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!

Welcome to November’s tool of the month, this month it is the panel gauge!

The panel gauge is basically a larger version of a marking gauge. It has a longer shaft and a larger fence and is designed to mark parallel lines on wide boards. Some will use a sharp pin to scratch a line, mine uses a small single bevelled blade which gives a cleaner line. Some panel gauges use a pencil instead of a blade/pin which is handy for rougher marking or when drawing a full size template/drawing. The shaft on my Lie Nielsen version can be turned around and has a slotted hole to put a pencil in.

That’s it for November, look out for the next Tool of the Month blog post!

I think I’m going to need a bigger box.... For the last 6 months I’ve slowly been putting together a basic hand tool kit for people to use whilst on my courses. It’s made up of new and used hand tools I’ve been recommending to new woodworkers for the last few years and strikes a good balance between quality and cost!

September’s tool of the month is the chisel plane!

It’s a very simple looking tool, being little more than a wedge with a blade on top of it. However it’s pretty handy for several tasks such as removing glue squeeze-out, flushing pegs and for getting into awkward corners plus the ends of rebates.

That’s all for September look out for the next tool of the month blog post soon.

This months tool is the router plane!

These days the word ‘router’ either has people thinking about internet connections or loud high speed hand held machinery! (My particular router plane predates both... early part of the 20th century).

Router planes were used for accurately leveling all kinds of recesses for example halving joints, grooves, hinge mortises and stopped rebates or grooves where a chisel cannot reach. Today you can do all of those things and more with a hand held electric router, but sometimes it’s nice not having to wear ear protection and sometimes the router plane is faster to set up!

Router planes have been around for a very very long time and were originally made from wood! Another commonly used name for this tool is ‘Grannies Tooth’ due to its single blade poking out!

Look out for September’s blog post 👀

This months tool is the flush cut saw!

The flush cut saw has a thin flexible blade with teeth that have little to no set, and cuts on the pull stroke like a Japanese saw. It is designed to trim excess tenons, pegs and dowels so that they are flush with the surrounding surface without the saw blade digging in.

I use an inexpensive Irwin pull saw which costs around £10 and uses a replaceable blade, it’s mainly used for cutting off the wedges on Stable Stools like the photo below.

That’s all for July, look out for August’s tool of the month!