Bill Carter on YouTube

[AndyT]

Many members on here will know about the amazing planes made by Bill Carter.
Quite a few will have had the pleasure of meeting him, at one of Richard Arnold's charity days or at a David Stanley auction. They will already know what a thoroughly good bloke he is, always ready to talk at length and in detail about woodworking tools, especially planes, their history, peculiarities and how to make them. His knowledge ranges far and wide and any conversation with him is likely to include several instructive digressions.

The good news for everyone is that he has been persuaded to start making videos where he talks to camera on a variety of topics. The camera that his wife Sarah uses is limited to 8 minutes of video, so expect to see lots of little snippets of chat.

I suggest subscribing to his channel and watching them all.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFCVWo ... jPzopUUbJQ

And thanks to Andy Toolsntat for tipping me off about this.

 

[custard]

The "blunt chisel technique" was a real revelation, incredibly practical and useful method of working but I've never seen it before.

 

[JSW]

The "blunt chisel technique" was a real revelation, incredibly practical and useful method of working but I've never seen it before.

Indeed! Had to nip into the workshop and blunt a chisel on purpose to try it, very much a wtf moment there!

 

[AndyT]

The "blunt chisel technique" was a real revelation, incredibly practical and useful method of working but I've never seen it before.

It really is good, isn't it!

And evidence of how readily Bill shares his knowledge - his website must have guided many amateurs taking their first steps in planemaking.

 

[D_W]

The "blunt chisel technique" was a real revelation, incredibly practical and useful method of working but I've never seen it before.

It is incredibly fast on harder woods, too (like cocobolo, etc). I bedded the last infill I made in a couple of minutes.its a fantastic tool for fitting a Japanese plane (changes a long process to a couple of minutes), too, and I still use it on beech plane beds.

Bill sold a DVD of in process pictures about a decade ago in order to make sure what he knows was shared. It was incredibly useful.

 

[Rorschach]

That's a metal working technique adapted to use on wood really, very effective though as shown. I often use a scraper type tool like that for wood on my engineering lathe, it leaves a nice finish when done properly.

 

[ED65]

Thanks for the headsup Andy, I shall be dutifully checking in. The eight-min max time per video is a real blessing for me, I get numb-bum syndrome watching things on the computer much over 10 minutes long!

 

[ED65]

Re. the flat-ground chisel scraper did everyone here learn it from Mr. Carter? I don't know if he was taught it by some old hand back in his learning days or came up with the idea independently but the idea is actually much older than Bill. One written reference I found specifically references it as a plane-making tool. It is possibly confined to the British planemaking tradition but I don't read any other languages so I haven't been able to research that.

That's a metal working technique adapted to use on wood really, very effective though as shown.

I thought with metalworking scrapers you diligently removed the burr to leave a sharp arris?

 

[Rorschach]

Re. the flat-ground chisel scraper did everyone here learn it from Mr. Carter? I don't know if he was taught it by some old hand back in his learning days or came up with the idea independently but the idea is actually much older than Bill. One written reference I found specifically references it as a plane-making tool. It is possibly confined to the British planemaking tradition but I don't read any other languages so I haven't been able to research that.

That's a metal working technique adapted to use on wood really, very effective though as shown.

I thought with metalworking scrapers you diligently removed the burr to leave a sharp arris?

Yes there is no burr, as Bill points out in his video.

 

[D_W]

Re. the flat-ground chisel scraper did everyone here learn it from Mr. Carter? I don't know if he was taught it by some old hand back in his learning days or came up with the idea independently but the idea is actually much older than Bill. One written reference I found specifically references it as a plane-making tool. It is possibly confined to the British planemaking tradition but I don't read any other languages so I haven't been able to research that.

That's a metal working technique adapted to use on wood really, very effective though as shown.

I thought with metalworking scrapers you diligently removed the burr to leave a sharp arris?

That's certainly where I learned it and it's improved my results and saved me time for almost ten years. I used two chisels that were too soft for anything else, so it only really cost the gas to reharden them.