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Back in the 70s & 80s when my job was called Head of Woodwork. I demonstrated how to sharpen chisels and plane irons but I must admit the kids didn't practice and that would have been the best way for them to learn. They did practice setting the planes however. The reason was that I had a...

How important is variable speed on a hegner? In my school workshops I had variable speed saws and we mostly slowed the blade for cutting plastic, so it didn't melt back together. Though we marked out on masking tape, which lubricated the cut so it wasn't much of a problem. The one I could...

What an interesting thread this has been. It reminds me of two conversations I had a very long time ago.The first was with an old boy who told me about his father who had been a ship wright. He said that his father could prepare his time with an adz as well as anyone could with a plane. The...

Did you have much luck? I struggled to get this into google translate. Copy and paste gave a page of code. And the spelling is counter intuitive for me. And why 5 beers?

We have come back to that popular topic sharpening. Keeping the iron sharp makes life so much easier. Martin

I'm a Mac user but obviously not enlightened. Which is the Option key? I know shift and can see the numbers and shift alternatives. While we're at it is there a trick, without having to remember how to use symbols, to get a Euro sign? Martin

As the others have said welcome but rather more important thank you for the idea for my next outing on the Hegner!! Martin

I'm mistaken about the centres they look as though they are held in by wedges and are bigger than nails. The rest is a steel pipe resting in a couple of notches.

You are being modest!! Martin PS that isn't me in the icon. Its a chap I photographed in Morocco 50 years ago, turning table legs. He was using his toes to hold the tool while he used is right arm to pump the bow that turned the piece. The lathe was the simplest I've ever seen. A couple of...

What a brilliant reply. To have an illustration of a process is so much easier to follow than step by step written instructions, to have both fantastic.

I believe that creativity is a profound aspect of human life. When I am making or resolving the details of a project its when I feel most at peace. The last 20 years of my career I taught D&T to profoundly disabled young people, with a wide rang of intellectual abilities. There was desire to...

Only anecdotally, but in my cold 1950s childhood lots of the elderly didn't get much past 70. We've had a boom in folk reaching their 90s since central heating became ubiquitous. But I must agree about the state of housing stock. I think its a cultural thing, thinking being cold is healthy...

Well if they have, they missed us. Even before the really dry spell, its been a dreadful year for bees, wasps and birds. Pathetic for beans, lots of flowers but very few setting. Usually our unkempt South London garden is swarming with activity. At one stage the grass was full of clover and...

Sorry I mistook the tray for another box sitting on top of the first one. Martin

Looking at how fabulous Adam's purchase is, (no refection on the one he's made) I presume that these chests were apprentice pieces made in the early years of someones career. Otherwise how could they afford the time? And where would they keep their tools in the meanwhile.

Very nice work. Are the joints on the first box Lap Joints or Lap Dovetails? I can't quite see, are the fillets of the second box square or dovetail? I like the contrast. (I always called them dovetail wedges but if they aren't at an angle, it seems the wrong word) Well done Martin

This thread reminds me of when I was a woodwork teacher in Brixton in the 70s and 80s, when lots of the children had big Afro's. I remember one lad used to push the pencil he was using into his hair. We always knew if we couldn't find a pencil that Norman would have pushed it too far into his...

Thank you most helpful. Martin

Do you have a 12mm hollow centre in your tail stock or do you have one that fits in the saddle? Years ago when young I was a wood work teacher I had long augers in my workshop and a hollow centre that fitted in the saddle. Though they weren't 12mm or 1/2" as we only used them for table lamps...

Thank you most helpful. I'll look up the Record long hole borer. I bought a set of 30cm wood drill bits off Amazon and they were hopeless. In the end I drilled from both ends and then tried to get them to align with the long bits. Some of the slide whistles were more successful than others. I...