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It's quite feasible to mortice even fairly thin stock. The sides of Canterburys (the antique magazine rack type things) had sides and dividers of 3/8" (10mm) stock or thereabouts, mortice-and-tenoned together - so mortices of about 1/8" (3mm) thick. The internal lids on an vintage writing slope...

Drilling square holes is something that crops up from time to time in the world of metalworking. The most usual method is to press a broach through a round hole, the cross-section of the broach starting round and changing gradually to whatever shape is required, and cutting teeth formed along it...

230kg? That's pretty much a quarter of a tonne. Drop that on someone part way up a flight of stairs, and at best they're in hospital. At worst ... don't even go there. Machines rarely have comfortable and convenient carrying handles, so an accidental slip part way up is a real possibility...

Well - for a start, don't run a high-speed grinder without the wheel guards! The risk of a wheel burst is quite low (provided the wheels are treated sensibly), but if it did happen the guards would contain most of the flying bits. In addition, there's a fair bit of dust and metal particles flung...

Always have to be careful with used measuring instruments, however reputable the make. However, the one you illustrate is still in it's original box and has clearly been treated with respect. I reckon it's as good a bet as any used combination square, especially at half the price of a new tool...

A chemical known as PEG (polyethylene glycol) is used - among other things - to replace the water in waterlogged archaeological finds, so that they dry without splitting or cracking - extensively used in the conservation of the Mary Rose, for example. I seem to recall from years ago turners...

I think we should be very careful about the deployment of red lightbulbs .... could lead to 'misunderstandings' in some quarters. You could mark out some stonking dovetails with those dividers, though.

Hmm. Seems that metric is 'scientific', and imperial is 'human'. It's a bit easier doing engineering calculations in metric units (speaking from long and sometimes bitter experience), so they have their place. But so do imperial units, including time. When the day can be divided as so many...

Percy Wells and John Hooper show an illustration of a 'Bismarck or Roughing Plane' on page 8 of 'Modern Cabinet Work', first published 1908, and list one in their suggested kit of cabinetmaker's tools. The Edward Preston 1909 catalogue shows two styles of 'German Jack or Roughing Plane', one...

I wonder how many thousands of planes you have to make to become that quick?

Rocket assisted bikes are nothing new, you know. Here's Cheshire's finest (well, Blaster Bates, anyway) recalling his experiments made in 1954 ...

Wonder how many tins of baked beans it takes for that to happen?

I think it's easy to underestimate the development and tooling costs to manufacture something like a woodworking plane, and easy to overestimate potential sales, especially for something already sold by (at least) two other premium makers. It's a financial risk for a small business to take, and...

Well, that is a fine head of hair. It's just slipped down a bit, that's all.

If only half of it is grey, you only need to shave half of it off - the rest can stay. That would save having to dye it for a while.

The answer is not to dye it, but to use a french polish made up with the darkest shellac flakes you can find. That way, you can do the deed in the workshop and not the bathroom. You may have to substitute a long-bristled brush for the usual polishing rubber or mop, though. Alternatively, find...

London and South Western Railway? That dates it to pre 1923, then - the LSWR was amalgamated with other companies in the south of England into the Southern Railway at that date.

This might be a wee bit controversial, but I'm not a fan of grease or oil lubrication for the exposed parts of woodworking vices. Grease is just a magnet for sawdust and small chippings, which over time dry out the lubricant and bung things up. (Not so bad on metalworking vices, but the screws...

There was a fashion for using end-grain walnut mouldings on (I think) cabinetry of the Queen Anne period. Short pieces of walnut were glued to a backing piece, end grain outwards, and cut with the moulding desired in the same way that normal mouldings were worked. I suspect it helped that walnut...

Further to Frank Horton's note about 14lb sledge hammers, I once had the job of separating the crossheads from the piston rods of an inside-cylindered 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive, the piston rod end having a slow taper which fits very tightly into matching taper of the crosshead, so they don't...