Questions tagged [hand-tools]
Tools used by hand, the work/power is supplied by the tool user.
192 questions
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Would a hidden-tang froe be reliable?
I'd like to have a froe for some of my woodworking projects and thought it would be fun to make one. I have metal I can use, but no welder, which would be ideal for attaching the eye to the blade. I ...
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Finishing the ends of brass pins
I'm building an item where I intend to use brass pins to strengthen some corners with the exposed ends becoming decorative elements.
I'm looking for some tips on finishing the exposed ends flush and ...
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What is the origin story of panel planes?
What is the general history or origin story of panel planes?
I’ve tried looking it up in books like The Handplane Book by Garrett Hack, Handplane Essentials, Revised & Expanded by Christopher ...
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How straight should my hand saw be?
I'm new to hand tools woodworking, and started working with a ryoba saw. I wanted to know - to what extent does the straightness of the saw affect the straightness of my cuts?
How should I test the ...
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Stock preparation for tapered tenon cutter
I’ve got a Veritas tapered tenon cutter and feel like I am missing something obvious for using it efficiently.
Suppose I have a square chair leg 4 cm (1 1/2 in) thick, and I want to create a tapered ...
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Setup improvement for planing faces of long boards
Apologies in advance for the long intro — I thought it would be relevant to explain the setup I am looking to evolve and why.
I’ve started woodworking with power tools on a balcony, and as such my ...
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135
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How to make stuff concave - large radius - with handtools?
I’m trying to bestow a 5-foot long hollow to a board, to use as support for the base of a midcentury modern tv cabinet. E.g.: the long horizontal member of the leg base in the image below:
I’m ...
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What is this adjustable/foldable rack for?
I inherited this whimsical object along with several other woodworking tools.
The item resembles a stepladder, albeit a very small one (about 50cm). A hinge is connecting the two main sides - one ...
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Making very small mortises/grooves in wood
I'm wondering if there is a best way to make such holes in wood, size 2mm x 10mm. Should I use small chisels or any other approach you recommend?
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Flattening a maple woodblock by hand for fine art woodcut printing on a press
I have had considerable problems trying to flatten maple woodblocks by hand for printing on an etching press.
I often print with a jig below the block to allow me to register multiple colors -- the ...
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Cutting perfect 45° by hand
I am trying to cut wooden planks with a 45° to joint them together.
For this end I have made this jig for my handsaw.
All the angles measured are perfect. I cut very slowly to avoid to much play from ...
user13684
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What is this choppy defect called and what was it caused by?
What causes the splitty defect pictured below? Is there a special name for it? I think that working it out with hand planes would require removing too much of the surrounding wood. (Am I mistaken in ...
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Getting dust with smoothing plane?
I am new to hand planing. I have some S12E cedar and when I take my smoother (old Sargent) to the rough face I just get dust in the mouth and it gets stuck on the board. The blade is sharpened to 1000 ...
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How can I attach hardwood backing panels to a frame?
Preface: I only have access to hand tools. I am a novice at design and drawing perspectives, I unfortunately only have technical abilities right now because I've only copied other people's work to ...
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Resawing by hand - how to correct drift?
I'm trying resawing for the first time on a cherry board.
It's just as difficult as everyone has mentioned, but I am following the advice I've found online and only sawing where I can see the line I ...
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How do you inlay a brass corner ornament using handtools only?
I'm working on a campaign-style jewelry box, and am curious about the best way to inlay a corner guard that has a curve in it.
My plan is to make a full size photo copy of the hardware, then rubber ...
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How to flatten stubborn hollow on the back of a plane iron?
I'm a completely new amateur woodworker, starting out with hand tools. To begin with, I want to get my new tools nice and sharp. I've been trying very hard to flatten (lap?) the back of my plane iron (...
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Is it needed to have the lever cap flat against the blade in a shoulder plane?
I bought an approximately cheap small (1/2" width) shoulder plane from Dictum.
However I observed that only the toe of the lever cap presses on the blade (see picture above).
Should I tree to ...
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Using a left and right shooting board to square the ends of a board
I'm a beginner hand-tool only woodworker and am trying to square the two ends of a 3ft long, 2.5" thick board of cherry for a floating shelf.
I've succeeded in squaring one edge, one face, and ...
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How to prevent tearout when drilling surface at an angle?
I was boring holes for stool-legs when this huge chunk of hard maple tore out. This was supposed to the be the top surface of the stool, so it's pretty frustrating. The chip was mangled, so I can't ...
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Compass plane minimum radius
I'm considering getting a compass plane, probably a record 020. Anyone know what is the minimum internal radius they can cut? My first use of it would be constructing a wooden wheel roughly 24inches ...
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Spirit Level Reading
I know this is a pretty basic question but I am not able to get an answer over the internet. So my question is, how do you read a spirit level. I am talking about the Starrett Machinist Level (98-6 – ...
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Does it make sense to own a #1 if I already have a good block plane?
I have a decent block plane (low angle, adjustable mouth, good quality all-around).
I just saw a Veritas #1 bevel-up smoother plane which seems to be similar in size and was thinking if it would make ...
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What are some good ways to finish smoothing a wood carving after you have the general form roughed out?
I am relatively new to wood carving and don't have anyone to mentor me or to ask advice from.
I am making a handle for a machete out of red oak. The bottom of the handle is hooked like a hanger and is ...
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Aligning entry and exit side of drawbores
I don't have a drill press, so when drilling a long hole, I'll typically drill from both sides, as close as I can eyeball being orthogonal to the surface, and meet in the middle. This way, the series ...
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Stanley 78 rebate plane spur goes too deep
I have bought an old Stanley 78 rebate plane and I try to bring it to life. I honed the blade and tried to do a rebate (rabbet) across the grain. Of course that required the spur (nicker?) to be ...
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Plane/chisel sharpening technique
I’m looking to improve my sharpening technique when sharpening my hand plane blades and chisels. I use a Veritas honing jig and diamond stones and can get a nice edge that cleanly shaved the hairs on ...
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Best way to cut very soft 4mm (1/8") poplar plywood sheets with hand tools
Sometimes I need to cut sheets (cca 50x80cm = 20x32") of soft 4mm (1/8") poplar plywood into smaller rectangular pieces and I find it surprisingly difficult to do with hand tools - it's too ...
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What are the defining features of a Holtzapffel workbench?
While studying workbench designs I read a 2007 article by Chris Schwarz in Woodworking Magazine about the Holtzapffel workbench. He describes it roughly as an eclectic bench with French, German and ...
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Hand plane blade lower on one side
I'm a woodworking beginner trying to restore a Stanley no 5 and have run into problem with the blade hanging lower on one side.
I'm not sure if it was originally like this or something I did - I've ...
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How to highlight imprecisions?
Using only hand tools, I made a groove for a wedge and the wedge does not fit tight and perfect. How do I highlight where the exact point is that needs to be reworked? I've seen someone using carbon ...
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Terminology for beam drill?
This is called a Beam Drill in the USA, but I would like to know the terminology for this in British English. I'm trying to find one locally to me (on ebay) in the UK and failing completely...
So my ...
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Best tool for sanding and shaping irregular surfaces
I am looking for some recommendations on sanding irregular surfaces, like rifle stocks.
I have tried a random orbital sander but it is not giving me satisfactory results, and also it is difficult to ...
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Hand tool identification
I'm trying to identity the tool in the photo. The tablet is included for size, it has a 10.5 inch screen.
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Remove little material from a wooden piece with manual tools
I've started to enjoy using manual tools ("unplugged woodworking") and I've been getting manual tools (marking gauges, smoothing plane, saws, block plane, chisels, etc.).
I have piece of ...
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Is it possible to rip thin strips of wood only using hand tools?
Say from a standard board 1 in x3 in x6 feet cut strips of 1/8 in thickness?
Manu
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How to face joint board longer than bench by hand
Project: Bed frame from hard wood (still deciding between cherry, oak, walnut, ash, beech)
Question: What is a good method to face joint a board (approximately 15 cm / 6” wide) by hand with a shorter ...
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Preventing poor groove geometry with plow plane?
I'm using a veritas small plow plane and I'm finding my grooves are a bit trapezoid shaped and not square to the reference face and edge:
Material is Sapele. This is a longer piece (~48"). Some ...
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Identifying 2 strange homemade hand saw features
I recently acquired 2 homemade saws, likely early 20th century, with features I can't quite place for function or aesthetic. Any ideas?
18" saw with an odd bevel cut into the top edge of the ...
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Unknown tool from auger bits set
Does anyone recognise the tool on the photos below?
Recently I’ve bought a set of old auger bits on eBay and among them was that tool. I de-rusted it, but have no idea what do use it for :)
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Why does the blade of a sliding T-bevel have a point?
Does anyone have a good reference for the reason a typical wood or metal sliding T-bevel comes to a point?
I've always wondered, and recently this tool came up in a semi-famous YouTube video, which ...
user5572
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How to cut long angled cuts without a table saw?
Hey guys, first time poster.
I'm trying to make this simple nightstand using hand tools.
I'm stuck on these angled planks. Is there any way I can cut these very long cuts without electric table saw? I ...
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How do I plane the edge of a board such that it stays square to the face?
I just bought my first plane, an inexpensive Stanley 12-404 clone by Amazon Basics.
I was dialing everything in and planing the edge of a board, eventually getting nice, thin, even shavings.
After I ...
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How bore out a shallow sink into a 2x10"?
I have a set of standing shelves that are built from standard home store 2x10"s. I wanted to repurpose the shelf as a place for my houseplants. When I water the plants, there is a lot of drainage ...
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What is the difference between the jointer blade and the smoothing blade?
In The Anarchist's Tool Chest, Christopher Schwarz recommends buying a #5 bench plane with three irons as a first hand plane: a curved scrub blade, a flat jointer/try blade, and a flat smoothing blade....
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What is a router plane fence designed for?
Recently I bought a veritas router plane and I noticed that they provide an optional fence.
（and with smaller blades）
As I'm new to woodworking, I wonder what the fence is designed for?
It seems one ...
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How do I avoid cutting my fingers on the sides of my chisel when paring?
When paring waste from dovetails with a chisel I often slice up my fingers on the back edge of my chisels.
This forum thread discusses this topic with two recommendations:
Just let your hands develop ...
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How to make a circular base with moulding using hand tools?
For a piece such as this:
How can this be shaped using only hand tools? Normally, a router comes to mind for something like this, or maybe a lathe, and then when you only think of hand tools, I think ...
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What are some proper ways of doing rabbets in plywood using hand tools?
What are some proper ways of doing rabbets in plywood with hand tools? I tried using a plough plane but it tore out the fibers too much.
What other manual options are there?
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Is it possible to use a mortiser bit without a mortiser?
My project requires about 60 precise square holes, 14mm on a side. I don't have a mortiser but a mortiser bit is fairly inexpensive. Is there a way I could use that bit by hand to cut those holes? ...
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