Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

I recently had the pleasure of spending the day with Phil Edwards. As well as helping us out as a moderator on The Wood Haven forums, Phil is the country’s only full time wooden hand plane maker. He talks about how he got started in making wooden hand planes and tells us some of the virtues of using them. We shot the interview at his workshop down in Dorset in the south west of England. As well as the interview, we also shot a few short videos of Phil’s top woodworkng tips. I will post these next week.

Please let me know if you like the video, I always welcome comments.

Phil Edwards – Philly Planes

I just heard that Shannon Rogers of The The Renaissance Woodworker blog is starting a new course for people who want to learn hand tools. His Hand Tool School rightly claims to be the first online video based apprentice scheme.   It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if you speak English, you can learn from Shannon.  I just think this is such a great idea and in some ways I think this is the future of all education.  Of course, there is no substitute for hands on, one-to-one training.  But that comes at a cost.   Plus with The Hand Tool School, you can replay each episode as much as you like.  You can’t rewind a real life course.

Shannon has designed this course just like a traditional school programme.  There will be semesters (what we in the UK call terms), field trips, homework, live hands on sessions and much much more.  He is basically taking the student, step by step through using hand tools to ultimately create full projects.  Each lesson will build on the last, introducing either a new tool or a new technique.  I think it’s right that he is starting with a very basic set of tools.  This won’t be a tool gloat fest, showing off the uber-expensive collectors toys.  The first episode covers workshop basics and a first look at stock prep and the term continues with everything from dovetails to inlay.  The videos are not 2 or 3 minute shorts, they will be feature length and packed with knowledge.

I really think Shannon is on to something here and a lot of woodworkers will benefit a great deal.  The cost seems pretty reasonable when you compare it to just a single day of tuition.   Over a year, It works out less than 2 magazine subscriptions!  I wish Shannon all the luck with this new venture and hope many of you will benefit from his teachings.  Sign up for his free preview of the first episode and see what you think.

Matthew Platt over at Workshop Heaven recently posted a video on YouTube which covers the Bessey (pronounced Bess-Eye) steel factory. If you have been a woodworker for more then five minutes, you will know that Bessey clamps are about as higher quality you can get. I myself was late to the Bessey party. In my earlier woodworking years I got by with cheap clamps, as cheap as I could find. To be fair to them, they worked ok and managed to get the job done. However, many of them broke or just stopped working properly. Others would bend when force was applied. Now, it’s clear to me that a well made joint should not need enough pressure to bend a bar clamp. But when I bought a couple of Bessey clamps, I knew instantly what the fuss was about. They work beautifully and are extremely well made. I have since bought more and will continue to collect them. So what is it that defines the difference between the cheap nasty clamps and Bessey’s quality offering. Watching the video I realised it’s a formula of precision and good steel. You might think steel is steel is steel. But there is a great deal of work that needs to go into making steel the performs the way it is intended. It is clear that Bessey has invested a high amount into getting that formula right. Bessey have spent over 120yrs researching and developing their working processes and it shows in every clamp.

It all started with Max Bessey opening a bright drawing mill in Stuttgart. However, it wasn’t until 47yrs later that Dr Eugene Mayer filed a patent for a novel, quick adjustable screw clamp with malleable cast iron jaws. This marked the start of Bessey’s commitment to producing quality clamping tools. In 1966 Eugene’s son Dr. Theodor Mayer takes over and forges the company ahead to great success until his death in 2000. Under his direction, Bessey expanded beyond the manufacture of bright drawn steel multiples by adding stainless to their production lists. They also began creating and marketing ERDI brand tin snips. In 1949 The James Morton Group was created in New York to take care of Besseys North American sales and marketing. Bessey eventually took control of this company in 2003 in a strategic buy out.

Bessey produces in excess of 20 different clamps, using steel from its own mills, The original Bessey Tradesmen clamp has a signature non-slip locking mechanism identified by a set screw. By far the most popular clamp among woodworkers is the K-Body series, which is now superseded by the new K-Body Revo line. However, Bessey offers much more to interest the woodworker. From F clamps to ratcheting band clamps and the quick action duoklamp. In their factory, each step of the production process is checked and analysed constantly. Working from a guiding principle set out by founder Max Bessey “One, who stops improving himself, has already ceased to be good”, Bessey pride themselves on quality and precision. As they continue to improve their products and innovate in their industry, Bessey are an example of quality that we should appreciate in a world of cheap and questionable working practises, seen in low end products on the market. I admire a company that invests to much, not only in production, but also ergonomics, innovation, technology and employee relationships.

Here is the video the Matthew posted.