This blog will be a collection of technique notes, news and stories. I am hoping to persuade some woodworking friends to post articles, from time to time. Hoping that you will enjoy the content. best wishes, David

Come and meet me a host of woodworking experts at The Hand Tools Event at West Dean College, Sussex on Saturday May 31 & Sunday June 1st 10am - 5pm both days. free entry, free parking, on site catering, beautiful location, great hand tool skills and tools being demonstrated.

Meet and discuss woodworking techniques with James Mursell, Phil Edwards, John Lloyd, Garrett Hack, David Charlesworth, Michael Huntley, Nick Gibbs, Michel Auriou and Brian Boggs plus Deneb Pulchalski from Lie NIelsen Toolworks, Mick Hudson from Clifton, Adria Toolworks, Veritas Tools, Blue Spruce Toolworks, Ron Hock, Bridge City Toolworks, Auriou Rasps, Chris Vesper Tools, Odate crowning plates, Sharpening Products and much more.

Free competition to win a five day chairmaking course at The Windsor Workshop.
A chance to buy a Brian Boggs Appalachian Chair.
Discounts on great hand tools.

For further details, directions etc see
Classic Handtools News

This should be a great event.

David

Here is the same 1 1/4" chisel back after about two hours of flattening work.

I tried several methods, coarse India oilstone, Shapton 320 grit glasstone and 800 grit waterstone. Progress was made but the amount of hard metal which needed removing was huge, due to the belly created by years of sharpening on a hollow oilstone.

I was reminded of how much I dislike oilstones. The oil migrated up onto the top of the shallow chisel cross section and made a good grip almost impossible. I did not feel that the very coarse waterstone removed metal faster than my favorite 800 grit King Stone, though it was much harder and did wear much less.

The whole sorry, frustrating business reinforces the good advice which I was given during my training. "Avoid bellied chisels like the plague".

So, as this Pattern Maker's Long Paring chisel has lots of blade length, I decided to solve the problem by shortening it by 5/8". This was done in a few minutes with a heavy duty cutting disk in a Dremel. I cut in from both sides and snapped off the offending end when about a third of the blade thickness remained. The good part of the blade is clamped between hardwood pads in a metal working vice. The exposed tip is covered in paper towel to catch flying splinters, and given a good whack with a large hammer.

The Dremel cutting disc worked very well indeed and created remarkably little heat, if used carefully.

This rather drastic remodeling has worked very well and I now have a chisel with a flat or slightly concave back which will sharpen properly. There is still plenty of blade length for another couple of lifetimes.

I wonder if anyone can suggest other solutions for the bellied back syndrome?

Best wishes,
David

As requested, here is a photo of the Dovetail Saw which Mike made for me.

It is very nice indeed and the handle is absolutely fabulous. Quite one of the most comfortable and well finished that I have ever seen.

It is made from African Blackwood, requisitioned from his wife's woodturning supply stash. Don't know how he got away with that one.....

The order turned into quite a complex saga, as some conveyor system in the mail mangled the first one. Mike then had to use much cunning and patience to get the remaining blank dry for the replacement. Rosewoods do not dry fast or easily and this really was quite a feat.

So, many thanks to him and this is one of my most treasured tools. One day my sawing skills may catch up with the tool, but I am not holding my breath.

best wishes,
David

Referring back to Flattening Traditional Oilstones on 15th Nov 07, here is a picture of the rounding or bellying of a chisel back, caused by many years sharpening on a hollow oilstone.



The dull gey area is the flat surface created on an 800 grit Japanese waterstone.

Now this chislel will not sharpen or function properly untill the flat area extends all the way to the tip, so there is a lot more metal to be removed.

Not only were the oilstones used not flat, it seems they might have been twisted as well.

This is one of the main hidden dangers of buying old abused tools, it is difficult to assess the amount of work needed to restore a flat back without careful checking.

I think it will be well worth the effort in this case as the chisel is a nice, bevelled edge, 1 1/4" Pattern Maker's long paring chisel, stamped Woodcock, Sheffield 1944.

The usable blade is 7" long, tool 14 1/2" including handle. The other crucial detail is that over its full length, the blade was clearly forged and ground with about 0.5mm of hollow in its length. A most desireable and essential feature, deliberately created to aid preparation, sharpening and correct support for the cutting edge.

So please remember to send those bellied new chisels straight back to the manufacturer if you are unlucky enough to come across them.

The rounding off near the tip suggests a less than meticulous craftsman.......

I will post more pictures as the work progresses.

There are still a few places for my short courses in January and February, if you would like to experience the revelation of working with properly fettled and sharpened tools! 28th Jan in particular.

best wishes,
David

I am delighted to note that Alan Peters' book
Cabinetmaking The Professional Approach is due to be republished in the autumn this year at about £20.

NB I have edited this page in the light of more up to date information from Jake, see comments below. Thank you Jake.

Aparrently it is being updated by Betty Norbury.

I have found it disgraceful that the work of one of our most prominent makers should have been unobtainable for so long, and am glad that the position is being rectified.

There was much training, grant and government agency loan and college information, which needed bringing up to date.

For me it is the notes on techniques and the development of his designs over the years which are the most interesting parts of the book, but it also give invaluable advice to anyone considering setting up as a designer maker.

The publishers are Stobart and Son Ltd.,
67-73 Worship Street,
London EC2A 2EL

This is the last day of the year when the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement was celebrated in America and some parts of the UK.

Unfortunately we heard very little of this in North Devon, which is rather odd as the majority of the Tobacco exported to England was landed at the port of Bideford. Bideford is my local market town, approximately 12 miles from the wild and dramatic coast which we enjoy so much in Hartland.

Pat and I attended a fascinating lecture by Dr. Mark Houghton, reader of archaeology at Bristol University. Recent Archaeological finds of wonderfully preserved Bideford and Barnstaple pottery, at Jamestown, are providing more evidence for this link.

It was regretted that our local council have made so little effort to publicise the connection and there are still no plans for a maritime heritage site in Bideford despite the presence of the Kathleen and May. This fine sailing vessel has been restored largely through the efforts of a local business man.

Jamestown was the first english speaking settlement to be established in Virginia and is generally accepted as the foundation of the USA.

It was also interesting to hear that at the time, Bideford was the third most important port in England. The many shipyards built vessels to fight the Spanish Armada and Drake, Grenville and Raleigh were all Devon born. Today some sea freight continues, but on a much smaller scale. The fine merchants houses along the quay have mostly become banks, shops and solicitors offices.

I hope this is of some interest to my readers in the States.

Best wishes for the new year,

David

Perhaps you have seen my Chistmas round up of new tools for Furniture & Cabinetmaking magazine, Issue 135?

I made a grave mistake by failing to mention that several of them are only available in the UK, from Mike Hancock of Classic Hand Tools

phone 01449 721327

Mike works extremely hard to find, import and promote these tools, at the many woodworking shows around the country.
If we do not support independent tool shops like his there will soon be none left, which will be an incalculable loss. (You may not have heard that Axminster have bought Brimark).

I also find it odd, that since Axminster took over the import of Lie-Nielsen tools in UK there seem to be very poor stocks of items that sell well at Christmas. Obviously I do not know the precise reasons for this unfortunate situation.

Anyway, I apologise profusely to Mike for my thoughtless assumption that every one else knows where to find those tools.

David

There is one variation of usage which has struck me forcibly after many years of reading American magazines and Reviews.

Larry Williams' wooden moulding plane making dvd was described recently on Woodnet as being quite good.

SEE Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, inc

To my ears this sounded like rather faint praise when I knew perfectly well that the author meant very good indeed.

Having consulted a friend who teaches English to foreign graduates, I now understand a little more about the variable meaning of quite.

Its meaning alters dramatically if used with gradeable or non gradeable adjectives.

Thus; quite unique, quite excellent, quite superb, are all unequivocally positive.
NB it has since been correctly pointed out to me that quite unique is tautology and not good english!

Good has many grades. i.e. Not very good, Moderately good, fairly good, reasonably good, extremely good & outstandingly good. So quite good (in the UK) tends to give an impression of damning with faint praise.

Does anyone else have any good examples of differences of usage spotted in woodworking magazines, please?

Best wishes,
David

I have been watching Larry Williams excellent new dvd on the making of traditional side escapement wooden planes, which has just been published by Lie-Nielsen

The working example is a matched pair, a round and a hollow.

He makes all the blades for his planes and has an interesting sharpening technique which I intend to try. He dresses and flattens the surface of his oilstones, both man made and Arkansas, with a diamond stone. The slurry is left on the stone.

I like to rub two 800grit stones together after flattening to ensure that they cut agressively from the beginning. (800 and 1200 work as well). If abrasive paper is used to flatten waterstones, they become glazed as the paper blunts. This means that they do not cut quickly in the beginning. After a few minutes of use the surface breaks down and fast cutting commences.

It seems likely that the slurry left on an Arkansas stone will overcome one of their main drawbacks, i.e. that they cut rather slowly.

Garrett Hack uses another cunning technique to combat this problem, he soups up the cutting action with a small blob of diamond paste.

Larry is in the business of making plane blades from scratch, and therefore does a great deal of back flattening and sharpening. He made a most significant comment about the speed with which Arkansas stones loose their flatness.

Best wishes,
David

Finally and regretfully, slightly later than advertised, short course dates for 2008 are now posted on my website.

They are available from late January, which is a departure from the usual schedule.

I go into a steep decline when asked to make these simple decisions. Trying to decide the form of the year ahead seems to shut down so many options for travel, late skiing deals, visiting other workshops & friends, new places and shows...............

The current day is about as much as my mind will happily cope with and calendars are complete anathema, as I invariably find myself looking at the wrong month or even the wrong year.

Do others have these dilemmas, or are they just the luxury of the self employed?

Anyway, the short courses of 2007 were good fun and I hope 2008 will be even better. The subtext here is that the course provider, who is paid to entertain the attendees needs a bit of entertainment as well......

best wishes,
David

I am constantly amazed at the differing reactions that can follow from rather mild advice proffered on woodworking forums.
A recent thread on Fine Woodworking Knots Hand Tool section took off in a spectacular way, and developed into several simultaneous discussions, which had little relevance to the original question.
A poster who I will describe as a traditionalist user of old Stanley planes made several outrageous and inaccurate statements about a number of issues and was also extremely rude in a personal and sarcastic way.

Now I know two things about my published articles and DVDs;

1. They are highly detailed and sometimes contain radical approaches to age-old tasks, such as sharpening.

2. They seem to be helpful to a significant number of amateur woodworkers, judging by the number of emails I receive from readers and viewers.

This feedback is very important to me as an author; as it makes the considerable effort of writing, photography and technical drawing, seem worthwhile. Magazine article writing in the UK is not a well-rewarded occupation, though it has a significant PR value for the small private classes, which I run in my workshop.

The reader is most welcome to reject all of my theories and strategies, and follow whichever methods suit his or her style of work best, but I take grave exception to personal attacks and the misrepresentation of my methods by people who chose not to use them and clearly do not understand the details or the advantages.

So I decided to concentrate on more constructive work, here at home.

Best wishes,
David

Another week in the wonderful Isles of Scilly.

Theresa will be manning office, Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, approximately 2.45 - 3-45.

Short course dates (from January 08 - Sept 08) will be posted during the following week.

Thank you to all who made the summer so enjoyable,

best wishes,
David

Photo taken at the Marc Adams School courtesy of Marc Adams.



I am very pleased to see my hand planing article featured on the front cover of the October issue of Popular Woodworking.

It seems to have created some splendid discussion on the Woodnet Forum, demonstrating the many varied approaches which people choose to apply to their woodworking.

Woodnet Forum

Best wishes,
David

I never cease to be amazed by the incidence of tools which don't work, and like to refer to them as Manufacturer's Perversions.

More seriously they demonstrate a complete lack of understanding, thought and care by the manufacturer.

The latest example is a beech cutting gauge from Marples with brass wear strips.

At first I was pleased to note a better made square section brass wedge with a hook on the top to stop it dropping through the hole in the stem, or possibly to aid retreival.

In the past we have been offered cast wedges which were rough and out of square and worse still conical wedges that are almost impossible to fit.

However the morticed hole is 1/4" square and when one surface has been carefully pared to match the slope of the wedge, the cutting blade cannot be fixed without a thin packer.........

If the packer is not of a precise thickness, the brass wedge will have to be shortened as well.

The blades are disgrace. Spring or scraper grade steel has been crudely sheared off at a width, well under the 1/4" dimension of the hole. The cutting edge has rudimentary grinding at 45 degrees and the blades are almost always bent in their length which makes flat side polishing difficult.

These tools are about as far from 'ready to go' as it is possible to get, with an inbuilt design flaw that requires the user to supply a missing part.

I would rather shoot myself than sell such a badly thought out kit of parts.

David Charlesworth

There is a phrase which keeps cropping up on or after my short courses. It goes something like this;

"I wish I had come on your tool tuning and sharpening course 5, 10 or 20 years ago."

It is absolutely clear to me that many amateurs and a few professionals too, have been struggling with less than satisfactory tools for years. They assume that this struggle is their own fault, or lack of skill, when in fact it is not.

Many manufacturers of the last century supplied tools which were merely a crude kit of parts which did not work well. Bench planes are the best example of this unfortunate fact.

I also believe that sharpening is generally very badly taught and that the waterstones we have today produce a sharper edge, much faster and than oilstones. It is difficult to appreciate true sharpness untill you are shown it. How is an individual to know that his sharpening is not as good as his neighbour's if they do not compare and use each others tools?

The following quote from George Schumacher of Louisiana, is posted with his permission, a perfect example.

"After returning home and putting the techniques learned in Hartland into operation I discovered my work to have improved dramatically. Can you believe that I am, after 30 years of piddling with wood, now finishing projects with a hand plane, faster, and more efficiently than ever before! My goal of no more sanding dust is now secondary to the newfound thrill of working with sharp tools. Thank You David!! I wish I had attended your course 30 years ago."

The good news is that this revelation is available after a mere five days.

Best wishes,
David

Chris Schwarz has posted a wonderful review of my third book on his blog.

He must be a mindreader, as he points out that many threads from the previous volumes have been tied up or expanded.

There is also a nice story of our first meeting in the hot and humid flatlands of Indiana.

Thank you Chris.

Popular Woodworking Blog

I am excited about the latest DVD as it concentrates on techniques for chisel use.

Chopping and paring are demonstrated; with single lap dovetail work, a hand cut mortice, using the method shown by Bob Wearing in "The Essential Woodworker" and tennon shoulders.

I feel that chisels are massively underated as tools for precision work. Accurate sawing was the speciality of the piece worker in a large shop, but we do not all have those skills, particularly in harder non compressible timbers.

My chopping method for shoulder lines, works very well indeed and is far more straightforward than some of the cumbersome paring techniques which I have seen described.

"The Essential Woodworker" is a classic book by Robert Wearing and I was pleased to discover that GMC have it in stock in paperback. Can't remember seeing it on their publicity recently......

best wishes,
David

It was a very productive, successful and enjoyable trip.

The prospect of travel reduces me to a nervous wreck, but once en route it always turns out to be fun.

The class at Marc Adams was well attended and the students were friendly and appreciative, they always are. I knocked my single lap dovetail together at a few minutes to three when we had to pack up and rush to the airport.

Some nice photos were posted on the Woodnet forum.

Transport was very well managed by Chris Schwarz's friend John. No repetition of rental car writeoffs and cracked ribs! Many thanks to John and his delightful family. Our best evening was a dinner at their home. Don't ask about trying to negotiate a basement workshop staircase with a very heavy English pattern bench, after dinner where a certain amount of very good wine had been consumed......I told them it wasn't going to fit, but Chris, Tom and John felt the need to be absolutely sure.

Don't worry about the holes in the wall, Daddy will fix them later..........

The other embarrassing question is why Tom and I managed to miss a plane when we had been safely delivered to the airport with a reasonable margin of time.........

There is a new film crew at the Toolworks and I feel confident that DVD number 6, which may be a double, will be the technically the best yet. Many thanks to AJ, Sarah and Jeffrey.

I spent a delightful day off with Wolfgang and Polly, walked on the beach with their tribe of Dachshunds, and played competitive Scrabble for high stakes, (25 cents). Wolfgang filmed and edited the first five DVDs.

The open day on Saturday was fun and I was very pleased to see Tim McKinney who showed me photos of the magnificent bench he has built since attending a short course last summer. (Charlesworthish with recessed wedged tennons and a nice end vice). It seems that the benefits of the sliding removable toolwell are only appreciated by those who have seen it demonstrated! And it appears that my minimalist design is too simple to attract the attention it deserves.

Blueskye farm B&B has seen a few changes but is still the best possible place to stay if visiting Waldoboro or the Toolworks. The Hummingbirds arrived a couple of days after I did and the blackflies were minimal after a late cold spell with much snow.

I was very happy that the weather was relatively cool and the photo shows Karl on a sunny morning. Karl was our mascot on the first DVD and he is a little older but in fine fettle. (Photo courtesy of L-N).

There are several more stories, but they will have to wait till my week off, after the second short course.

David

NB If you are ever in the bar at Indianapolis airport please remember you can't hear the PA.

I depart for the Marc Adams School class on 1st of May and will be back 22nd May.

We are filming a DVD on methods of taming difficult grain in Maine, and I will be doing a Hand Planing and sharpening open day at the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks on Saturday the 12th of May. Please book as lunch is included!

Theresa will be manning the office, usually on Monday, Wednesday & Friday afternoons, between 2.30 & 4.30.

Many of the short course dates are full but some have a significant amount of space.

Tool tuning, sharpening and plane use, is the course that has the most remarkable benefits for those who are not friends with their hand tools.

July 9th and August 20th have spaces

If you are interested in the finest Arts & Crafts drawermaking, where the drawer tightens in the carcass just before you drop the contents on the floor, there are several places on July 30th.

Brian our delightful Texan returnee would appreciate some company!

For other dates available please see this link

best wishes,
David