Category: Personal Favorites

Usually, I don’t pay much mind to the “value packs” at ShopWoodworking.com. (I mean sheesh, who would buy TWO value packs of articles from Cris Swartz?)

But this month’s value pack is great for people who want a full spectrum of information on sharpening.

Here’s the link. Note that I do not get any kickback if you purchase it. The only reason my initials are on the link are so they know where it came from.

The reason I like the products in this grouping is that you don’t get only one perspective on sharpening (there are thousands of perspectives). You’ll get the full range, from the freehand sharpeners to the die-hard jiggers. And you get a side-clamp honing guide as part of the deal – the most versatile sharpening guide available today.

So if you can sharpen, ignore this. Go about your business shaving the hair from your arm. But if you are still, struggling, check it out.

— Christopher Schwarz

Steve Ramsey of the “Woodworking for Mere Mortals” web site asked me to contribute an entry to his “inspiration project,” where woodworkers try to describe things that inspire.

I am no good at these things. When people ask me what inspires me, I stutter, spit and make no sense whatsoever.

Thanks to Jeff Burks and Peter Follansbee, I came up with a better answer to the question.

Jeff Burks pointed out the incredible “Art of Asking Questions” essays from the late 19th century. I have read them about 10 times now.

Peter Follansbee took me to the newly discovered joiner’s shop in Duxbury, Mass., which left me speechless, asking questions.

Together they are a document of what keeps me in the shop, in the library, at my keyboard.

Thanks to Steve Ramsey for asking me to participate.

— Christopher Schwarz

Midwest Woodworking – my favorite source for lumber – is selling off its stock of more than 300,000 board feet of premium hardwoods and softwoods. Wide mahogany. Clear sugar pine. Teak. Chestnut. Red gum. A near-endless cache of veneer.

Most of this lumber is more than 30 years old and has been stored flat in the Midwest warehouse. It is – without exception – the most stable stuff you will ever work.

And the prices are well below what you will pay elsewhere (if you could even find wood of this quality). The price list can be found here on Andy Brownell’s blog.

The sale is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Aug. 16-17 at Midwest Woodworking, 4019 Montgomery Road in Cincinnati. Here’s a Google map.

I will be emptying my savings account for this sale. I am not a wood hoarder – never have been – but once this stuff is gone, it is gone for good.

If you haven’t heard of Midwest, you can read all about it in the following posts. If these stories don’t inflame your wood/equipment/shop lust, you are probably ready for a hobby in miniature golf.

Wood Sale Invitation from Midwest Woodworking

The Midwest Woodworking Mega-Sale of the Century Aug 16-17

The Mahogany that Finishes the Book

For the Love of ‘Rippers’

Farewell, Fair Wood

Bring a truck and your checkbook (or a wad of cash). Midwest doesn’t take credit/debit cards.

— Christopher Schwarz

I am a nosy teacher. During classes, I always like to poke through my students’ tool collections (with their blessing, of course) to see how they have modified their tools.

This weekend, I stumbled on a honey of a bird-cage awl.

One of the students in a class at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking was an accomplished turner who was new to the world of “flat work.” He had some nice tool handles.

By far the best was the handle he turned for a bird-cage awl kit he’d bought from Czeck Edge. (The kit is $20 and is available here.) He’d turned the handle from she-oak, an Australian timber, and used what he termed “an English profile.”

The awl was perfect. The little peak near the ferrule allowed you to use your fingers to push the tool into the work instead of your palm.

If you are considering making one of these tools for yourself, I highly recommend the above handle pattern.

— Christopher Schwarz

Megan Fitzpatrick, the editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine, has started a personal blog that documents her work and contains copious references to cats and their fecal matter.

Called Rude Mechanicals Press, its opening salvo of entries are about her attempts to sell her current house in order to purchase a house with a suitable workshop.

Personal note: I offered to help her convert her current dining room to a hand-tool shop. She demurred.

So if you like proper English and all that good grammar stuff – plus woodworking and cats – definitely bookmark her site. I have.

— Christopher Schwarz