Throw back to 2015!

The year my Stable Bar Stool first made an appearance. 5 years on the oak and steel design has evolved very very slightly with a larger diameter footrest and reprofiled legs.

For more Stable stool content check out my somewhat neglected Stable Furniture website...

Here’s Doug with the oak cutlers stool he made on Saturday! 😎
It’s great to be back teaching in the workshop again after 5 long months!

Fancy giving woodworking a go?

All new course gift vouchers are now available!

The mk1 version introduced last year proved so popular I thought it was time to give them a high quality upgrade. My website will also be undergoing a redesign this summer which will include an integrated shop and enable courses to be purchased online! 🤩

Welcome to July’s Tool of the Month!

Here’s a quick look at a neat little scraper burnisher I picked last week.

Burnishers are used to sharpen card scrapers (also known as cabinet scrapers) by forming a very sharp cutting hook.

I spotted this neat little burnisher on Classic Hand tool’s Instagram feed the other week and really liked the design! I think it’s perfect for people new to sharpening card scrapers due to its clear and safe two handed design and excellent instructions. For just under £10 it’s definitely earned a place in the tool kit i provide for students attending my courses.

www.classichandtools.com/acatalog/Veritas-Card-Scraper-Burnisher-05K2040.html#SID=964

That’s all for July, look out for news about resuming courses and visiting the workshop coming soon!

Happy new year and welcome to the first blog post of 2020!

This months ‘tool’ is a bit different, it’s the thermometer!

Why a thermometer you may ask? Well it’s actually very important to keep an eye on the temperature of the workshop, extreme cold and extreme heat have big impacts on timber, glue, finishes and humans!

Natural wood movement is a big issue when designing and making furniture, temperate combined with moisture in the atmosphere affects the expansion and contraction of timber. I try and keep the climate inside my workshop as close to that of a house this means that the timber I’m working with will be closely acclimatised to its future surroundings before it’s delivered, this should result in the pieces of furniture I make being more stable and less likely to suffer from extreme wood movement!

Temperature also affects the drying times of glues and polishes with high temperatures reducing the drying times and cold increasing them. Most products that are susceptible will have guidance on the packaging.

Look out for February’s Tool of the Month!