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I've seen the video above before, but confess I skim-watched it, so I just watched it again, paying more attention. I do admire the bloke's ingenuity & the way he gets things done with minimal gear, but there were a couple of things that I found odd. The first was filing out the waste for the...

Richard, that pic you posted made my peening arm ache! Those are huge gaps & the amount steel allowed for peening doesn't look enough to fill them. I sure wouldn't like to have to work on that lot! I'm certainly not in the league of a Konrad Sauer or Karl Holtey, but I've made about 40...

What novocaine said. I cannot see any necessity for it to be other than mild steel. One of the softer alloys of SS (i.e. one that turns & threads nicely) would do fine, I'd say, even brass would do the job. Looks like a very easy part to make, but wot about the thread? Is it another of...

Someone had a pretty specific job in mind when they designed those pliers, but very unlikely to be anything veterinary, or if they are, they pre-date my career by a century or two! I can't imagine where/how you might use them anyway, unless for holding thick skin back from an incision, perhaps...

Every wood remains hygroscopic and will move no matter how "old" it is. "Stable" woods are simply those that move least within the typical annual relative humidity ranges they are exposed to. This doesn't equate to initial shrinkage values, one of the more stable woods I use has very high...

Just eyeballing the blade in your pics, it does look like a pretty steep bevel. Another consideration is the quality of the metal - is it holding sharpness as you'd expect of a decent blade? If you can substitute a blade from one of the 'mainstream' routers, you have a very easy diagnostic...

David, I have enough trouble with dust in my shed without creating mini dust-storms!! Even the toughest of woods yields to a saw, rasps & files which are pretty hard to beat for efficiency when it comes to shaping plane totes & buns imo. Still dusty work with bone-hard woods, for sure, but at...

😔 Yairs, ok Adam, I've acknowledged my problem (isn't that the first step to recovery?), but I also need to be taken to task for hypocrisy, regularly telling beginners they can make very acceptable stuff with just a few essentials & don't need a whole cupboardfull of tools! In my defense...

OK, I don't feel so bad now, I guess an OP is entitled to steer his own thread where he chooses.. :D There are a few timber merchants scattered round the country who carry the sort of wood you might be interested in, but the only one I have had any dealings with is this bloke. As you'll see...

It's ok Richard, I'm in therapy & expected to make a full recovery in about 15 years (by which time I won't be able to hobble down to my shed any more :D ) I've used a variety of blades,. Up until last year they were all bought new or recycled. Many smaller blades were cut off lengths of HSS...

Whatever works, Richard. I've never had good relations with jigsaws under any circumstances so the thought of trying to cut out fairly tight curves in metal with one doesn't appeal to me at all. Yes, the initial cuts don't have to be perfect, if you are using brass for your sides, you can be a...

Yes, it would be interesting to know how & why the different traditions evolved. I guess frame saws make more economical use of steel, which would have been a consideration before steel-making was industrialised. "Free" blades also need to be evenly tempered throughout, which would've taken a...

S'okay - I have plenty of senior moments myself & sometimes rabbit on about BU blades when I mean bevel down. There's only 180 degrees of difference, after all.... :confused: Ian

Ok Richard, lotta questions so settle in for a long answer! First the "throat plate" aka "blade block" aka "chatter block". How essential? Blowed if I know. I think the purpose of the blade block is to ensure the back of the blade has a stable surface to rest against. Whenever you mate wood...

Pete, changing to a thicker blade makes absolutely no difference to the size of the mouth opening on a bevel-up plane - it's a pro or a con, depending on circumstances. If you want to close the mouth on a BU plane, your only option is to shim the bed, which is a rather clumsy and inconvenient...

Ash, hornbeam, beech, all traditional frame woods & perfectly ok. The trick is to pare down the weight where it's not needed. I've made & used 10 & 12 inch turning saws for many years, but from woods that won't be available in your neck of the woods. Some of our acacias have a good balance of...

I've owned a Veritas apron plane for 25 years or more and used it a lot in that time, it's been a very handy little thing on many & many an occasion & I've never been embarrassed by its big mouth. I'm not sure why people want to make 'precision instruments' out of simple tools that do what they...

Richard, I gave the matter some thought before going that route on my first plane. At that stage, my experience of peening metal was very limited and I was worried about how I'd do it without locking the LC up (the solution, is, of course quite simple, but it only occurred to me later!), but it...

Adam, I suppose if I was working to a tested pattern/design and had my templates and peening block ready & went at it seriously, I could do a plane that size in a few days fairly comfortably. However, so far all but a couple of the planes I've made have been one-offs of my own design, which...

Richard, I agree, when a good infill is working at its best, it's a hard tool to beat, and if you are inclined that way (as I am!), they also look very spiffy compared with the more industrial-looking cast-iron things everyone has on their benches. The infills certainly have a 'feel' that is...