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Having restored my father-in-law’s old tool chest, I’m now checking out the chisels that were in it. There’s quite a range, including 5 Stormont crank gouges and a couple of Marples (and a very fine Marples straight gouge) chisels from Woodcock, Wallins, Ward, and Marples, an Addis swan neck and...

Nempnett Thrubwell takes some beating. It’s my personal favourite; it’s just a little spot in the Mendips near Bristol.

It’s the new paradigm.

If ‘vise’ is an Americanism, it’s not a recent one; see photo. This is an English vice. The best confusion between UK and US English I came across in 30 years’ work alongside Americans was the bumbag. This is called a fanny pack in the US. In the UK only a gynaecologist would use a fanny pack.

As you can see, I have also cleaned up some of the tools. I have cleaned up the planes and sharpened them with the help of Nick from the Wharfedale Workshop – a lovely Bailey/Record No 5 and a little box plane, these were used extensively in preparing the base and skirts for the chest. The...

I sewed the pockets for markers and pencils out of some old swatches from a furniture shop and an old leather jacket. It’s mounted onto an old table mat and screwed into a position on the lid where there had been fixing for chisels (I think). However I didn’t think they were effective or useful...

As discussed above the screws in the lid fittings and hinges were an issue. In some cases I couldn’t even find the groove in the head to insert a ‘good fitting’ screwdriver. Torque wasn’t the issue, and the heads tended to crumble. In the end I chiselled out some of the fittings which allowed me...

For the lock I just had to remove the keeper and add a fillet of wood so that the tongues could engage. It’s another compromise, but looks OK, I think.

I have finally completed the restoration of the toolchest. As I stripped off the paint and replaced the base and skirts, which had rotted, I realised that the reason the lock didn’t fit wasn’t due to the spraining of the lid hinges, it was due to the swelling of the large panel in the lid...

I retired a year ago after 32 years in pharmaceutical research, a high stress, big budget job with long hours and loads of travel. Immediately I stopped work, COVID-19 messed everything up and some of my plans are on hold, and my father’s death didn’t help. But I took a woodworking course and...

Thanks all. I’ve not worked with epoxy before, so here goes. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I’ve picked this broken cheeseboard while clearing Dad’s old house. It’s been repaired twice, the second time with a splice and lots of ?araldite. I don’t want to throw it away, it was such a lovely piece, but I’m not sure how I can make a presentable joint with a third repair. Any ideas?

I’m in Wharfedale, there’s a large house with woodland where we’re placing them. It’s actually a bit late for this year, the territories are probably already set up.

A pair of owl boxes I’ve been asked to make. The design was adapted from the RSPB website plans which made very inefficient use of 8’ x4’ plywood boards, so I tweaked them. It’s more joinery than woodworking, though as a newcomer to the art I learned quite a bit about sawing straight, reference...

I’m a birdwatcher not an astronomer, though I do point my binoculars and spotting telescope upwards from time to time. I just want to say a word of warning about buying binoculars with more than 10x magnification. It becomes difficult to find a bird in a wood with ‘too much’ magnification and...

Apologies, the attachment posting included loads of irrelevant photos even though I had cancelled. It glitched when I was posting telling me I could only attach 10, even though I was only adding 2, and they didn’t show on the preview! Here’s the photo of the finished article.

Another idea fir leatherwork: I’m renovating my late father-in-law’s 1950s tool chest, and saw a suggestion for a small tool/pencil/pen holder in a Schwartz’s Anarchist Toolchest thread. There was a gap in the lid where there had been some particularly useless chisel holders that I wouldn’t...

We heard rats in our attic, and called in the council. The gentleman put down poison, and the problem went away. Then the smell started. We had just put a new floor down in our front room, and we were not about to rip it up, but that’s where the rotting carcass lay. We suffered 6 weeks of stink...

Thanks all for your help. I’ll try some of these suggestions. Unfortunately the back of the lid is sprained from being opened too far so that the lock doesn’t engage any more, so ideally I would like to remove the hinges and remove the top to repair it. I will try to see if I can apply glue and...