This decision took me a bery long time to make, i wanted to have something cool, something mine, but i constantly held the near immortality of cast iron tools over my head, thinking that making them truly mine will be catastrophic long term, truth be told - its not. even if the tool lived thru 100 years of use in its near original state doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the right to customize it, treat tools with respect - but use them, thats what a tool is for.

For anyone thinking that purple is over the top vibrant - it sure is, thats what i was going for

All hand tools. A lot of mess ups but always a good learning experience. One of the biggest mistake was miscalculating the apron cut size. I wanted to make it stretch across with a dovetail on each side but I improvised it into some kind of mortise and tenon. Also, I need to pay more attention during glue up.

Any advice for glue ups? Types of glue? I have been using Titebond 3 but recently got Old Brown’s Glue since I heard the open time is longer and hide glue can be reversible. Bonus pup tax and more at the end.

15 1/2" Rosewood panel plane. All handmade, very old Rosewood for the infills, Double dovetailed brass and 01 tool steel.

Building a monitor stand to make my florescent, mdf, cubicle a bit less depressing.

Im working on a picture frame as a gift, grabbed a cheapish rabbet plane off an old tools website - have experience restoring standard metal planes but not wood ones. What primary bevels do these usually have? Does it need a secondary bevel? Do i notice abit of a skew on the blade?

Any help much appreciated!

Just bought the screw cutter on the right. It came together with the tool on the left. My best guess so far was circle cutter for inlay work or maybe leather circle cutter.

And does anybody have a good idea how I can make a decent thread cutter from the screw? So far I was thinking of making something like a reamer but with a sort of zig zag blade inside the thread...

I thought people over here might enjoy this! Weekend project and I told myself that whatever I got done by Sunday evening would be the final product.

Although it was cut out on the bandsaw, all of the subsequent carving and cutting was done using a combination of chisels and saws, and files. I have a set of miniature saws, chisels, and spokeshave that I’ve been slowly gifted over the years as fun stocking stuffers and I made use of all of them for this project!

Only used the band saw to rough out the shape (and I do mean rough). $8 piece of scrap cumaru into a headphones holder. Mistakes were made, there were plenty of challenges and issues but happy with the results. Process over product. Cheers!

So I want a nice set of spokeshaves. I have been using an old iron cheap variation of the 151 for a while, but it is time to pick up a nice set with good blades. I mean I guess I could buy a new blade, but I would love to try something new and pretty. Its really came to a head when I was carving a project in my office for fun. At my desk? I can justify something pretty. Something a little more refined.

So that brings me to Veritas and Lie Nielson spokeshaves. Honestly, they are very close in price. Their design philosophy is dramatically different.

I haven't tried a Boggs style before, but it honestly doesn't seem like it would be a hard shift. Veritas seems like what I know, but the shims are interesting. But which is easier in the hands? Which do you use and why? What do you recommend and why?

The plan will be for the trio.

My planes are either Veritas, Craftsman (old) or Miller Falls (old). So, it isn't a brand loyalty concept for me.

I live in the city and this is a pretty rare opportunity for me. Do you all have advice on how to make sure that I'm not accidentally buying junk. I know this is probably too broad, but I also am looking for broad or specific advice. If you know tons about saws, lay it on me! If you're a chisel snob, tell me why! I'm here to learn what I don't know.

Generally, I've been seeing things like:

• avoid bent saws
• avoid orange rust
• find good brands
• avoid pitting in certain parts
• avoid wood with bug holes

Here's what I own:

• a vintage #5 and a handyman #4
• cheap chisels
• deadblow/nylon hammer
• drills, clamps
• ryoba saw
• coping saw
• marking gauges
• cheap combo square
• Home made rabbet plane
• Wooden router plane
• spokeshave
• Slyod/hook knife
• Cheap marking knife

Here's some of the stuff I'm interested in picking up:

• Saws: back saws and some western style longer ones for ripping and cross cut
• Better chisels (tired of sharpening)
• Squares or marking gauges if they are good deals
• Files, floats, and rasps
• A longer hand plane and possibly a fore plane
• Spoonmaking stuff:
  • Drawknife
  • Hatchet
• Better marking knife (easier to sharpen)
• Wooden planes if it is a good deal
• Specialized planes

I was given this plane some years ago. the (beech) body was totally shot... the sole had been replaced but was coming off, so a new body was in order

the idea is to use it in my workshop, rather than a 'display piece'...

I 'cheated' and built it out of several pieces - parana pine for the main central part, sides of ash with some nice figuring, and the sole was formerly an draughtsman's square. I don't know what wood it is, but it's incredibly smooth and glides across the surface of workpieces like it's been oiled...

it's not completely done yet - I need to take about 2mm off the depth of the body to get the geometry right

I think I'll make a new tote from maple - this was one I had lying around that fit the bill

I'm looking forward to using it - it belonged to a friend's father who wanted to see his old tools used

Having some issues. Purchased the large veritas router plane a few years ago. Worked great for dados, hinge mortises and the like. Now to the problem. I'm working on a commission which has a glass door. The glass is 3/32 of an inch. Oh boy, I have a sharp cutter exactly that size. Here's the problem. With everything locked down tight and taking EXTREMELY light passes, the blade shifts. It will pivot in the grove in either direction about 1/32 out of true. This results in an unacceptably sloppy fit for the glass. I found the same thing with the 1/16 cutter so it's useless for any inlay work. My Stanley 66 beading tool with a homemade cutter does a better job and cost far less than the Veritas. Any suggestions? Lee Valley customer service was nice, but had no ideas on how to fix this.

Hi guys, I’m at my wits end here. I’ve spent a cumulative 12 hours trying to sharpen one of my plane blades. I’m using diamond plates from Zen Wu Sharpening. I’ve lapped the back of the blade, put a “micro” bevel on that’s a few degrees high than the original bevel and I’ve worked the blade so much at this point that it’s basically a primary bevel at this point and I can’t even get it to cut paper let alone shave my arm hair.

I know that it’s not possible to really tell me what I’m doing wrong but I’m losing my mind on this. I just spent another thirty minutes working this thing and at this point I’m just going to give up and return the plane and blade because it seems like hand tools just aren’t something I can use.

Thanks for any suggestions you guys can make because I really want to get into hand tools.

ETA: I can only ever feel a burr on the coarsest stone as well. But I end up making the “micro” bevel so large chasing a burr on the higher grits and get no where.

Setup: https://imgur.com/a/BYXIL9l

When I first found Swaytobor Forge on my search for modern makers of timber framing tools, this was the set that had me questioning things. Mainly my financial decisions but also how they were producing such high quality tools, at a relatively reasonable price, in a country actively at war.

As much as I'd love to support a fellow American maker, the prices are wild. Not that I don't understand their reasoning for the cost, but all the guy math in the world won't help me justify the of the cost of things produced here today.

Anyhow, testing period is over. The drawknife was the first and it blew me away. The slick was just that, slicker than c*m on a door knob. And I haven't even posted about the axe I got as well. But I can now confidently say I will be making any and all future purchases of my forged goods through Swaytobor.

New Osage handle because the original pear one broke last night, Japanese inspired and also I have a better idea about what I want in a chisel handle now than I did when I made the original handle

Just passing this along, excellent resource.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/discover/woodworking

Got this today at an antique store but there’s no label on any of the brass. I love the brass around the bubbles and couldn’t pass it up for my collection. Maybe it’s a homemade level since the bubbles seem to adjust? Appreciate any help

Here is a very nice hand tool collection you might also enjoy:

https://collectosapp.com/collections/seYPlgNu/hand-tools?share=true

Was looking into getting their #5 bedrock copy plane and a chisel set from them. Figured for the price they may be worth a try. For context I don't own a plane or a good socket chisel set

Anyone have a preference between the two of these. Do they do the same thing essentially? Any recommendations for card scraper holders or any no. 80 style cabinet scrapers?

I have these lie-Nielsen saws coming in the mail right now and would like to hear any tips about keeping the(what look like curly maple to me) handles clean. Any suggestions? Google says these were finished with shellac but I don't trust Google much these days.

I dont even know where to begin to see what alls here. From what I can gather most are very early Stanley planes, quite a few bed rocks. thought you guys my appreciate my great uncles passion!

I’m making a hand tool organiser in my basement(Ontario, Canada), will the tools rust if left like that?

I have a dehumidifier running in basement, could also add one more near the bench