Have you ever considered entering the Texas Furniture Makers Show? Well, now is your opportunity! This is a great chance to get to know and meet other woodworkers and furniture makers. It is not limited to wood furniture but metal, stone, plastics, cardboard, grass–now that’s going a little far, but really it is up to […]
See our previous post, How to Sharpen a Chisel, Part 1, for basic sharpening techniques. Medium Diamond Stone So now the burr is gone–in fact, the burr is on the bevel side. Now go to the medium stone and–surprise! Work it the same way as on the coarse stone: find the angle on the bevel side […]
We’re honored to announce that Popular Woodworking University will host Frank for a live webinar on Where to Find Good Design Ideas on October 8, 2014, 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Ever feel puzzled when trying to think up a new furniture design? Wonder how to turn your ideas into woodwork? Frank will show you how he comes […]
Want to know what sharpening stones to use? Read our blog series How to Choose a Sharpening Stone. The techniques that I’ll show you in sharpening a chisel are the same techniques that you’ll use in sharpening a plane, a spokeshave, and other tools. The upcoming posts will show you in-depth the different issues you’ll meet. […]
This weekend I went out to cut firewood; it’s that time of year. I brought along my 9-year-old son whom I have taught how to split wood. I found some trees that had been bulldozed over for a clearing. We went on site and found some very straight timber. To the surprise of the landowner […]
This coming Tuesday evening September 16, at 7:00 PM, you will find me in Dallas, at the North Texas Woodworkers Assc. Meeting. I will be there letting off some steam! Seriously, I will be demonstrating steam bending techniques during this presentation. I will be going over several topics, from choosing your wood and building your […]
See our previous posts on how to choose a sharpening stone. In view of what I’ve learned from many years of experience using different sharpening stone systems, I’ve settled on using the diamond stones mentioned in the previous post, following the finest diamond stone with a hard translucent oil stone. I’ve chosen this stone because it’s hard, […]
See our previous posts on how to choose a sharpening stone. Similar to the other types of stones, diamond stones come in different grits. One thing to keep in mind with all sharpening stones is that the Japanese grit system is different from the American grit system. So when I talk about an 8,000-grit water stone, it’s different […]
See our previous post on water stones. Now we move on to oil stones. There are many different types of oil stones available, from man-made to natural oil stones. They’re harder than the water stones but they also wear out. They also do need to be flattened from time to time, especially the coarser ones as […]
I think that sharpening is one of the most important aspects to hand tool woodworking. As my tools become dull, I’ve found that the quality of my work also goes down. So therefore, it’s extremely important that your tools are razor sharp. In this blog tutorial series, we’re going to go over sharpening all edge tools: […]