The jointer plane (also commonly called the try or trying plane) is a woodworking tool designed for planing long edges square, straight and true. “Jointing” is the term used to describe this process, as it is generally done to prepare a board to be joined to another board, so that a single, wider board is created.
As the aim of the jointer is to create, long, flat edges, so the sole of the jointer plane is flat and long
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The backboards on the White Water Shaker cupboard, the cover project on the first-ever Popular Woodworking Magazine (April 2010), gave us all a charge. Why would the maker of the original cupboard construct the back in this manner (see the layout below)? Were the pieces leftover from something or somewhere else? I’m afraid no one will ever know. But if you’re up to the challenge, or just a woodworker that begs to work to the exact dimensions and designs as the original, here’s the scoop on the cupboard’s back.
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In these times of pre-prepared timber and power thicknessers/planers, the scrub plane is one of the woodworking tools that you don’t see as often as other planes. Scrub planes do still come in handy in a number of situations such as (in my case) when you don’t have a thicknesser, or your board is too wide to fit through your thicknesser, or if you want to quickly bring a piece of timber down to the correct width, but without rip-sawing it.
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A woodworking hobby can benefit not only yourself but many others around you as well. Take the example of Brian Peppel, husband of freelance writer Sarah Peppel, who used a beginning in easy woodworking as a springboard to more advanced projects which he shares with family and others. Like Brian Peppel, you can use your woodworking skills to create gifts by duplicating existing projects, creating wooden toys for children in need, and making unique gifts for family members that have special meaning.
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One of my favorite books growing up was “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” written by Thomas Hughes in 1857 it is a fictional account of a boy going to Rugby, a boarding school in England, in the 1830’s. It’s a great entertaining read and has been in print since publication. I mention it primarily because it takes place when Thomas Arnold was the headmaster at the school and introduced a revolution in teaching that we feel today. Before Arnold elite schools taught mostly reading, Latin, rhetoric, and other lofty subjects of practical use to nobody. An academic education was a finishing cultural touch and had little to do with a profession or anything practical except the clergy.
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Do you think you will ever have enough wood? I intend to have way too much wood left over when I stop working. There are several sources for wood and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Right now let’s talk about wood for turning bowls.
The first place you might try is Dave and Sandy’s house and get some of what is left of that cherry tree they cut down last week. They are two of my church friends and they took down a large cherry tree next to their driveway. I went by with my chainsaw and chopped out some wet pieces of beautiful native cherry and lugged it home.
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Woodworker’s Guide to Bending Wood Book
Step-by-step photo sequences thoroughly illustrate four basic wood bending methods in this guide. There are also seven step-by-step projects presented, including shaker boxes, a bow for an arrow, a rustic chair, the sides of a guitar, and bent panels used for tables and pedestals.
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“A craftsman is one who understands his tools and uses them with skill and honesty. It does not matter whether his tool is a chisel or a planing machine, it is the work that he does with it that counts and you today can be as good a workman in the carpenter’s craft as any who ever lived if you will learn to know your tools and to use them well.”
— Thomas E. Hibben
When it comes to learning woodworking, sometimes it’s nice to treat yourself like a child.
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All woodworkers know if necessity is the mother of invention, then laziness is the grandfather and stupid is the father. (I think I’ll try to get that added to Bartlett’s Quotations.) All jigs, templates, shortcuts, power tools, dumb moves and safety practices are heirs of this illustrious family.
I must admit that grandfather laziness is high in my gene list, but father stupid works quicker for me than the other two.
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ritten by Michael Vass
In America one of the biggest concerns that few are speaking about is the loss of creativity in our students. Cutbacks in school funding across the nation has caused the end of band, art and shop programs. Add to this failure to stimulate the minds and hands of our youth the invasive predominance to play video games over other social or creative activities and the future innovators in America look scares and bleak.
Of course this is hardly an event that is isolated to America alone. Across Europe and in England similar combinations of obsessive game play and re-orienting of curricular schedules is becoming the norm, though in far lesser degrees. But unlike in America some educators and creative competitions are not giving up the ghost yet.
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