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If you have a problem with dovetail saws, it will be with setting. None of the setting tools I've seen - notably the Eclipse 77's - goes beyond 12 tpi. In 77's, the trick is ti find one where the 'Made in Great Britain' label is cast inside the handle in a single line. Later ones had it on...

If your daughter is in the US, why not try Hickory [Carya illinoensis & spp]? Commonly used over there for hammer/axe etc, handles, and good Janka hardness.

Why not try a different route: fabricating a longer yoke? Yes, the quality planes have cast or forged yokes. But the "more economical' ones have two bent pieces of [I think] 2mm mild steel, drilled through for the pivot pin and tacked together at the top. That's makeable.

This is an old piece, and from the UK; so I'd go for something less exotic: Apple or Cherry

Does it HAVE to be absolutely flat? No. but if you're cutting using a hacksaw blade as the master, it helps. Then you can get the whole blade done in one pass. If the toothline is hollowed - as it frequently is - you have to keep re-matching the heights between master ans slave every few inches.

Impossible. The green oak won't even be properly seasoned - if it's being air-dried, as it should be, for longevity

That's what happens when you resharpen to a single bevel on a powered wheel. I was taught to grind to a 15º bevel on a treadle-powered wet wheelstone, then finish to 25º by hand on an oilstone, spending more time on making sure the reverse face was completelty flat, than on on the sharpening...

Agree with the others: I never use sapwood with Walnut. Heartwood only. Sapwood is for kindling.

I vote for Black Locust [Robinia Pseudoacacia]. Little used, because it is too hard to work [have to pre-drill holes for nails, or they bounce off]. Also poisonous, with dust that can cause breathing problems.

"a few huge spanners made of the stuff, from an oil refinery"? If that's they case, they're not ordinary [i.e. Copper-Zinc] brass, but Beryllium Bronze. The only tool metal that is guaranteed not to cause a spark if it is hit, or hits something. So, only used in the oil-&-gas industry, to...

Not so. I spent an afternoon hammering the dusty remains of a 30mm marine bronze keelbolt out of the kelson of a 1906 Bristol Channel pilot cutter – it having destannified in the salt seawater. We replaced it with 316 Stainless. But we're still keeping eye on that.

I built a treehouse for my kids some 30 years ago. It's still there, and the tree is unharmed. 1: See what each tree has to offer in the way of support. I chose a 400-year-old yew, which had divided into three trunks, and perched the - triangular, 5 metre - platform on the branches of all...

I'm with Jacob on this. I was taught, back in 1958, how to sharpen anything freehand - including twist, Jennings, Irwin and Forstner drill bits, as well as every sort of plane, chisel, gouge, knife or saw. But what's missing here is that getting the primary and secondary bevels right, though...

Why not ask something specific, then? I've been sharpening everything from surgical microtomes to axes, adzes and hoes for over 60 years. The methods vary greatly with what you're sharpening, and how bad the condition. But the basic princiupals are always the same.

How about starting one, then?

Fair enough; but that applies only to the exterior, since it's Grade 2. Another thought: is it necessary entirely to renew the door? If not – if even heavy restoration/rebuilding the existing door will suffice, that becomes "Maintenance" rather than "New Work". And therefore not needing Listed...

Let's start at the beginning: there s no "need to be changed". The Conservation Officer CANNOT order you do do anything to an existing building, whether listed or not, except in the case of a Dereliction Order. I'm assuming the house is not so derelict as to be the subject of that. Once...

Why not copy, in smaller scale, what sawmills do? Cut the planks, then immediately stack them horizontally with 'Keeper Bars across every foot or two, with a heavy weight distributed on top. Leave indoors [i.e. in the same humidity as that in which they're due to be used] in a well-ventilated...

Good, solid spanners. Not the same quality as Britool or King ****, but very workmanlike. As Bod says, put them on eBay and see. I'd start them at £19.99.