I’ve recently been joined by a second young person in the workshop, and this week he finished his first two projects: a mallet and an octagonal cheese board!

These are fun little projects to get him familiar with hand tools such as the hand plane and marking out tools including marking gauges, compass and squares.

Monty has been giving him a hand with the final touches 🐶

The router plane seems to be having a bit of a popularity surge lately with prices of older models climbing as a result. Over the last few years my old Stanley 71 1/2 (on the left) has become a firm favourite with students attending my joints courses, several have gone off and added a router plane to their own tool kits as a result 😅

Last year I treated myself to a new Lie-Nielsen no71 (on the right) as with all LN tools it’s beautifully made and works perfectly, it’s a little more user friendly too 😁

What do router planes do? They are used for leveling and making parallel recesses such has housing joints, hinge recesses, tenon cheeks and halving joints.


#handtoolthursday

After a slow start to rolling out the three day Roubo workbench course last year (due to difficulties securing enough hardware and timber), it’s great that 2022 has started positively with two workbenches already completed and timber for the next few sitting safely in my timber store!


Simon started the year off with the first three day Roubo at the end of February. His was 150cm long and 50cm deep.

Will came down from the North at Easter to build his 150cm by 60cm Roubo. He wasted no time in personalising his bench once it was home with a very smart black Rubio monocoat black stain on the frame and a smoky oil finish on the beech parts.

I have availability for another three day Roubo build over the summer and further availability later in the autum and run up to (shhh) Christmas 🫢 so if you fancy joining me in the workshop and building your own Roubo style workbench then do get in touch 📞