Category: Anarchist’s Gift Guide

Yes, another brush. This one wasn’t on my list initially. When Mattias Hallin visited our shop this year, he brought some lovely small gifts. One of them was this incredible brush from REMOS.

The natural bristles are remarkably stiff and stout. Mattias explained that he uses this brush to clear his rasps of debris. 

For years I’ve used a file card to clean my rasps. One side had stiff-ish natural bristles. The other side had stiff steel bristles. Mostly I used the side with the natural bristles. But it could never get all the sawdust out of the teeth. And eventually I would use (with a wince) the metal-bristled side to finish the cleaning job.

I don’t know if the metal bristles hurt the steel teeth of my rasps. But I didn’t want to find out.

The REMOS brush is incredible. It quickly cleans out the crevices under the rasp’s teeth without complaint. It is about 100-percent better than my old file card.

Thanks Mattias. This tool is a winner.

— Christopher Schwarz

To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.

One of the many fantastic tips I learned from “The Belligerent Finisher” was using common household materials to burnish wooden surfaces. Burnishing compacts the wood and can add a gorgeous texture.

Author John Porritt has several simple tools he uses for this. The coolest one is a chainmail pot scrubber, which is great fun to use. You can find these at any good household/kitchen store. I experimented with several different kinds. Some had bigger rings. Some had very fine rings. I preferred the smallest rings. The fine one I like looks like the one shown here. I bought mine at a local restaurant supply store. Look around, and I’m sure you’ll find one. 

I’ve been using the pot scrubber on my chairs before applying soft wax. I use it mostly on protruding tenons and on the chair’s hands. The burnishing rounds over any hard edges, making them kind to the user’s hands.

The pot scrubber is quite similar to using a polissoir, except that it excels at working on curved and shaped surfaces. The polissoir, on the other hand, is great for large flat surfaces and is tricky to use on edges.

As always, the world of finishing is endlessly surprising. 

— Christopher Schwarz

To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.

This entry is the sister to yesterday’s entry on our fancy plant mister. We found these vintage glass apothecary bottles and immediately bought some for shop liquids. We keep our backup supply of 50/50 water/alcohol potion in it.

The bottles are 7” tall and hold 250ml. The best part is that the bottle’s opening and its stopper are ground glass. So opening and closing the lid is a sensory pleasure (look, I know I’m weird).

The bottles are a dark brown glass. Ours came with an old pharmacy label on it that was covered in handwriting. Our bottle held Akutol, a first aid spray.

These bottles are gorgeous things that you don’t see much anymore.

OK, enough whimsy.

— Christopher Schwarz

To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.

Again, you likely know that we don’t like plastic. You might not give a crap. So if you have no problem with all the plastic bottles and stuff in your life, skip this entry. It is not for you.

One of our favorite shop liquids is a 50/50 mix of tap water and ethanol. Not for drinking (we’d get nothing done). But for softening end grain to make the wood it easier to chisel or plane. The potion recipe comes from woodworker Frank Strazza, and we can confirm that it is awesome.

But how to apply it to the work? In the Before Times, we had some in a jar and ragged it on. But that was wasteful. Eventually we found this classy spray bottle with brass guts and a glass exterior. The place we bought it from no longer carries it, but similar “plant misters” litter the internet. A Google search will turn up a dozen choices.

The plant mister works great. We don’t lose any on a rag. And we can easily see when we need to mix up some more. 

And yes, a plastic spray bottle will work just as well. But you likely will be ejected from the Fancy Lads & Lasses Academy for it.

— Christopher Schwarz

To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.

A bench brush is essential gear for getting chips and shavings into the compost bin or garbage bag. But if you saddle chair seats or do a lot of traversing with a jack plane, you might have noticed that most bench brushes do a crap job in brushing off your work. 

I don’t know exactly why the problem occurs, but the fine brush hair doesn’t seem to have the oomph to move heavy and hairy chips.

The solution is simple, inexpensive and delightful: a corn whisk broom. These small handheld bundles of broom corn are stiff enough to move huge quantities of heavy chips off the bench. 

I received a fancy, multicolor one made by students at Berea College as a gift. It definitely doesn’t disappear into the field of brown chips and shavings on my bench. And the handle is beautifully wrapped.

That fanciness comes at a price. If you don’t want to spend $45 on a broom, then you can find simpler ones that are handmade and equally effective. The best place to look (if you don’t have a local broom merchant) is etsy.

This link will take you a huge selection of these brooms at a variety of price points. And the colors!

Y’all know that I keep the shop tidy. These stiff brushes make it a little more enjoyable.

— Christopher Schwarz

To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.