There aren’t enough words to describe the craftsmanship and beauty of Jon Goulder’s work. A visit to his website www.jongoulder.com is an inspiring experience.

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case I totally believe in this old saying. I hope the photo on the right is enough to capture your interest. Just click on it, sit back and watch…

Don’t forget to visit Robin’s website on www.robin-wood.co.uk. You’re in for a treat.

Being a fan of George Nakashima, I started sketching something with a solid walnut slab for the top. But where can I get such a piece of lumber? Research begun….

One of the first websites I came across was Goby Walnut who sells some of the most incredible walnut slabs I’ve ever seen. Some of the slabs for sale are so large that I guess you could build a twelve seat dining room table from a single slab, take the offcuts and build the coffee table to match.

Call me a city guy, but I had no idea that walnut trees could grow this large!

According to the Wikipedia, walnut trees can grow up to 40 meters tall but I guess the person who wrote that has never seen the one pictured on the right. Without reaching for a ruler, I’d say its probably taller!

This one is probably as high as the apartment builing I used to live in. What’s that guy doing up there?? Is this how they practice bungee jumping in the country side?

In this TED talk he spends nearly 18 minutes trying to answer the question “Why design?” reaching for our own roots four billion years ago.

I recomend you switch to full screen and turn the subtitles on.

Enjoy:

• Philippe Starck thinks deep on design

While this task may require various tools like a scrub plane, a jointer, a jack and a smoother, most share the same anatomy.

Take a look at the exploded diagram on the left (click on it for a larger view) and you can get familiar with all the terminology and part names used on a hand plane.

Enjoy:

• Handplane Anatomy

I particularly enjoy the one above – most probably because it’s black & white and it features the LN smoothing plane that’s been on my wish list for quite some time.

Unfortunately they’re only 1024 x 768 pixels and it looks rather stretched on my screen. Click on the photo to access the other five wallpapers.

In this manifest Hugh MacLeod gives his 26 tried-and-true tips for being truly creative.

Enjoy:

• How To Be Creative – by Hugh MacLeod

For Stanley handplanes there is The Superior Works: Patrick’s Blood and Gore, where you’ll find all the information you’ll ever need on these classic tools.

The next time someone refers to one of Stanley’s handplanes by their funny numbers you’ll know exactly what they’re talking about.

Next on the list is The Disstonian Institute, which has the name implies will provide you with lot’s of information on Disston handsaws.

Last (but not least) on my list is A Millers Falls Home Page which contains a wealth of information on Millers Falls handplanes, hand drills and bit braces.

Happy reading!

These twisted dovetails (or nejiri arigata in Japanese) will give any piece an exquisite handmade look.

And not only these dovetails look great, they will handle pulling forces both sideways and lengthways.

This piece features exquisite exposed joinery that take the build to a higher level of craftsmanship. The three way miter is one of my favorites on this piece.

Enjoy….

• Butternut Cabinet – joinery samples

I haven’t built mine but I keep revisiting this article over and over again: Hand Made Hand Plane.

At just over 6″ long and with a 1 1/2″ iron it can be used as a block plane to trim edges and surface small pieces.

Enjoy!

Besides Chris’ usual essays on workbench design, there is an excellent series on handplaning which focuses on different techniques (seven at the time of writing) to reduce tear-out.

The blog can be found at: http://blog.lostartpress.com/

For those that have been following Chris’ posts on the Woodworking Magazine blog, the good news is that this blog is still active with the usual high quality content!

A properly sharpened scraper attacking the wood at the right angle will produce thin curly shavings and will yield a perfectly smooth surface even on difficult woods like curly maple.

I searched the web and found four great videos showing slightly different techniques for sharpening a scraper and another two on using them.

• Barely Scraping By
  by Marc Spagnuolo
• Tuning-up a Scraper
  by Tommy MacDonald
• Tune Up a Card Scraper
  by Brian Boggs
• How to Burnish a Card Scraper
  by Bob Van Dyke

• Using a Card Scraper
  by Brian Boggs
• How to Use a Card Scraper
  by Bob Van Dyke

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

The long, tough slog through mediocre-ville. To be the best, Seth Godin explains, you must concentrate your effort, push a little harder, commit a few more resources and leave mediocre to those willing to be average.