Ed

I forgot to say- Amazon has excellent customer support. I have no doubt they will allow and facilitate a return. It’s hard to find their online chat, but once you do, they’ll probably quickly help arrange a straight-up return as long as you’ve not modified the item.

If you have access to Wood Craft, that may be a better way to buy an Eclipse vise. When I bought my vise there, I ordered it in the store and they had it shipped to the store. This meant I did not have to pay shipping, although you do pay state sales tax. Perhaps it is still that way? It also means you can inspect it at the store and means the…[Read more]

Sometimes when there are many options so that it’s hard to choose, you can find constraints that limit things down. For example, in my case, I have limited ceiling height. I decided I wanted my lighting to be up between the joists rather than hanging below so that I’d gain a few more inches. Given the location of other services, e.g., HVAC, there…[Read more]

This is very similar to my favorite marking gauge, a Stanley 65. There are two things in common. First, the pin is in the corner of the arm rather than the face, which I find preferable because it is easier to see and it seems I have better control engaging with the work. Also, the shape of the body is similar. I’ve thought about making some…[Read more]

What is it that you guys like about the shooting plane? Is it just ergonomics? I’ve toyed with the idea of building one. The idea was to make a wooden jack plane but put the handle on its side.

It’s funny- I posted that question back on August 9th, but it just showed up today.

We always see Paul chopping facing the bench so that plumb is determined by leaning the chisel towards or away from his body. When I cut freehand, which admittedly hasn’t been often, I use a completely different position. I put my hip against the bench so that I’m looking along the jaws of the vice instead of across them. Now, plumb is a matter of…[Read more]

Harry’s right- clean up requires solvent, but you can minimize this. The trick is to never, ever spray adhesive on the tile. Instead, find a sacrificial bit of cardboard, perhaps the lid of a box, about half a meter square. Put your paper in the middle of this, grit down, and hold the spray can 12 to 18 inches away. Give a quick, light squirt.…[Read more]

@kirsty Doing just the tip is fine. As soon as you get a burr, you’re done, even if you’ve only ground or honed just a fraction of a millimeter. Take off as little as you can while still getting a burr. Over time, it will get bigger and bigger and the honing will get slower because there’s more area to abrade, but for now enjoy it.

@jaimeclifton some of those broom handles look pretty fancy. Do you find the shooting board plane worthwhile vs. using a bench plane?

I like how you selected and handled the grain in the rails, stiles, drawer fronts and panels. Very nice. I wish I knew how to view images with the proper orientation on this site without downloading them. Anyone…[Read more]

I lied…thumbs are underneath, fingers are on top. Four to six fingers are sharing the pressure rather than just one or two. This is a random spare iron I grabbed and it happens to have a big camber on it and isn’t polished. Ignore that.

Forgot to say, yes, “fuzzy filings” rather than “a string” is a good description of how the burr feels to me. It feels like the edge is rough. Also, yes, when doing the bevel, I work back and forth rather than just pushing or just pulling.

@kirsty , thanks for the video. You’re making good progress, but there are a few things I’d change. The most important one is that, when you take the burr off the back, you want the blade to be dead flat on the abrasive. At a little after 4 minutes in the video, you take the burr off with the blade lifted up off of the paper, just the tip in…[Read more]

By the way, if you haven’t used your Narex chisels and your first job is mortising, you almost definitely *must* sharpen first. They probably come out of the box with a low bevel angle, maybe even 25 degrees, which is too shallow for mortising. You’ll get only a few mallet blows before the edge likely fails. Put the chisel in the Eclipse for 30…[Read more]

I never wet the paper, even when I use wet/dry for the higher grits, but I don’t use paper much these days other than for setting up a blade initially.

Regarding the burr, you should be able to feel it. You work the bevel and then feel on the back side, because the burr will be pushed / developed on that face. Of course, don’t move your finger…[Read more]

@wby42509 Tools for Working Wood and Highland Woodworking also used to stock them. You could check them, too. I had to go to more than one merchant to locate them because the 3-rasp set wasn’t available.

@WBY42509 I asked Paul about this in his blog a long time ago: https://paulsellers.com/2013/07/aurou-rasps-good-on-the-wood-and-good-in-the-hand/

I cannot promise this is right, but that discussion led me to believe that Paul was using

1. Auriou Cabinet Maker’s Rasp 300 x 38 x 6.5 – Grain 10 (I think this is also called the 12”, 10-grain cab…[Read more]