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Jacob - please leave politics and your odd interpretation of the very long and complex history of the British Isles out of it. It has nothing whatever to do with dovetails.

Also worth a try are soaking in Coca-Cola or slathering in HP Sauce. Both methods work a treat on old, tarnished copper coins, anyway. Check progress fairly often - 12 to 24 hours should be sufficient unless the tarnish is really severe. Don't drink the Cola or eat the sauce after, either. Back...

I think the type of plane (and how the different types flex longways) could be a factor. It could explain why David C finds he needs the stop-shaving technique to achieve with a Bailey 5 1/2 what an infill of similar length (but greater stiffness along it's length) achieves without. Please do...

The experiment could be done t'other way about, as it were. Place a shim under the plane sole somewhere near the mouth, and see how much shim you can insert at toe and heel. Then grasp handle and knob, apply normal working downforce, and ask your glamorous assistant to check toe and heel with...

I've just done the same experiment using a 1980s Record 5 1/2 shimmed up at the toe with a conveniently handy piece of brass sheet. Inserting feeler gauges under the plane sole just behind the mouth, I managed to get 25 thou feelers under, with a sliding feel. Applying a load to the top of the...

I dare say I'll be sneered at for this, but what the heck - here are an engineer's thoughts on what might be happening. A few people have been close to mentioning the flexibility of planes and workpieces, but haven't actually done so. I think it may be a factor. Considering the workpiece...

Blimey, Don, you have been busy! There's quite a bit of research behind that post. Just to add a little more, the Fishers of Winchcombe Street have an entry in Simon Barley's excellent volume 'British Saws and Saw Makers from c.1660', which pretty much summarises some of what Don has outlined...

I wonder whether the answer lies deep in the 19th century development of metalworking. By the time the equipment to machine and finish shaped plane soles had been developed to a suitable commercial stage, the spindle moulder (or shaper in North America) had also been developed. Given that there...

The cheap, basic wooden garden sheds can disintegrate remarkably quickly. Next door's put one up about eight years ago. The roof fell in after five years. On the other hand, the shed in the garden behind my parents' house has been there for forty years that I know of, without any maintenance...

DW's covered that - you chuck them in a drill and hold a stone to the point, apparently. Must admit, I didn't know that. Mind you, I don't mark out dovetails with a dart because I prefer to be a bit closer to the work than eight feet away, and someone shouting, "One hundred and eighty!" every...

Well, if you can mark out dovetails with a dart, they should be just about ideal for throwing at a dart board! :lol:

That's a fairly standard 'better quality' Sheffield-made gauge, which could date almost any time from about the mid 19th century until maybe the early 20th. It is in very nice condition, though; all the more so if the marking pins are still nicely defined - many vintage ones have the pins...

I'm not sure that it's a valid comparison between furniture and industrial products. Before the coming of the canals to some places, and later the railways pretty well everywhere, the latter, by their nature, tended to be close to the source of the raw materials needed for their making; thus...

Norton India combination and Inigo Jones slate. The India plus a stropping does fine for most work, the slate gives a finer polished edge for final smoothing and fine paring. The 'system' is bench-friendly, so I can touch up a tool whenever I feel it's getting to the point of needing it, and...

Most 'cabinetmaking' techniques (as opposed to 'joinery') were developed in continental Europe, and brought to England by continental craftsmen. They went were the fashionable market was - London - and the techniques they brought (veneering, inlay, marquetry, Boulle work, French polishing etc)...

The coming of the railways in the 1850s and '60s changed furnituremaking a lot, by making distribution easier. Prior to that, furniture tended to be built and repaired close to where it was used, often using timber sourced locally. There was scope for some specialisation and batch production in...

Under the Holtzappfel description system, that would be a 'sash saw' - not as big as a full-sized tenon saw, but similar uses. One good thing about saws of that size is that their weight ensures that they cut pretty much by themselves; all the user has to do is get it started in the cut, then...

If I remember correctly, the public sector pay cap was put in place after the 2010 general election because it was seen as unfair that public sector pay rises were continuing much as they had before the 2008 crash, whilst many in the private sector had taken quite substantial pay cuts in order...

Hello Rabohmer, and welcome to the forum! I've been doing a bit of digging about the Colonel brand - and come up with very little. They seem to crop up occasionally - not rare, but not common either - mostly screwdrivers (nicely made), a few chisels (standard Sheffield products - good quality...

The National Trust has a number of properties in Devon and Cornwall, and two that might be of interest are Finch's Foundry near Okehampton - a family firm that made tools for the local agricultural and mining industries during the 19th century ( https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/finch-foundry )...