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hand tools Archives - Page 3 of 5 - The Year of Mud

Feb 17
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The Best Shaving Horse Plans

By Woodworking, Hand Tools
Shaving Horse

The “Smarthead” shaving horse design

During our time at Greg Pennington’s workshop here in Hendersonville, TN, I got spoiled using his awesome shaving horse, and knew that I would eventually have to make my own. Well, I had that opportunity over the past couple of weeks, and I based the design on Greg’s live edge seat, and Peter Galbert’s super sweet ‘Smarthead’ plans. This is the best shaving horse, I do believe. The beauty of Galbert’s design is that the user can adjust the size of the working area by simply ratcheting the head, without fiddling with pins. It’s also super strong. And very comfortable, which is equally important. I love it.

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Jan 28
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Timber Frame Joinery: How to Cut a Tenon By Hand… Quickly

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing, Strawtron

How to Cut a Tenon by Hand

I’m a sucker for cutting tenons. Maybe because it provides me with a great excuse to swing an axe. Maybe because once I get into the groove, I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I’m able to cut and clean up a tenon swiftly. Cutting a tenon — by hand — is a great skill to learn and practice, and I want to make the argument that it can be done by hand rather quickly, too. After cutting tenon after tenon, I got to the point of being able to do the bulk of the work with a saw and axe. I skipped the chisel altogether at some point. Here’s my process for cutting tenons by hand, perhaps my favorite “grunt work” of timber framing. Actually, I like it so much I wish I had an excuse to cut some right now…

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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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