The time has come to try and make an actual bit of furniture using hand tools. I am attempting a suitably straightforward piece given my inexperience (a side table) and will be ably assisted by Richard Maquire, albeit virtually:
Side Table - learn to build by hand - Woodworking ProjectsSide Table - learn to build...
The time has come to try and make an actual bit of furniture using hand tools. I am attempting a suitably straightforward piece given my...
side table
The first post on a new topic, the Piaggio Ape.
Ape TM owners, spare parts and service manuals, + a couple of manuals for other models. I’ll add more as I find them.
Ape TM
APE TM (Petrol, Diesel) – Owners Manual (2012, English)
APE TM (Petrol, Diesel) – Spare Parts Catalogue (2009, English)
APE TM (Petrol)...
The first post on a new topic, the Piaggio Ape.
Ape TM owners, spare parts and service manuals, + a couple of manuals for other models....
Piaggio Ape
I got hold of a sorry looking example of this North Bros bench drill – it was very rusted and all of the moving parts were seized.
Adjustable table
Having removed and cleaned up the table I found the hand wheel only turned a couple of degrees in either direction before becoming stuck. The grub screw...
I got hold of a sorry looking example of this North Bros bench drill – it was very rusted and all of the moving parts were...
drills
So far as I can discover the Ward & Payne Aristocrat chisel is the only chisel ever to have been granted a Design Award. The Council of Industrial Design (CoID) granted the award in 1959.
Design Awards
The CoID was set up by the British Government as part of its plan for post-war reconstruction. In...
So far as I can discover the Ward & Payne Aristocrat chisel is the only chisel ever to have been granted a Design Award. The...
chisels
What is a firmer chisel?
Nowadays when we talk about firmer chisels we tend to think of a fairly stout chisel with parallel sides:
.. but in the past the term ‘firmer’ had a broader meaning, covering a wide range of general purpose chisels.
It is not clear why the term ‘firmer’ came to be used...
What is a firmer chisel?
Nowadays when we talk about firmer chisels we tend to think of a fairly stout chisel with parallel sides:
.. but...
chisels
We are all familiar with chisels: simple tools made from a long piece of steel with a bevelled cutting edge and a handle which is struck or pushed in order to cut or shape wood, stone or metal. Is there much more to say on the matter? Of course there is! Take for example this...
We are all familiar with chisels: simple tools made from a long piece of steel with a bevelled cutting edge and a handle which is...
chisels
Following the last few posts on the history of the quick release vice covering the major developments in the UK over the past 100 years or so, the Twenty Century Vice deserves an honourable mention, if only for its memorable face design
The main aspects of this unusual vice’s history were uncovered by a...
Following the last few posts on the history of the quick release vice covering the major developments in the UK over the past 100 years...
vices
Record 52 ½ vices have been an essential tool for woodworkers all over the world for more than a century. They have arguably never been bettered in design nor quality - you can read about their long history below.
The first model (1910)
C&J Hampton registered the ‘record’ trademark in 1909. Trade listings from...
Record 52 ½ vices have been an essential tool for woodworkers all over the world for more than a century. They have arguably never been bettered...
Record Tools Ltd
You may recall from an earlier post that Francis Young, writing in the early 1880s, recommended a couple of the first ever quick-release vices. We covered the first – the Entwisle & Kenyon ‘lightening’ instantaneous grip – in the previous post, and the second is the ‘Standard’ instantaneous grip vice, made by Smith, Marks and Company and...
You may recall from an earlier post that Francis Young, writing in the early 1880s, recommended a couple of the first ever quick-release vices. We...
vices
Entwisle & Kenyon’s Instantaneous Grip Parallel Vice is one of two vices given a glowing write up in Francis Young's Everyman His Own Mechanic, the other being the Standard Instantaneous Grip sold by Thomas Syers. Young's book was originally published in 1881, three or four years before Parkinson launched the...
Entwisle & Kenyon’s Instantaneous Grip Parallel Vice is one of two vices given a glowing write up in Francis Young's Everyman His...
vices
As part of this survey of the history of the quick-release woodworking vice, Richards Wilcox of Illinois deserves an honourable mention for their clever design.
Before Wilcox was purchased by Richards in 1910 they produced a continuous screw vice. The newly formed company created an improved version that featured a simple and elegant gravity-fed quick...
As part of this survey of the history of the quick-release woodworking vice, Richards Wilcox of Illinois deserves an honourable mention for their clever design....
vices
W C Toles & Co
W C Toles patented this improved rapid-acting woodworking vise in 1894. The original rapid-action ("quick release") vice invented by Parkinson used cast iron sliders, which were vulnerable to breakage and added friction to the quick release mechanism, problems that Toles aimed to solve with their vice.
Steel Nut...
W C Toles & Co
W C Toles patented this improved rapid-acting woodworking vise in 1894. The original rapid-action ("quick release") vice invented...
vices
Welcome to the first part of this potted history of the quick-release woodworking vice, a history that will culminate with the venerable and arguably never-bettered Record 52 1/2 vice.
We have much to thank a chap called Joseph Parkinson for. Parkinson did for vices what Leonard Bailey did for bench planes: he pioneered a...
Welcome to the first part of this potted history of the quick-release woodworking vice, a history that will culminate with the venerable and arguably never-bettered...
Record Tools Ltd
Millers Falls were one of several companies that launched a range of bench planes after Stanley’s patents on the immensely successful Bailey plane design expired in the late 1920s. Many makers attempted to improve the design to differentiate themselves from Stanley who were well established in the market. One of these improvements was the...
Millers Falls were one of several companies that launched a range of bench planes after Stanley’s patents on the immensely successful Bailey plane design...
bench planes
Leonard Bailey’s eponymous plane design was so good that bar a few minor tweaks by J A Traut in the early 1900s[1] it has remained pretty much unaltered since he invented it over 140 years ago. Needless to say this did not prevent various plane manufacturers, all of whom were producing basically identical...
Leonard Bailey’s eponymous plane design was so good that bar a few minor tweaks by J A Traut in the early 1900s[1] it...
bench planes
Following the previous articles about iron, steel and plane cutters it may be tempting to view laminated cutters as an historical curiosity from a forgotten era of wooden planes, wrought iron and crucible steel. However companies like Record and Stanley chose to use laminated irons in their metal planes right up until the 1950s.
What...
Following the previous articles about iron, steel and plane cutters it may be tempting to view laminated cutters as an historical curiosity from a forgotten...
bench planes
