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1 week ago | neversponsored.substack.com | Megan Fitzpatrick

A few weeks ago Chris and I wrote about “my” new bench, the Benchcrafted Split-top Roubo. There are two things I’d add to that earlier post:I have once or twice removed the insert down the middle (the gap stop) so that I could sleeve a small box over half the benchtop to plane it; that’s been handy. Chris mentioned that the top moved a little and that to get the gap stop back in, we had to plane it.

1 week ago | neversponsored.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

The first time I ever heard about Wood Owl bits was in 2013. We were getting ready for the first French Oak Roubo Project down in Georgia, and I was worried about how we were going to make the deep mortises in the thick French oak. Jameel Abraham, one of the organizers, told me this: “Buy some Wood Owl bits.”“What diameter? Length?” I asked. “Doesn’t matter,” Jameel said. “Just get some.”I bought a bunch (they were difficult to find then, and they were expensive).

2 weeks ago | neversponsored.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

I do not want to review honing guides. Why? Because I would run out of ways to say horrible things about them. Most are too complicated. Or expensive for what you get. Or over-engineered. Or just plain idiocy made aluminum. When Veritas released its long-awaited side-clamp honing guide, I simply looked away. At the time we weren’t reviewing any tools (except for the Anarchist’s Gift Guide). Also, several of our students mentioned problems they’d had with the Veritas guide.

3 weeks ago | neversponsored.substack.com | Megan Fitzpatrick

If you’re price sensitive and not averse to some initial work to make this tool perform well, the Melbourne Tool large router plane is a decent choice. At $179, which includes the fence (that you will almost certainly never use1), it’s $57 less than the $236 of the Veritas large router plane (with the optional and unnecessary fence) and $71 less than the Lie-Nielsen (fence included, non-optional).

1 month ago | neversponsored.substack.com | Megan Fitzpatrick

A couple thousand days ago (early 2018), I spent a week applying a perfect-to-me Real Milk Paint finish on my LAP “Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” It was a lovely and laborious combination of several coats of Peacock topped with another couple of coats of Dragonfly. I loved the flat, almost chalky look of the casein-based paint. The last coat was dry a few days before an open house in our shop, and I was looking forward to showing off my work to a bunch of people.