News | Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust

June 9, 2015

If Only You Could Hammer Out All of Your Problems with a Mallet

The last few weeks were crazy. The whole family was hit by a stomach bug. The water heater died. I locked my keys in the car. I could add more, but I’ll try not to depress you.

We did make it through, and we’re all a bit stronger for it.

After completing the Roubo, I’ve spent a lot of time cleaning up shop. There was a lot of pine scrap to remove. Additionally, I recently acquired a bunch of very nice beech. Unfortunately, I had to take the good with the bad. As a result, I had a lot of beech scraps and nowhere to store it. The shop is now relatively clean, and I can get back to work.

The first order of business was to make a good joiner’s mallet. Beech is good for mallets. Why not? Why make one mallet when you can make two? I’ll be giving one away in the next week or two. For details, follow me on Instagram. There is a link in the top right-hand corner of the page.

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June 7, 2015

I’m Officially a Craftsy Contributing Author

It’s official. I am a contributing author for Craftsy.com. Craftsy contacted me a few months ago and asked if I would be interesting in writing for their woodworking blog. It was an excellent opportunity for me to gain exposure for my own blog, so I said yes. It’s also an excellent opportunity to gain the experienced advice of their editors.

You can check out my first post here: Three Simple Workholding Solutions for Hand Tools

I’ve already submitted a couple of additional articles that should be published in the following weeks. Let me know what you think.

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April 25, 2015

Shop Update

This past week was hectic. Work was crazy, and we had a small event at my son’s school. Unfortunately, that meant choosing between writing and shop time. Shop time won that battle.

I finished laminating the vise chop and started excavating the mortises for the Bench Crafted hardware. That means I have a new video coming soon. I’m also working on a few more posts for the design series. Stay tuned.

One more thing. Craftsy contacted me to write for their woodworking blog, so stay tuned for that.

April 13, 2015

Son of a Beech

200 BF of European Beech

It really pays to have good friends who need more shop space. My friend asked me if I’d like the left over European beech from his Roubo bench, and I was happy to jump at the chance. This left-over lumber amounted to over 200 bf. Most pieces are less than 3 inches wide, but there’s a few wider boards. Almost all of it us 10/4 and rift-sawn. There’s plenty of great table/chair leg material in there. I think I’ll use some of it to make a nice sharpening or joinery bench. What should I do with the rest?

Never miss an opportunity to snag some quality lumber….even if you don’t have the space. This is a good reason you should always keep your shop neat and tidy.

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February 18, 2015

Ice Delay

Iced

The weather has not been kind to the southeast. The icy weather has cooled down shop temperatures to below 40 degrees. Unfortunately, this is too cold to safely continue the glue-up for the Roubo benchtop. The second half is milled up and ready to go, but will have to wait until warmer weather. The outlook is much brighter this weekend, and I hope to have a functional bench top by the end of it.

On the flip side, I’ve had a lot of time to play around with the new camera, and video editing software. It’s been a nice break from busting my hump on this Roubo build, but I am ready to get back to work. Until later…

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