again. While I was at the Hand Plane Essentials class in Port Townsend we worked [...]
Oilstone Sharpening Level Up!
Last weekend at the Hand Plane Essentials class that I took from Port Townsend School of Woodworking, we covered sharpening extensively. they devoted half of the second day to the subject. Unfortunately for me they focused on waterstone sharpening to the exclusion of all other methods, except some on the topic of “sand paper on [...]
By Hand and By Eye
By Hand and By Eye. I just registered for the class linked above, which I heard about at the Hand Plane Essentials class I took this weekend from Jim Tolpin. It was a great class, and I am really looking forward to this design class. “Design and Construction Strategies for Hand Tool Woodworkers [...]
Training a young apprentice
It’s been a really brutal month at work, and I haven’t had ANY time to get into the garage. However, the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us, and I finally have a little time off. While at the local Harbor Freight store picking up some extra dividers, and a set of number stamps I saw a [...]
Rules for Work from the Boys Own Workshop.
The boy’s own workshop – Jacob Abbott – Google Books. Discussion about this book is making the rounds of the blogs right now, and I wanted to call it out as well. I read this on my Kindle while on vacation and it was a great read, that I learned some fun stuff about hand [...]
Quick Stock Removal Tip – Drawknife
I’m thinking of starting a regular feature on this blog called “things I learned in the shop” because it feels like every time I go down there I feel like I learn something new. Which is part of why I do this stuff, I love to keep pushing and challenging myself. I had to trim [...]
A few thoughts on nails
** EDITED POST – Added link to TFWW Nail Shop ** Recently there have been a few posts around the the blogo-sphere, the best being on the ever fantastic blog Village Carpenter, about the WIA class on nailed furniture. I recently had a similar revelation in my shop while working on my “Anarchist’s Saw Bench [...]
Scroll panel Layout example
I was contemplating the S Scroll carving that I had recently finished, and looking forward to trying a different technique on the next set. The question in my head was, do you do the outline with ALL chisels, all V-Tool work, or a combination of both. The answer according to Peter Follansbee is “All of [...]
More Scroll work and my new Carving Bench
I snuck down to the shop after I got my kiddo to sleep to continue work on the S Scroll box face. I got a second scroll complete, and some of the outline of the other two. I’ve also learned a few things about crappy hardware store wood along the way. The open porous grain [...]
Practicing S Scroll for carving
Today I spent some time practicing a bit of carving… with a pencil. I recently read in a book recommended by The Village Carpenter (Kari Hultman) on her blog. I’ve been reading it since I got into the hand tool woodworking, and it’s been an inspiration. The book “How to Carve Wood” by Richard Butz [...]
Oak Furniture The British Tradition Reprinted? Yes!
Carving in Alder
Oilstone Sharpening Level Up!