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The question of how to steam pear wood (at home) was asked by member PAC back in 2008. Whilst there was some discussion on how nice Pear wood is, there was no answer to the question. I am about to lay my grubby mitts on a freshly felled pear tree. Not sure of the exact subspecies but the tree is...

Apologies for mangling a line from that old time classic "Lolipop lolipop" by the Chordettes. I bought two lots of wood recently, both sold as laburnum. I've never bought laburnum before and wanted to make some small boxes from it. One lot clearly is laburnum (laburnum anagyroides, I reckon). It...

Hi all, I made myself a Moxon vice to make dovetailing easier. My workbench only has an end vice which makes things a bit awkward and would be difficult with the 300mm wide boards I'm going to be using for a shelving/bookcase project. I went for a two tone look, partly for the cool appearance...

I have a bit of spalted European ash which I will use in a small box project. Does anyone know if spalting affects how much timber moves in service (normal shrinkage and expansion due to environmental/seasonal changes, indoors, UK). This could be a case of "How long is a piece of string?", but I...

A few weeks ago a neighbour had an old hawthorn tree removed from their garden. I was lucky enough to get some of the timber for free. Some was cut in to 6 to 8 inch slabs by the tree surgeon so that is now drying as firewood. However, there were a few logs and branches which were long enough to...

My new planner thicknesser is wired to a 13 amp plug on a ring main dedicated for my power tools in my garage. The MCB circuit breaker is rated at 32 amps, the cable is 2.5mm armoured cable, so the system can easily deal with any power that the 2.75 kW motor should pull. 13 amp fuses are able to...

I have a set of 3 HSS planner plades (SD31/A) for a 310mm wide planner thicknesser. The manufacturer is "Ilma". Can anyone comment on the likely quality of these blades? I don't see anyone selling blades under the name Ilma. Startrite, yes, but not Ilma.

Are there any eucalyptus experts out there who might know what species is shown in the attached images? I had a delivery of eucalyptus logs from a local tree surgeon and I was intrigued by the fact that the inner core (heartwood?) was lighter than the outer layer (sapwood?). The sapwood (if that...

Recently I renovated a very old work bench for use in my garage/workshop. I noticed a few woodworm holes whilst I was planing it down. I suspect that they are historical damage, however I treated the bench with woodworm killer as a precaution. However, this got me to thinking; I am beginning to...

I have a question relating to planer-thicknesser blades and cutting angles. Various text books advise a "reduced cutting angle" when cutting hardwoods and especially "difficult hardwoods". However, I understood that the cutting angle of a planer-thicknesser blade is fixed by the slot in the...