Warren Mickley
Contributor

I think the end grain portion was carved. A scraper would make a mess of the end grain. It is possible that the long grain portion was scraped or it...

I doubt it is made of granite.

I have used a double iron smoothing plane for this work for about 45 years. It is fast and reliable. A lot of these gimmick planes are prone to tear...

If you have a saw with teeth that are longer on one side, it will tend to track to that side. However you can counteract this by slight pressure and...

I use vintage chisels for dovetails. I use 19th century English chisels for their steel. It sharpens easily, takes a very fine edge, and is very...

With regard to mineral oil, refined does not mean free from impurities or food safe. Mineral oil is a mixture of oils of various molecular weights,...

The choice of oil depends a bit on how regularly you sharpen. Cheap mineral oil is a mixture of oils of various weights. It works all right if you...

If you go to a Lie Nielsen event and look at the chisels with a loupe, every single one has chips on the edge. I cannot imagine one could sell...

Where does this information come from?

Sounds like a lot of fantasy to me. I can tell you from experience that it is a lot easier to teach a teenager to make neat dovetails or other...

Thanks for posting, Steve. I could not agree more. None of the people pictured in Derek's post work by hand to any extent. Some barely know how to...

The beauty of hand tools is that you saw to the line and then you are done. If you want to fool around with jigging and testing, you might as well...

Here are some razor edge pictures by Zowada: Translucent Arkansas Shapton 15000

A few notes: 1) You can throw out your grit comparison charts. They were designed to sell waterstones. If you expect a soft Arkansas stone to abrade...

Derek, I looked at all the people planing in the blog you referenced on Monday. The various guys pictured with planes have one thing in common: they...

I have a dirty little secret for you, Gene. Andre Roubo didn't use any glue on his benches. And no clamps. His bench tops were 20 to 22 inches wide....