Tools for Working Wood

Congratulations to Joshua Klein of Mortise & Tenon magazine on the publication of his new book, Worked: A Bench Guide to Hand-Tool Efficiency.” The book, a nice companion to “Joined,” tackles the unspoken language of efficient hand tool usage - the “steps between the steps” - from understanding in theory what a hand tool can do to using it with grace and efficiency.

In loving memory of our friend Nancy Hiller, extraordinary craftswoman, writer and mentor. (Not to mention Life of the Party - folks are still talking about the pinata she brought to the publication party we hosted.) She lit up every room she was in.

Some eye candy for the Stanley plane enthusiast: This photo is of the early (c. 1900) Stanley Bedrock lever cap - note the elegance of the logo cast into the part. As time went by, and tastes and style changed the logo was simplified to the one on the left which is a 602 Bedrock from the 1920's. Later, Bedrock was dropped entirely. More photos on the new Photo Blog on our website

Detail of a desk (escrotorio) from Ecuador, late 18th century, from the collection of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. The museum's collection includes a wonderful selection of US Colonial furniture (as expected) and also some very fine pieces made in Latin America from the same period. South American walnut, canary wood, and cedrela with black olive and glassywood marquetry. Read more about the museum's collections in the Joel's blog on the website.

If you're looking for a high res photo of a hand tool to become your next screensaver; you're a photo nerd who loves single time lapse shots that show action; or you just love the Gramercy Tools Drafting Rule, check out Joel's latest blog - the first in what he hopes is a series of high res photos of classic tools with a few new tools in the mix.

A visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston - an incredible collection of priceless art in a setting designed to resemble an Italian palazzo. But are artists and viewers shortchanged by the experience? Read more in Joel's blog on our website.

Congratulations to our friend on his new book, Chip Carving: Techniques for Carving Beautiful Patterns by Hand. If you can't get Daniel in person to teach you, as he did at TFWW before Covid, his book (which has a foreward by )is the next best thing. The photo includes a chip carving made in his class along with a Ron Hock chip carving knife.

Detail of the truss display at North Bennet Street School, part of the Handhouse Studio “Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project” based at Catholic University. Graduates of North Bennet’s Preservation Carpentry program joined the project, which uses only medieval carpentry techniques to recreate a full-scale truss of the fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral. The photo comes from a recent tour of North Bennet. For more tour highlights, check out Joel’s blog on our website.

The "Avant -Guarde Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s" show at the Poster House Museum showcases not only the extraordinarily striking images, which continue to exert a huge influence on contemporary art and advertising, but also the production and installation work that supports the show. We were delighted to see the fabrication (by Ola Baldych, John Lynch and Rob Leonardi) listed along with the curation.

Tools for Working Wood updated their info in the about section.

Tools for Working Wood updated their info in the about section.

The large size of Gramercy Tools Spoon Bits are back in stock!

Two smooth planes from Randle Holme's "Academy of Armory" (1688) The first one is as a smooth plane. The second one is referred to as a smooth plane of a different style - one with a "straight flat sole". Implying of course that the first one is both more common, and doesn't have a flat sole. For more details see Joel's blog on "17th Century Smooth Plane Design"
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These are various prototypes on how we arrived at our spoon maker's drawknife. After some basic discussions on what we thought are the features we wanted we 3D printed several models. Then we gave them to people to look at and have a sense of how they worked. They sort of could cut basswood but not much else. The first attempt on the left top the center of rotation was wrong. And it was hard to handle. The second version was right . Easy, nimble, and narrow for a lot of action. Then we had to make one for real. We thought that waterjet cutting would save us some money. First the waterjet guy read the drawings wrong and got the scale wrong. It was nice but big . Sort of what you hang out on a store if you sold draw knives for spoon makers in the 18th-century . The second waterjet model was the right size but the material was wrong , he just wanted to make sure he got the size right. Then we decided to do everything in house . The first prototypes were just mild steel to see if the tooling worked and we glued the steel to a piece of aluminum. The next prototype was actually out of 01, and we hardened it and did everything else correctly. That led to a small fixture which we could do production work, just not a lot of it. This gave us finished drawknives which we are currently selling . We're currently manufacturing a larger fixture so we can increase production. Everything is being done in-house.

This is our new Gramercy Tools Spoonmaker’s Drawknife. It’s based on a drawknife found in thousand-year-old Saxon tomb, but we tweaked it to make it great for small work. It’s nimble and narrow, and the handles won’t get in the way.

Walter is a third generation seltzer guy. His seltzer is delivered in magnificent glass bottles some of which have been in continuous use for over a century. I got my regular delivery today. (And yes, the seltzer itself is special too.)

They're back!

Our workshop has reopened and that means we're back to making tools! The Gramercy Tools bowsaw seen here is now back in stock. This turning saw has very narrow blades so you can cut a really tight radius. Best for curves, pricing and other intricate work. The saw is also available as a kit.

Back in stock, baby. 'reback

Over 50 years ago William Goodman wrote a comprehensive guide to British planemakers that was updated over the years by Jane Rees and her late husband Mark Rees. The latest (4th) edition of this bible, now known as "Goodman's British Planemakers," is just out. The book includes entries for over 2,400 makes (up from 1,325 in the last edition) and includes the fruits of extensive research about the family connections of many planemakers. Sharing the spotlight: thumb and chariot planes by Norris & Son (pp 483 -484). tools tools

This late 18th century English traveling drafting kit is ready and waiting for when we can hit the road again. The rules are hand scribed ivory. The metal work is all by hand using forge and file. The case is actually made of paper with a shagreen (sharkskin or ray) covering.

We found this old brochure advertising classes on using power tools that were offered by DeWalt. The brochure seems to date from the late fifties or early sixties before zip codes and when phone numbers had exchange names buried in them. It's also might be interesting to New Yorkers that back then a power tool company could afford mid-Manhattan rents. And there were also enough people building things in nyc at the time to fill classes. This of course is long before manufacturing moved to Asia and tool companies were more than just a brand. And "DeWalt" was spelled in two words with a space "De Walt". tool

If at first you don't succeed... In the foreground a c. 1880's Norris, probably, experimental smooth plane. The plane has a weird lever that straddles the blade so that you have a much simpler body casting. This might have been an attempt to produce a lower-cost , cast smooth plane to compete with American Stanley imports. As far as I know only half-dozen or less survive. It is missing one adjustment screw with a totally random hand chased thread and so far I have not been able to duplicate it. As a result I haven't actually tried to use this plane. Which is a shame , because I'm really curious. In the back, a more common c. 1920's A6 Norris smooth plane with a rosewood infill which works wonderfully.

Timeline photos

If you're stuck at home looking for something new to read, may we suggest something old instead - like 1889 old? Under the "Knowledge" tab of our website you'll find years of reprinted issues of Work: The Weekly Journal for Mechanics, the most comprehensive DIY journal ever published. tools #1889

With the approach of spring and the lockdown preventing access to the workshop, migrating shoulder planes can be glimpsed returning to the toolbox. tools

Staying at home = breaking out the old vinyl like the Stones' Sticky Fingers (yes, that's the original album with the zipper).

"Forging table knives" from the book " Handicrafts That Survive". 1902. ,

Fresh rye bread, right out of oven, and about two hours later.

Fresh rye bread, right out of oven, and about two hours later.

Today is the 21st anniversary of the founding of Tools for Working Wood. We are now of legal age! The bakeries are closed so it's hard to get a cake. But we do have a lot of whiskey. Thank you to our customers, our suppliers and staff past and present for helping us reach this milestone. We wish good health and peace of mind in these challenging times. #21

No 72 (22" jointer) and No. 70 (8" smoother) planes by Thomas Norris & Sons, the great English infill plane maker. These planes date from the 1930s -- and the era was not irrelevant to the planes' design not the company's fate. Read more about it in "Norris and the Great Depression" on Joel's blog tomorrow. (Check out the "Knowledge" tab on our website.)

Issue 8 is here! tools

"Topping cast-steel ingots" from the book "Handicrafts That Survive" 1902 England. What's happening in the picture is that when you pour a cast steel ingot the very tip of it might be defective just because it's at the top of the mold. So it gets knocked off.

"Topping cast-steel ingots" from the book "Handicrafts That Survive" 1902 England. What's happening in the picture is that when you pour a cast steel ingot the very tip of it might be defective just because it's at the top of the mold. So it gets knocked off.

Two pairs of proportional providers. The small pair is pretty typical of what you see in drafting sets and what people typically use. The larger pair is very unusual as it has micro adjusting on both where the ratio is set and by moving the micro adjustment bar, you can precisely set the width of the pins. These are handy gadgets for when you have to scale up or scale down a map, drawing, a drafting detail, or a carving feature. The way you use it is you set the pivot in the center to whatever ratio you want . And then by adjusting one set of pins at one end the other set becomes the scaled dimension to mark your work.