Christmas is coming and it is time to look at the old wish list. My family laments the fact that I have all the $30 woodworking tools. Anything I still need/want is going to be more. Assuming you have been a good boy or girl, perhaps it will be a fruitful year in the workshop. […]
I’m always on the lookout for the “perfect” surface to help hold my sharpening stones, so they don’t have a mind of their own and walk around on me. A couple of years ago I made the Lie-Nielsen sharpening guide, which you can see at any of our events, and whose plans are available online. I love how […]
A few months ago, I posted some videos of my wood turning efforts with the Easy Wood Tools. These tools are fairly new at Highland and I wanted to give them a try. I started with the Large Rougher which has a rectangular tip on it and has turned into one of my favorites especially […]
I’ve been playing guitars for well over 35 years, and had always just bought guitars off of the rack, in music stores. A number of years ago, I thought I might try my hand at building a guitar. Not the type where you buy a kit with all the parts pre-cut, then just put it together, but one where […]
It occurs to me that many of the people who frequent this Blog would be interested in one of my favorite things, i.e. Habitat for Humanity. Not to be bragging, but I am probably up to 75 houses that I have worked on in some fashion or other over the years. A few more and maybe […]
Someone asked me recently what I saw as common between using hand planes and woodturning, and it occurred to me that there are quite a few aspects of the two disciplines that are somewhat similar. The first and perhaps most important, in my view, is sharpening. If the user struggles with sharpening, they will likely never […]
When I first started out in woodworking, one of the techniques that really caught my eye was dovetailing. There was something about this type of joinery that was strong, efficient and yet still beautiful. Whenever I’d see an old piece of furniture, especially those containing drawers, I’d have to check to see if the maker used dovetails. After a […]