Timber Frame Tools

Shaving Ladder

2010-07-22T04:16:28-07:00

A while back I did a post on how I shave larger pieces of wood using the crotch of an oak tree Peter Follansbee has a great post on his blog about using a shaving ladder (paring ladder). I am intrigued by how it works. It seems to be used for thinner stock than the logs I [...]

Dedicated Sharpening Station

2010-07-20T12:01:55-07:00

I have contemplated the design of a dedicated sharpening station for over a year now. I have seen other examples of small benches used for this, and the idea made some sense. However, the thing that always struck me is that sitting out in a workshop a sharpening bench would get covered with [...]

Woodworking with Old Eyes

2010-07-12T14:04:02-07:00

A few years ago, I joined that club where I had to start holding things farther away in order to see them, or had to peer over my distance glasses in order to read something. I have also noticed I need more light, there just never seems to be enough light. Where I really noticed [...]

Wood and Tool Blogs I Read

2010-07-09T13:35:18-07:00

I enjoy reading woodworking blogs. I find them a great source of information, ideas, and some personal tidbits that help give the rest some added context. I use Google Reader to read them all by way of their RSS feed. This lets me read the new posts anywhere in the world that I can login to [...]

Scrub Plane Iron Cambering

2010-07-02T09:01:02-07:00

Scrub planes are kind of interesting. Their main purpose is to remove stock rapidly in order to flatten a twisted or cupped board as well as doing rapid removal (almost ripping) of the edge of a board. The common scrub plane whether made by Stanley, Record, Lie Nielsen, Veritas or ECE is sort of short [...]

Bandsaw Milling Sled

2010-06-27T21:27:28-07:00

I had a need to take relatively small diameter (~8″) logs and mill them into lumber. I have a lot of fallen cedar trees in the area and I wanted to be able to mill some logs for use. I researched a lot of bandsaw sleds for re-sawing, but they all seemed to have the limitation of [...]

Double Cedar Chaise Lounge

2010-06-23T13:45:50-07:00

Sometimes we have these projects that just take longer than they should. About two years ago, my wife said she’t like to get a chaise lounge for our deck. I looked at a few designs and said “Bah! I’d rather make one.” So I started gathering some downed cedar logs from the forest near our [...]

Galoot Books for Kids

2010-06-18T12:21:41-07:00

I have two kids to thank for me getting deeper into the galoot world of using mainly non-electric hand tools. My nephew, who gave me a book called Diary of an Early American Boy that showed how things were built in the olden days of colonial America. It lead me to start planning the timber [...]

Rip Sawing an Old Log

2010-06-15T14:01:01-07:00

While doing the preparation for building a cedar double chaise lounge, I had collected several old fallen red cedar logs from the forest surrounding our home. It seemed that one of the logs turned out to be more than my bandsaw could handle (8.5" re-saw clearance) . The log was close to 14" in diameter. [...]

Handscrew Dogs

2010-06-14T13:26:26-07:00

I often need different ways to hold wood while working on it. Generally, the better it is held, the more accurate my work. Dog holes on a bench can be used to hold wood in a variety of clever ways, and here is another new addition. Handscrew dogs! Take two ordinary handscrews and [...]