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Hand Tools

Dec 26
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John Neeman: Birth of a Tool Part III: Making Damascus Knives

By Video, Hand Tools
John Neeman Tools

Hand forging a damascus knife blade

John Neeman and company have done it again, and produced a stunning mini-documentary video about the production of a damascus knife blade, in Birth of a Tool: Part III. Damascus knives are extremely labor-intense, as they require multiple layers of different types of steel to be forged and folded repeatedly, with a minimum of at least 300 layers. The resulting blade is intensely strong, and intensely beautiful, too.

Check out the folks at John Neeman Tools hand forging these knives, and creating the leather sheath in their latest video below! Beautiful work, and excellent filmmaking, too.

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Dec 08
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Greg’s Beautiful Timber Frame Shop

By Timber Framing, Hand Tools
Greg's Timber Frame Shop

A great space to create…

We’ve recently had the pleasure of spending time with Greg Pennington in his lovely timber frame shop, here in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Greg is a chairmaker and woodworker, and makes and sells some beautiful handmade Windsor chairs. He works with hand tools and creates some really beautiful work, in addition to teaching others how to work wood with hand tools.

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Oct 12
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Upcoming Woodworking Tools Festival: Handworks

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing

handworks

Wow, this event looks really awesome, and best of all, it’s not that far away — and it’s free! Handworks is a (hand) woodworking tools event from May 24-25, 2013 in a beautiful restored timber frame dairy barn in Amana, Iowa. A bunch of hand tool companies will be there with their wares (and door prizes), and there will also be a presentation about that killer (and now famous) tool chest of H.O. Studley. Really cool. I definitely plan to attend.

Get the details here: http://handworks.co/

Aug 23
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Gransfors Bruks Hunters Axe: A Sentimental Review

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing
Gransfors Bruks Hunters Axe

The Gransfors Bruks Hunters Axe… ah…

There’s something intensely romantic about axes. Perhaps it’s that they have an ancient quality, having existed alongside humans for much of our history — they’ve been carried all over the world, used and depended on, for a long, long time. I’ve always thought of the axe as something that you’d really need in your arsenal, if you subsisted with only a small collection of manufactured tools. As far as woodworking is concerned, they predate many other hand tools and have long fulfilled the purposes of many newer, more specialized tools. Axes are versatile, simple, elegant, and timeless.

They’re something I can’t stop myself from looking at and picking up at the flea market, moreso than most other hand tools.

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Jul 04
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Unique and Interesting Antique Woodworking Hand Tools For Sale

By Timber Framing, Resources, Hand Tools
Millers Falls Boring Machine Bits

Lovely Millers Falls Boring Machine Bits from Jim Bode

There are a wealth of interesting antique woodworking hand tools out there in the world, and thankfully Jim Bode has a great online shop devoted to preserving and reselling some of these beautiful items. I recently received 3 lovely drill bits for our Millers Falls boring machine, a 2″, 1 1/2″, and a unique 1″ bit, all lovingly sharpened and cleaned, and a sheer pleasure to use for the first time. Wow!

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Jun 18
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Timber Framing 2012 Workshop Video: The French Snap

By Natural Building Workshops, Hand Tools, Timber Framing, Strawtron

Here’s a quick little video of one of our favorite tricks we’ve learned during the Timber Frame Workshop: the so-called “French snap”. After you saw the tenon shoulder one on side of your piece, flip the timber and saw the end cut down to that same shoulder cut depth. Once you’ve got your cuts, you can snap the material off by striking it with a heavy mallet. It works with straight grain and eliminates extra sawing and splitting. It’s very satisfying!

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Jun 13
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Days 1 & 2 of the Timber Framing Workshop

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing, Strawtron, Workshops
Antique Boring Machines

Tom shows off three different antique boring machines

The first two full days of the Timber Frame Workshop have already come and gone, and it’s going great! We’ve got a great group of participants, the weather is just lovely, and we’re cranking away on some good ol’ fashioned joinery using a whole bunch of sweet hand tools from Tom’s collection. Chris Newman arrived yesterday and will be a great backup to Tom in guiding our group through the process of building the rest of the timber frame.

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May 23
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Replacing Concrete with Wood: Pier and Beam Foundation

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing, Strawtron
Timber frame pier and beam foundation

Standing at the future floor height... we are way up there!

Many people are shocked at the giant size of the sill beam timbers we are using (myself included), as they are very burly 8×12 white oak beams. They are no joke. Lately I’ve been thinking about a concise way to describe our foundation design, and I’ve decided to make clear sense of it by explaining that we are replacing concrete with wood. These are serious pieces of wood, and they ought to be as they are supporting a heavy straw bale house with a living roof.

Anyway, we’ve had a lot of excitement the past week wrangling with the 8×12 beams, and setting the first three onto our concrete pier foundation.

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