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Hi all, I've just finished painting an MDF desk with oil-based paint and want to put on a hard-wearing finish coat on it. It will be under heavy use so I would like to use poly. Will I get adhesion problems if I use water based (already have a can lying around)? Do I have to use a barrier coat...

Mod: not sure if this is the right place to post this, if not, please move the thread. The dents in my woodworking vice jaws strong suggest that I buy a proper metalworking vice... I don't want to mount it to my woodworking bench as there is not enough space so am thinking of somehow mounting it...

Bought a pre-war, NOS J. Jowett plane iron for a plane build (small jointer). For some reason it is surprisingly brittle. It develops chips quickly, really quickly. Below is a shot of the edge after less than a dozen strokes on pine. Sharpening angle was a good 35 deg. I even added a back bevel...

Got an odd case here... The saw is stamped "Richardson Bros, Sheffield". Now I've heard of an American company of the same name (the famous hollowed saw from Lee Valley's collection), but what's this one got to do with it? Stamp: You can only make out "ichardson", but I supposed it can't be...

I have just finished making my single-iron, 18th century-style plane. Having never used a plane that's alike I've got no benchmark to gauge its performance against. The main problem here is that whenever I take a shaving thinner than say 3 thou, I get a sensation that the iron is trying to come...

For my last plane build, I used a permanent marker when flattening/fitting the bed to the iron. It was okay but really hard to clean off without removing any wood, which I didn't want to as it would obviously change the shape of the bed. I also tried pencil but the iron wouldn't take it at all...

Finally about to get started on building my wooden plane, which I've been "planning" to for the last few months (hammer). Firstly, help me get the jargon right. I always thought "rift sawn" refers to stuff for table legs where the growth rings run corner to corner. How come some use it to refer...

I seem to be the last one to know about this... http://www.leevalley.com/us/home/page.aspx?p=72236&c= Not much time left for guessing this but what do you think it is? I hope it's moulding planes or carving tools. Actually a pair of panel saws would complete their whole line of saws. Or shall...

Quick question, can I use water + dish soap on Arkansas or for that matter, any other oil stones (man made or natural) that have not been used with oil previously? Got some of those tiny Arkansas slip stones and want to use the same liquid I use on my diamond stones for sake of being consistent...

I've never even touched a bench grinder so I'm going to have a lot of questions... I really want to cover all my bases so if I missed anything important, feel free to point out. Since I'm going to use it for grinding hand tools I thought I would post it here rather than in Buying Advice. My...

Just out of curiosity, how are those holes made? they seem way to small to be chiseled like mortises, and boring obviously can't give you square holes. Are they burned into the wood a la fitting tang chisel handles?

TL;DR: If you somehow managed to bend a Veritas backsaw like I did, best strategy for you is to to contact Lee Valley for a (relatively cheap) replacement (minus the handle). According to a Veritas sales representative, the spines are molded directly onto the sawplate and is not by any means...

Hi, I work almost exclusive with hand tools and have never even taken any of my tools to a grinder. But some of my old, lightly pitted chisels and plane blades really need a lot of flattening... Sandpaper on granite works okay but I always get a slight bit of rounding over no matter how tight...

I've never used or even touched one of these so-called "granny's tooth" router planes (the type fitted with a plough cutter locked down by a wedge). The few example that's come up on eBay recently have extremely high bedding angles, at least 60, approaching 70. My understanding is that routers...

I had relative success with flattening and India stone on regular wet and dry sandpaper. Took long but it did work. Not so much luck with a Crystolon though... The fine side was alright but it seems that the coarse side was chewing up the sandpaper faster than the sandpaper was flattening it...

Sharpened up some old auger bits for use with brace only to discover that they all have one same problem: the bits will stop to advance after about 2 cm into the wood unless I put a LOT of pressure on it. It feels as if the lead screw threads just cease to "bite" into the wood. I then...

Hi all, I'm intersted in building my own wooden plane. Could you all please share some links (preferrably to thraeds on this forum) to plane builds? To start with i'm going to build a smaller, single-iron plane, like a scrub plane or even a block plane. Am I right in thinking that these are...

I am now certain that my old spokeshave blade had its temper taken out. I could just buy a new one but isn't this a perfect excuse to start messing about with some fire :). First of all, how do I find out the type of steel? It was made in the late 19th/early 20th century. Is it safe to assume...

I have trouble getting anything but hoggin' cuts with my wooden BU spokeshave. Whenever i back the blade to a fine setting i just get dust, or broken up whavings no matter how sharp the Blade is. Hoggin' chips or dusts, either way, the spokeshave leaves rough surfaces, especially the big...

I'm in search of a saw set that will put a very small amount of set (less than 0.2 mm per side) on saws 10 TPI and above. The older Eclipse with small hammers seems fine (the ones partially painted red). What is the angle of the anvil and striking face of the hammer? I imagine I'll need...