Category: Anarchist’s Gift Guide

I use flush-cut saws every day. We have a big Ryoba that I’ve removed the set from to handle big jobs. Plus a variety of middle-weight saws for flushing up wedged tenons and other joinery work. But I’ve never been happy using the bigger saws on curved work, such as a chair seat. The blades aren’t flexible enough, so they tend to gnaw into the surrounding wood.

I once tried a bunch of really high-end flush-cut saws from Japan. Those were too expensive and too handmade for my Foghorn Leghorn hands. 

A few years ago I got this little Gyokucho Razorsaw No. 1150 from Lee Valley and have been quite pleased with it. The blade is only 4-1/4” long and is only 0.011” thick. That makes it flexible enough to lay flat on curved surface without much pressure. 

Like all the Razorsaws, the quality is fantastic. The teeth are keen and well set. And the tool has an exquisite balance for such an inexpensive item (about $20 to $22).

The only downside is it’s a throwaway tool. The teeth are too tiny to resharpen (for me, anyway). And the blade is not replaceable. It is riveted to the beech handle. So when the tool becomes too dull or kinked, I’ll see if I can make the blade into a fine marking knife.

The saw is available from a variety of suppliers. I like to support family businesses, so I buy mine from Lee Valley Tools.

— Christopher Schwarz

There are many pretenders to the Starrett C 604 RE. Accept no substitutes.

This 6” rule approaches perfection. I will stop everything I am doing in the shop until I can locate it. I bought my first one in 1996 at Aufdekamp’s Hardware in the then-scary Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati. It was about $20, which was a significant sum for me. But the experienced woodworkers with me that day insisted I wouldn’t regret the purchase.

And I haven’t. 

What’s so dang perfect about this ruler? For me, it is the graduations etched into the steel and soft chrome background behind them. The soft chrome makes the rule easy to read and won’t reflect light like a mirror. If you buy a vintage rule, avoid the shiny chrome that Starrett used to use. It can be hard to read.

Many other rulers have graduations that are of too-similar lengths – the 16ths, 8ths and 4ths are too close in length, which makes the rule difficult to read. Starrett perfected the graduations, and I can take a measurement with one glance instead of four or five.

The graduations are finely milled into the steel and are filled with a durable black. Many other rules have graduations that are far too wide. And I am not talking about machinist precision here – many graduations on cheap rules are wide enough to interfere with handwork.

Finally, the little scale on the end is a nice feature. Very handy for measuring tenon shoulders, the depths of dados, etc.

It’s not perfect, however. If I could change one thing about the rule, it would be to remove the 64ths. I could probably work fine without the 32nds as well. When I need to get into 64ths and the like, I’m going to use a different tool.

But I cut the rule some slack on this point because it was made for machinists.

— Christopher Schwarz

As always, I begin this annual gift guide with: The Listing of the Caveats. 

1. In general, “gift guides” are marketing trash that try to trick your family members into buying a set of Silicone Domino Flashy Budgies with Bubble Level. 

2. When a celebrity woodworker promotes a gift guide, it is usually just a list of trash given to them by a sponsor – usually a woodworking store. Sometimes the celebrity gets a kickback from each sale. It’s not illegal, but it’s slimy.

3. This gift guide is simple. It’s a list of tools I’ve bought during the last couple years that I’ve tested and really like. I paid full retail for these doo-dads. I am not an affiliate with any of these manufacturers (or any manufacturers at all). Also, I try to keep the price of the items in this gift guide low because it might be your kids who are buying this stuff for you.

If you don’t like this gift guide, please start a better one so I can take the Christmas season off for once.

Star-M F-type Bits

From the Japanese makers of the wonderful WoodOwl bits come these incredible little buggers. I was first alerted to these bits by Kyle Barton almost two years ago.

Their claim to fame is that they won’t splinter out the exit hole. You can drill straight through a board without a backing board. Also, the bits in general cut cleanly, aggressively and have a long center point (which allows you to angle the bit quite a bit).

While I’m sure they are sold elsewhere, I buy mine from Workshop Heaven in the U.K., which keeps a regular stock of them and ships them fairly reasonably. They are metric, but they are sold in such small increments that a U.S. workshop won’t notice. 

The bits feature a hex shank, which allows them to fit in bit extenders and tools with a hex chuck. I definitely prefer the hex shank whenever possible; it prevents the bit from slipping in the chuck.

I bought an entire set as they aren’t terribly expensive – basically as much as a good Forstner bit. I use them extensively for chairmaking because they work really well at odd angles and I don’t need backing boards behind my work.

If you make staked furniture, you’ll probably want to try the 16mm bit, which is close to 5/8”. I’ve beat the heck out of this particular bit and can report that it is still dang sharp after almost two years of use and maybe 30 chairs. 

There’s got to be a downside, yes? Yes. Sometimes the bits seize up as they cut the exit hole and activate the clutch on your cordless drill. Turn the clutch off when you use these bits (or better yet, use a corded drill without a clutch). But that’s the only criticism I’ve got. 

Star-M does it again. 

— Christopher Schwarz

If you want to read some of the older gift guides, the 2013-2018 entries are here at Popular Woodworking. The guides from 2019 to the present are here.