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another vote for the Simon James holdfasts (and WH to supply) - well made, reasonably priced and work even in a relatively thin bench top.

contemporary woodworking OP - I am trying to learn how to use my old stanley plane (inherited from my Dad) but I am having trouble getting my test piece of wood flat. Bob - first things first, this is an old plane, have you checked the sole? The sole needs to be completely flat. An...

that's a good idea - I have to say that all of the several (!) used hand and tenon saws I have had delivered over the years have arrived unscathed despite a couple of them simply being wrapped in stiff cardboard. The best packaging by far was done with two pairs of wooden splines, one along...

fair enough! I am looking forward to the build thread

sorry to say that all the comments thus far about the need for a decent plan were borne out in my experience too. Although the design is not very complicated, I am pretty sure I would have wasted a lot of timber if I tried to make it up as I went along (and this would have been on top of the...

another consideration is the effect of wear and tear on these joints over the years: you can use wedges to compensate (mind you most people don't bother and seem fine without them!). This was discussed when I was making my bench...

even the humble vice can cause controversy: some people want 1, some 2, others none at all, some people like quick-release, others don't etc - but you will hear hardly a bad world said about the Record 52 1/2. Incidentally, plenty of people are happy with the current Irvin models although...

you have asked a very broad question so its not easy to provide any tips, but there are a number of detailed bench building threads on this site that touch on many of the choices/techniques/tools etc needed for bench building - you might want to look at those as a starting point. The good...

I can only echo previous comments about his valuable contribution to sharing important historical works on woodwork, which him and his team are very good at. I enjoyed his 'workbench' book too, but find his journo style a bit off putting and that keeps me away from his blog. Like Andy I am...

I was mortified to discover from my profile that I have (accidentally) 'disliked' someone - quite possibly one of you lot! I can only apologise :) I do subscribe to forum where this type of feature was used successfully to sanction - and sometimes ban- people who were making a nuisance of...

hosting services make it convenient to link to high resolution images (no need to resize images) . Assuming you trust the service provider, it is also one way to back up your images and make them available on multiple devices, share them with other people and so on. The disadvantage of...

can I just say thanks to nev for pointing out that it is possible to link directory to images stored on Google photos . I have been doing this for a while but have used a rather convoluted method that involves using a 3rd party website to convert the standard url into a url that points to an...

very impressed Matt - do you still see it as a prototype, or is it being promoted to the final article?

indeed, a little bit of perspective and acknowledgment that the changes are being made with the best of intentions would go a long way to reducing the number of high-handed, holier-than-thou and generally unhelpful comments.

out of curiosity Rhyolith, what kind of paint do you prefer for your restos? Is the red oxide a primer?

I don’t remember the context I’m afraid, but his point was the same as yours - a tool maker can produce poor tools from good steel by skimping on the heat treatment

... and now I think about it, I do recall reading a plausible theory about the quality of more recent cutters from Mathew @ workshopheaven. His suggestion was that the steel quality did not change (presumably by the 1970s steel was being made cheaply and consistently to any 'recipe'...

yes, I think there must have been an element of "we've always done it this way" behind it, although I suspect the reason they finally stopped is that the handful of remaining crucible steel furnaces closed in the 1950s, so they were forced to use modern production technologies instead.

re. older Record/Stanley blades - as we found out on another thread recently, both companies used Sheffield produced crucible steel to make their blades until the 1950s. All the Record irons from this period were laminated (at least based on an ad hoc survey of the users on this forum) but...

forgive the daft question, but what is it used for?