While cleaning out the shop a couple weeks ago we stumbled on a plastic-wrapped parcel of tools that were owned by the maintenance men from our old building. When they were "released on their own recognizance" by management, they gave us their old tools, including a lot of good Snap-On stuff and the gizmos wrapped in plastic that I fished from our rolling tool cabinet.

They were spring-loaded nailsets and centerpunches, like the ones made by Spring Tools. They look like a metal earthworm with an industrial Slinky for a body. These things are used to set nails. You place the tip of the tool on your nail's head, pull the spring back and let go. A small anvil in the spring strikes the head of the tool and drives the nail flush.

Senior Editor Robert W. Lang joked that using those tools was akin to showing up on a jobsite in a sundress.

Because I don't much care for televised sports, strip clubs or shooting animals, my manhood is already in trouble. Some might call me the Liberace of the Ozarks. So I quietly put the tools in my box. Until today.

I was setting a bunch of cut nails on a box I'm building and unwrapped the plastic parcel. I took out one of the spring-loaded tools and gave it a try. Well holy Laura Ashley, the tool leaped off the nail and put a huge divot in the wood (luckily it's on the bottom).

So I took a file out and shaped the steel head of the tool until it was flat and rectangular, like the heads of my cut nails. Then the tool worked much better. I'm not yet sure, however, if it's faster than the old hammer-powered method.

Perhaps it's like learning to walk in heels. Not that I know anything about that.

— Christopher Schwarz

John is back at the chair project.

Guess how I did this?  Hint: It wasn’t a hand tool. 

If the word “Stunod” was anywhere in your thoughts you win!  Yup, I was trying to cut time making the arms for my two chairs.  I wanted to clean up the rough surface left from the band saw.  I was smoothing the parts with a file and spoke shave which left an ok surface but was taking forever.  Also there was some difference between the left and right arm so I thought to myself, “try the router, yeah, that’s the thing”.  

I smoothed the patterns perfectly which were made from ½ inch ply.  I screwed them to the stuff and set about routing.  I was doing fine until I hit the damn end grain.  It’s always the end grain...  Anyway the stuff shot back hitting me in the labonza, causing me to verbally acknowledge my error.  It then continued its' trajectory hitting the wall at reduced speed. 

Well, I was back at it with hand tools when I had another idea!  I put down the file and rasp and grabbed my floats!  Yep, in front of me on the tool rack are four Lie-Neilsen floats.  They leave a great surface and can hog off material depending on the amount of downward pressure you use.  It is a great tool and easy to get the hang of.  I actually started to get fast at this task. 

Anyway, it was a router with a pattern cutting bit.  And yes, I had to remake the entire piece.

- John

Like every woodworker, I have a short list of tools that I wish were still widely available today. Most of these are tools that have wound up in my shop and proved themselves useful.

About five years ago I got a cool mallet that was common in England but not so much here. It has a heavy brass head, wooden striking faces and a nice chamfered handle.

The whole thing weighs more than 3 pounds – my wife weighed herself with it on our digital scale. Then she weighed herself without the mallet. (That is what passes for both love and entertainment in the early 40s.)

This is not a tool you want to wield all day. In fact, mortising with it wears out my forearm after only a couple mortises.

However, it is great for assembly tasks. It knocks dovetails together with ease. I use it for driving drawbore pins – both through a dowel plate and into the holes. I use it for knocking together mortise-and-tenon joints. If you want to see it in action, check out this video on YouTube. Anytime I need force with finesse I reach for this tool.

Well, I used to.

About a year ago, the wooden striking faces dropped out of the brass head like two rotted teeth. They had shrunk out just enough – friction was the glue. I set the mallet aside on my bookshelves until a month ago. I decided to try to fix the thing.

I considered fabricating new wooden faces, but their shape is complex. So I decided to first try to get the pyramid-shaped faces back in their holes. The staff at the magazine suggested removing a little wood from the back of the faces and driving the faces back into the brass. The hope was that this would compress the wood, and friction would do its job again (lazy friction).

I tried it. It didn’t work. Another suggestion was to drill through the brass head and pin the faces with a metal rivet. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that kind of implant surgery.

So today I took a different tack: high-impact epoxy. I glued and clamped the faces in place this morning, and now I’m just waiting for the clock to make it around the horn again so I can take the thing for a test beat.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I know that Australian toolmaker Chris Vesper has this tool on his drawing board. If you’re interested, you should drop him a line through his web site. To see a photo of his prototype mallets scroll to the bottom of this page.