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Last week, there was a thread where I chided the titman/trend gimmicks for diamond hones (i'm sticking to that) and the slick marketing to make it out like there may be something better about them than typical $20 milled plates from china. There may be a small difference, getting the stuff...

Today has been relatively warm, but it's raining. Which is kind of a common thing in the middle Atlantic or eastern united states. I went for a walk this morning and it started to rain - not really what I was hoping for as it was set yesterday to not start until midnight tonight. 40F here at...

I've made somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 chisels now. I show a lot of tools, but I don't talk too much about process because who really cares. I am bonkers about being competitive with consistency and making a chisel that will outlast anything commercially offered in regular work and...

Yesterday, I got an unexpected box in the mail. In it, was this, though the top was milled flat for me to finish. I've added some curvature to it, more just to see how it files and grinds. It is some kind of bronze that is extremely wear resistant - it looks more brass colored, but it's...

text coming after boosting pictures up from the phone. Just an experiment with cowboy toolmaking knowledge, like what will happen if you make a scraper that's more like 58 hardness (but in a steel tough enough to hold a burr without it breaking or cracking at that hardness) vs. one that's 48...

We get old fast these days, I guess. I thought YT was pretty progressive - at least until it went from everyone sharing stuff to promoting only the user farmers like sellers, dumpy numbs, the wood whisperer,e tc. But I've used YT to share stuff, and you can do it without turning on ads (to...

When it counted - as in to do it well and quickly so you could eat. the passage in #6 under joinery, keeping in mind that the discussion is in regard to a rotating sandstone wheel. the text first talks about "reducing the convexity of the edge" and then goes on to say that if done properly...

I finally found a reference today about why the second iron is referred to as a chipbreaker. Not that everything has literal names, but I learned to use the chipbreaker on my own without reading texts about it. the texts have been around, but apparently nobody else bothered to read them and...

(at least on fulfillment) In the last week, I've ordered a bunch of stuff that was to be delivered from Saturday through Monday. None of it was. I figured some would be delivered today, so I went to look at the status and all but one item is specified by EOD tomorrow. Which means that one...

What will happen? I've admired the wide makita hand planers for a while - they're kind of more like hand tools in proportion and not just short door trimming types. The only problem? It's not something that I'll use often, so the US cost for something like the 170mm planer (1806b) that's...

My daughter is in musicals now and bold like dad never would've been, at least not at stage stuff. I remember playing in a cover band and being kind of blank on stage - it was OK, but not like "I'd love to do this for a living!". At any rate, she's come across orchestras playing music from...

A couple of weeks ago, I had a visitor to the shop who had to use the M.R. before leaving (men's room), and my basement M.R. is of course unisex, but it is dirty enough from using it as a place to wash off metal grinding dirt and filth that my wife advises me that nobody should go in it...

Sort of in the spirit of the dimensioning thread, I think this will probably get a negative reaction out of most, but not because it's a reaction to people, but fortunately, the subject. I'm making a fairly crude loft bed for son over the last couple of weeks and wrapped it up today. He wants...

That soccer is really boring. At least if you're sober enough to be able to realize it! https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-soccer-sports-qatar-middle-east-2ecb255aa0100664c250b56d69506b17 >>FIFA said non-alcoholic beer will still be sold at the eight stadiums<< ouch! At the same time, it...

this iron is 2 3/8ths, so comparing to the $45 10V iron, about $5 of the difference can be attributed to size. Especially with the cost of magnacut bar stock. The iron is well finished, it comes with a bevel that's (I didn't check the literature) probably 30-35 degrees. The marks on the back...

Of the two "magicsteel" irons that I ordered, the 10V iron showed up already. Not sure if the other one has even been shipped, but the guy making the 10V irons in chicago has a good setup - instant information when you order it, continuous information through delivery only 1 1/2 days later. I...

No affiliation with any of this...at all. Not even buying any of this stuff to try. But this steel is the concoction of a metallurgist who is relatively local to me, and the guy knows his stuff. He has tested coupons for me, but really doesn't approve of what I'm doing and I kind of learned of...

I've had this plane for a while, it wasn't that flat when I got it and I've created some work for myself by not finishing a flattening job and then not remembering that I sort of left it half done. But what has always perplexed me is just how hard it is to get the thing to move forward on...

Mice eat the bars. A couple of weeks ago, I started to see a mouse in my shop. My shop is a garage and there is no opening to the house, but since the garage is below grade, there is a grate outside and a pipe into a sump in the house. In the old days, this would've been a closed pipe going to...

If you have a paring knife, especially if it's smaller and on the thin side - and you just love it to bits. Please post a picture if it's not too much trouble. I've been making knives lately and while they all differ by a fair amount in any style, the parers are really a wide scope - from...