What Tools Do I Need? part 5 Sharpening

The last Item on our list a sharpening system, should perhaps feature right at the top, as this is arguably the most important part of your tool kit. It ensures all your edge tools are in working condition, no matter what quality. Unfortunately most people setting out in the field of woodworking give it scant attention in their eagerness to get started. This is unfortunate, as it generally results in frustration. Throwing the tool down in disgust, they blame either the quality of the wood, the tool or their own lack of skill; in truth it is just a lack of understanding two things. Firstly the right understanding of sharpness and secondly how one may achieve it. A perfect cutting edge, is the meeting point of two converging angles prepared in such a way that all imperfections are removed; a mirror surface. This is achieved by grinding and honing with progressively finer sharpening stones.

Regrettably this rarely happens on the novice’s bench, many are content to use some old misshapen piece of rock from granddads shed or the ubiquitous oilstones of indeterminable grade; at best there may be fine or course marked on them. Stones that are deformed or even slightly hollowed are useless for our purposes and will quickly ruin any tool by rounding the back of it. For a chisel this is the part of the tool that bears on the timber as a guide, this helps control the cut, so needs to be perfectly flat; On a plane blade, this is the area that determines the angle of cut and very importantly mates with the chip-breaker. Even the slightest gap here will result in shavings being trapped; this will entirely choke the plane even after one or two passes. For these and a host of finer points blades need to be perfectly flat; flattening the blade of an edge tool is actually the first job you will need to do after you take it out of the box. Because even the best quality tools will need a little tuning before use, no matter what it says on the wrapper.

They may feel sharp and may even give you a nasty nick, but they will not be the surgical sharpness we are looking for; an edge that will leave the cut wood polished and ready to take a finish. If you were to place a new blade, or one that had been sharpened on a carborundum stone, under a magnifying glass, you would see thousands of small scratches. Then if you further magnified the edge you would then see that these scratches now looked like a ploughed field and created deep furrows at the tip of the blade. Try pushing a saw sideways over a piece of wood, not only does this require considerable effort, but the result is hideous. Now, this is exactly what happens, only in smaller scale, when using a badly sharpened blade.

I could list all the pro’s and con’s of the different stones available, but this is adequately done elsewhere and is here I believe redundant. Because you are only looking for information that applies to your situation and helps you get started quickly and easily; you do not need stones that constantly need flattening or dressing. Diamond or ceramic stones are without doubt the best choice and I shall be looking at different types in my next post.

What happened to August?

August is generally the quietest month in France, that is if you are doing anything else that is not to do with ‘’Les Grands Vacances’’ Its just impossible to buy materials or supplies, so we just hope we have thought of everything we will need. This seemed like a good time to update our old PC (9 years) for a new one. So it was extremely unfortunate that our long awaited broadband installation occurred in late July. I’m sure some of you are ahead of me here. Yes, you can imagine, data transfer from one PC to the other, new service provider, no engineers, one service account closed 5 days before the other activated, and 15 days before the new service was finally connected.

On the bright side we are now fully paid-up members of the 21st centaury, well it at least feels like it for us; after years of working at night when no one else was using the shared dial-up connection. One dear American client and friend, described our location, as out in “the boonies”, This is true and the way we like it. Now we have the best of both worlds. The only drawback is, that I now no longer have an excuse for not keeping-up to date on this blog.

What Wax Should I Use?

This is a question that’s asked on a regular basis and my answer to this is always the same. Any good quality Beeswax will do the job, but don’t overdo it, one or two applications a year should be sufficient in most cases; with regular dusting in-between. Remove any spills immediately and any other marks as soon as practical. See…… for cleaning.
However, some more curious types are not satisfied with this answer and follow-up with, ‘but what wax do you use?’ ‘I make my own, to a secret recipe’ say I, with an appropriately mysterious air. ‘Oh’ they say, crestfallen but grudgingly satisfied and the conversation moves on. Well it’s not that much of a secret really, more a case of empiric knowledge passed from one generation of furniture makers to another. Each individual changing the quantities of the recipe a little, so that it would better suite his own idea of working perfection, and so on down through the years.

My own method and formula is as follows:

Carnauba wax 40%
Beeswax 30%
Paraffin wax 30%
Twice this amount by volume pure turpentine.

Place all the wax in a suitable tin or saucepan over water (Bain-marie) then on a hotplate, never on a naked flame! Waxes are highly inflammable. Once molten remove from heat and carefully add the turpentine, slowly stirring as you do so. If you have not used the tin in which you will keep the wax for the heating procedure, now is the time to pour the mixture into the pot or jar of your choice, an old commercial wax tin is perfect for the job. Continue to stir as the wax cools, feel free to add a little more turpentine if you prefer a more liquid wax; you can reheat and add later if you find the wax has dried out over time.

What Tools Do I Need part 4

Drill, Cramp and Screwdriver.

Electric drills are considered to be such basic tools that they can be found in most homes, so if you already have one, that’s fine; please don’t go and change it because of something you read here. If not you may wish to consider a cordless drill driver, the advances made in battery technology make these a real alternative to mains drills. Especially the newer ones which come complete two batteries and a one hour charger.
Stay clear of the older ones with Ni-Cad batteries, unless of course they are a real bargain. The main advantages of a drill driver are first it will perform both the task of drilling a hole and then putting in the screw. Very handy and labour saving if you are doing a lot of repetitive work. Secondly you don’t have a tangle of wires and extension leads to cope with. Those drills pictured also share some of these advantages and are also worth consideration. Personally, for bench work I find them just as efficient as the power versions and much quieter.

Cramps are an essential part of your equipment, not only for closing joints when gluing-up, but also for holding the work piece while you are working. I would suggest you will need about four six inch G cramps and two three foot sash cramps. To start buy two of the G cramps and the others as you need them; I guarantee you will never have enough of the right sort to do the job. I have a whole wall full and still find I occasionally need more of one size or another.

Whether or not you have a drill/driver, you will still need hand drivers one for slot head screws and one for cross head screws. Once again buy only the basics six or seven inch version of each (the cross head with a number two point) to start and any others as the need arises.

What Tools Do I Need part 3

Planes Chisels Pincers


As you probably realise, I’m not one of those bloggers who turn out five posts a day, however this particular post has taken a bit longer than usual to appear, hope this hasn’t dented your enthusiasm.

Planes and chisels are two of the most important edge tools that any woodworker will use, so it’s important to choose ones that will perform properly. We looked at how you could save money on disposable saws last time, but it would be a big mistake to think you could do the same with edge tools. Because an edge tool needs to take a keen edge and retain it for a reasonable amount of time. A bargain may look appealing and may even make a few good cuts, but inevitably you will be making too many visits to the sharpening stone. The all important ingredient is the type of steel that the manufacturer used to make the blade.

That said lets first take a closer look at the type of plane you will need. Now you may find that my advice is at odds with that which you may find elsewhere. This is because I’m focussing on the home woodworker who just wants to have a go at making something before making a huge financial commitment on tools.

For a first plane I would advise a small Stanley block plane the 60 ½ (top left) this will be adequate for immediate your needs and its suppressing what can be achieved with one. You can graduate onto other more specialised planes if you feel the need at a later date and you will then have some practical experience on which to base your future choice. The plane will not work straight out of the box and will need some ‘’fettling’’ to make it work right. I’ll cover this at the end of the series.

The other planes in the picture are a Stanley 220 (top Right) a slightly more basic model that has its uses. The plane in the centre is an ECE wooden block plane that works superbly when ‘tuned-up’ the drawback with this type of plane for your type of work is the wearability of the soul. You will be doing a lot of chamfering and this can scar a wood bottomed plane and eventually spoil it. Then on the other hand, I would prefer a ‘woody’ anyday when working on the flat. You can see how easy it is to end up with a cupboard or whole workshop full of tools.

Probably the chisel sizes you will find most useful will be a ¼’’/6mm, a ½’’/12mm and a 5/8’’/16mm all with bevelled edges. After a lot of thought and consideration, I would advise that you buy some Japanese chisels as these will give you the best cost/performance ratio and require the least ‘fettling’ to get you working. Buy a chisel roll to keep them in; otherwise the cutting edges will get damaged, no matter how careful you are. Like western chisels there are a number of different styles of Japanese chisels to choose from. The most robust are Chu-usu Nomi (third left) and were used by Japanese temple builders; these are capable of making heavy cuts or taking the lightest of parings. This quality here, are a mid priced chisel, about 30 euros each, anything cheaper is probably not worth considering. If you are lucky enough to have inherited some 19th century cast steel chisels (second left) that aren’t rust pitted, its going to be worth rehabilitating them. Email me on that one.


Pincers, you can probably find a nice clean pair like those in the picture for a few pounds on EBay, just make sure the gripping edges are not deformed. See if you can pick-up a pin punch at the same time. I forgot to add this on the list, but you can be sure you will need one.