The Renaissance Woodworker

No one likes sanding, but I am the president of the non sanding fan club. That is probably what drove me into hand tools more than anything else. But as most will tell you (even the purists) at some point the paper must meet the wood. I usually avoid anything coarser than 220 and let [...]

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Time to get to work on the undercarriage of this bench. Not much new here, more jointing and planing, face glueing, and more jointing. I solve a glue up problem in my legs, and lay out the tenons all in one swipe of the plane. Well maybe more than one swipe. Make sure to check [...]

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Anybody who has watched my latest podcast, episode 30, will see that I have already used my Roubo bench even though it is not done yet. After scraping the glue and some light planing to flatten the bottom in preparation for the joinery, I moved the flattened 19″ wide slab onto some saw horses in [...]

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This will be the first of who knows how many episodes detailing the build of my new Roubo workbench. Today I detail my ideas for the design, and walk you through the initial milling of several hundred pounds of ash. Lessons Learned: Good infeed and outfeed support is essential when jointing/planing long boards Handplanes make [...]

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In the Bally’s Total Woodworking Club meat market I can strut proudly when I show off my Roubo workbench and testify to it’s pumpitude by showing off the empty bottle of Ibuprofen for my sore muscles! In an earlier post where I talked about wood movement, I had started laminating the bench top into 6 [...]

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This week I set aside my other projects and spend a day tuning up my jointer. Like many of you, I do not enjoy machine maintenance but realize it is a necessary evil of woodworking power tools. Once you have the tool tuned and running properly though you wonder how you ever worked with it [...]

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Woodworkers the world over sit down in front of their TVs on weekend mornings and drool over the size and well equipped nature of Norm Abrams New Yankee Workshop. We wonder what great things we could build with so much space and all those tools. Then we come back to reality and realize that it [...]

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After many emails requesting a look at my new sharpening station with a discussion of the design and function, I finally got my butt in gear and finished the bottom cabinet doors. Now that it is done and loaded up with my sharpening gear goodness, I can’t believe I waited so long to build this. [...]

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Welcome back to The Renaissance Woodworker Podcast episode #4. This week fresh from a major power outage I started thinking about the elements of a hand tool shop and how it differs from a power tool shop. Subtle but major differences all at the same time. I also talk about the latest Pop Wood magazine [...]

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This weekend was all about wrapping up some shop chores. I have several projects for the shop that need to get done before I embark on the Roubo bench project. First and foremost is a dedicate sharpening station. Right now my Tormek, stones, files, etc are kept in a wall cabinet. I have to lug [...]

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