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A few years ago i had some experience of the copying issue, a boat that i had built some years before was copied by others without so much as a by your leave. In the boat trade this is known as "splashing a mould" & the practice has plagued the trade for years. In my case the boat was a generic...

Our teachers and technicians always told us we had a far higher chance ofcutting ourselves with blunt tools than sharp ones!

Thanks for that, the existing set are irwin hardpoints. They ae now so bad they re a liability. Thing with schools now is there simply wouldnt be time for technicians to sharpen saws even if they were capable. I can do it but only on my own saws! Think i will see how a bulk order sounds.

I just started working in a secondary school as a technician. We have a well kitted out workshop with some good tools & equipment. However the tenon saws are of such monumental bluntness that they are a disaster, To be fair they are about 3 years old & have been abused by a lot of pupils but now...

Years ago i acquired a British Antique revolver, the trigger spring was broken & there was no possibility of parts so it had to be made. I used a Bosch jigsaw blade with the teeth ground off & the two arms of the spring were tapered before heating to red heat & folding & curving to shape. The...

Problem with some stainless steels is galling where the metal picks up & seizes. Some grades can do this real quick. Not sure about 303 grade tho!

Lenham Oak, http://www.lenhamoak.net/Welcome.htm, a few years ago i was after a piece of good oak for a boat keel, i told them what i needed & they cut it to order 18ft of 8"x2" quartersawn & as few knots as possible. The piece they cut was perfect & grain like an arrow. And dirt cheap. They...

A Boxford is not much bigger than a myford but has a far greater capacity often for less money. Myfords are a good model making machine but always fall down if you want to turn anything bigger, plus they simply are not rigid enough. As for versatility that all depends on the tooling that comes...

I work in a college so have some experience in tig, the college bought an R tech set & it is pretty good, the big problem with it however is that it has a lot of knobs on it & the students cannot stop fiddling with them! for a beginers machine not ideal. At home i have a Portamig Tig set, it is...

When we were looking at houses in 91 we found a house in our town that had a fair sized garden with a very large double garage & off road parking for two cars. We were most impressed especially when we found the house wasnt bad either! Needless to say we bought it.

Well its been varnished & once it had all gone off was last night fitted with new tailpiece, we reused the original tuning bits. Tonight its been strung & a few problems came to light, the bridge was too low so we glued a 2mm spacer to it, still needs to go up a little so tomorrow we make a new...

I understand what you mean re the soundboard, the original one was fine grained spruce, the sides & back birch ply. The front was basically flat & we got the new one down to about 2mm thick or less, still not quite sure exactly what the timber is but it seems to be very tough & flexible stuff...

Last year i was working at a school clearing a D&T workshop. In the store was a beat up old Mandolin, one of the caretakers threw it in the skip. As my son Nick (aged17) plays the guitar i rescued it. Over Christmas hols we took it to a local music shop & to our surprise it turned out to be of...

It is similar to hand roll turnover cartridge loading machines, i would guess it is cartridge reloading oriented. Possibly for reaming cartridge necks or similar. Out on safari you might need such things.

The two main trunks i have kept in one piece & are about 5ft long i will be slabbing them up & have a job for them in re timbering a boat. The rest is cut into shorts with some crotch pieces & a couple of burls. Having googled the stuff it looks like lovely timber & i wont be burning much of it...

At a club working party today i was asked to fell a medium sized locust tree, Otherwise known as false acacia. It had two main trunks about 10" dia, one died last year & the other was dying. The timber is quite sound & hard & heavy with a prounounced greenish tinge. A lot of the smaller stuff...

Im a boatbuilder, i used to do a lot of restoration work also fibreglass repairs. This entails much heavy duty grinding of the itchy stuff. Not a healthy pastime! About 25 years ago i invested in a Racal Airsteam helmet, this is a safety helmet with rear mounted motor that directs filtered air...

Thanks gents, i didnt think of black epoxy, think an experiment is in order!

I have been tasked with making a base for a trophy for our yacht club, the trophy is a stylised yacht hull & sail made from heavy glass, being rather unstable it was thought a nice wooden base was in order. I have turned one up from a nice offcut of honduras mahogany and inset the boat hull...

I have a selection of favorite Chisels, all secondhand. In no paricular order, Mathesion of Glasgow ! 1/8" paring chisel, 1 1/2" Hearnshaw bros (John Bull brand) paring chisel, A Sorby paring chisel, a big 1 1/2" Mathesion socket firmer that looked like it had been used for breaking rocks. All...