Logan Cabinet Shoppe

Welcome to the Hand Tools & Techniques video podcast archive. Hand Tools & Techniques is a podcast dedicated to the hand tools we love and using those tools to build furniture.

Below you will find a chronological archive of the podcasts. Just click on the title of the podcast you are interested in viewing to be taken to the page for that podcast.

If you have any questions or comments about the podcast, please don't hesitate to email me or use the contact form and let me know. If you have suggestions for topics that you'd like to see featured in a future podcast episode, let me know that as well.

Thanks for your support!

Welcome to the Hand Tools & Techniques video podcast. In this first episode, I introduce myself and talk a little about what you can expect in future episodes of the podcast.

For new woodworkers looking to start a hand tool shop or experienced power tool users looking to incorporate more hand work into their projects, selecting tools can be a daunting task. So in Episode # 2, I discuss my recommendations for a basic set of hand tools that no shop should be without. My list of recommended tools is by no means all inclusive, but it should be sufficient to give you a good start. You can add tools and skills in the future as your projects dictate and you discover your own favorite techniques and methods.

Whenever hand tools are discussed, handsaws, planes and chisels take center stage. However, without the layout tools, none of these tools would be able to do their jobs accurately. Still the layout tools just don't get the attention they deserve so I'm dedicating Episode # 3 just to them. I touch on what to look for when you're shopping for them, how to check them for accuracy and how to use them properly.

The hand saws are the workhorses of the hand tool shop. They're used for just about every operation on just about every part of a project. So it's important to be able to saw accurately in order to be effecient. In this episode, I share three tips I've learned for making consistently more accurate saw cuts.

It's no secret that to do fine work we need sharp tools. So the next few episodes are going to be a series on sharpening all of the different tools commonly found in the hand tool shop. I have three requirements for a good sharpening system. It needs to be simple; It needs to be fast; It needs to be repeatable. While my chosen method of sharpening isn't for everyone, it works for me and meets these three requirements perfectly. In this first episode of the sharpening series, I cover the straight edged tools like the square and skewed chisels and plane irons.

In this episode I talk about sharpening edge tools with curved edges, like molding planes, bench gouges, carving tools and cambered plane irons. If you're used to using a honing guide you may find honing these tools a little more challenging as most can't be honed using any kind of guide. You can hone cambered bench plane irons in several of the available honing guides, however, molding planes and gouges are best done freehand. In this episode I discuss the way I do it.

In this episode I attempt to take some of the mystique out of sharpening your own hand saws. I don't completely understand all of the hesitation that a lot of folks have learning to sharpen their own saws. Really, it's no more difficult than learning to sharpen a plane iron or a chisel. All it takes is a small investment in some simple tools and a few minutes of practice. Hopefully, this episode will convince more folks to go ahead and try it.

OK, I promise, this is the last episode on sharpening. There are just a few different tools left that really weren't covered by the other episodes so I wanted to touch on them before I move on. I'm going to be using several of these tools in an upcoming project series starting this fall, so I wanted to make sure I cover sharpening them for anyone who wants to follow along with the project. But this is the last one, honest, I'm moving on. :)

With tools in hand and the skills to sharpen them, we're just about ready to start building some furniture. There's just a few things left. First, we need a place to work, which means a workbench. Then, we need a way to keep our tools organized. So in this episode, I give a formal tour of my shop and talk about how I addressed these issues in my little space.

In the power tool world they're called jigs. In the hand tool world, we call them appliances. Whatevery you call them, they are indispensible accessories that you will use in your shop on an almost daily basis. From bench hooks to shooting boards and winding sticks to pinch rods, you can build them all with nothing more than a few offcuts and a little creativity.