Luke Townsley's blog

Regular visitors to the site will have noticed that there has been some trouble with the latest news entries where I aggregate blog headlines from around the blogosphere.

My apologies for the inconvenience. I never really took the time to get totally to the bottom of it, but I changed and updated some feeds and settings, and it seems to be working fine now.

I do hope the aggregator serves to introduce people to more of the great blogs and resources that are out there, and that it will help some newbies find their way more quickly through the hand tool universe.

Also, I wish to thank those hard working bloggers who each contribute in their own way to our education and inspiration. For those who haven't posted in a while, there is no time like the present!

My favorite woodworking forum is the www.sawmillcreek.org community. There is an interesting discussion going on over there in response to a question about how to get started in hand tool woodworking.

I find it interesting that there are a lot of different answers. As I read through the various posts, many different tips were offered including dvds, books, websites, classes, and so forth.

Perhaps the most important thing to take home from that discussion for the newbie is that you do need help, and that help is readily available in a lot of different ways to suit your time, budget, learning style, and so forth.

For many power tool woodworkers, hand tool woodworking tends to conjure up images of dulls saws hacking through wood and and chisels too dull and rusty to scrape glue. It doesn't have to be that way.  read more »

There is good news and more good news in this post. First the good news.

I just counted the number of blogs tracked by my blog aggregator. By my latest count, we are now up to 57 blogs that I am tracking here on this site dealing with hand tool woodworking. Nice.

Now the other good news. There is a great opportunity here for women woodworking bloggers. Of the 57 blogs tracked, I can think of only two that are run by ladies. One of them, The Village Carpenter, is my second favorite woodworking blog and is a particularly good example of how to keep a blog.

Now I understand there are more men working wood than women. A lot more. Don't get me wrong, I am really happy that a lot of guys are doing blogs and podcasts. I would just like to see more women bringing their unique viewpoint into the discussion.

Will the real hand tool woodworker please stand up?

Is he the old-world luthier, the blogging hobbyist, the amish man, the period reproductionist, the advanced master of all tools, the African laborer, or the traditional village craftsman?

I recently posted in this blog asking about the number of hand tool woodworkers in the world. Basically, I framed the question in as strict a manner as possible without excluding myself. (Excluding myself would be really dumb, now wouldn't it?)  read more »

The question has come to my mind lately as to how many woodworkers there are who are focused on using hand tools eschewing the use of power tools.

Defined in the strictest sense and including only those who do so by choice as a hobby and have a reasonable collection of tools (eliminating kids with pen knives and third world carpenters working with a single rusty plane or brace, but not Windsor chair makers or instrument makers), I would guess that we are indeed few in number- possibly numbering fewer than 1,000 worldwide.

This blog gets well over 100 visitors on a daily basis, but I don't think that the majority of my visitors fit the hand tool woodworker description in the strictest sense.

I am now tracking over 50 blogs on this site, but relatively few are dedicated entirely to hand tool woodworking.  read more »

Once upon a time, there were cheap tools to be found. Across the land at yard sales, estate auctions, antique shops, in old barns and basements, and even in that newfangled online auction, there were deals to be found on tools eagerly awaiting restoration to their former glory.

Long gone are the days of yore. Upon us now are offerings of almost worthless piles of quietly rusting iron lying hither, thither and yon. Grandma is passed on, Grandpa's tools too. Methinks there are no old tools to be had that can be bought with my meager pence.  read more »

Workbenches: From Design And Theory To Construction And Use by Chris Schwarz is a book that every amateur hand tool woodworker should study thoroughly.

For most hand tool woodworkers, there is no more important tool in our shop than our workbench.

I just don't know how I can overemphasize the significance of this book. If you are thinking about buying or making a workbench, you should just get it. If you must, borrow it, but get it.  read more »

Well, it has been a long haul. I think I started this project sometime around the first of this year. It has been an excercise in frustration, patience, fun, and about every other kind of excercise you can think of.

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Many of you in the US are familiar with the unique video rental service SmartFlix.com offers.

They are putting on their first woodworking contest. You have until October 10 to get in your entry and could win $250.

Voting will start on October 11.

I have been initiated; I broke my first chisel handle.

I was chopping deep mortises with a 1" Lee Valley plastic handled chisel. I was beating the poor thing. While I wasn't using a heavy mallet, I am a 200 pound guy and it was getting enough of a beating that the chisel got quite warm at times which may have softened the plastic. Anyway, about halfway through the fifth mortise, it gave way.

I really wasn't trying to break the handle, honest. I thought it would hold up to the abuse, but between the chopping and levering out the chips, it just didn't make it.  read more »

**Edited: This feature was never used and has been removed due to lack of interest.**

I am offering registered users the chance to post ads and notices for free. Registering is also easy and free.

Currently, the functionality is very simple and straightforward. Ads are good for 30 days and are renewable by going in to edit your ad and clicking the appropriate check box. Pictures are limited in size to 800x800 pixels.

There is no private message system. You must provide contact information. A good way to do this if you have a website is to include a link to the product listing page on your site.

Beware of publishing your regular email address. It will not automatically be obfuscated. I would suggest setting up an alias email address that you can later delete without interrupting your business or life.  read more »

Unpluggedshop.com is continuing to attract more and more users. In the last month, we had over 10,000 pageviews, over 3,000 visits, and more than 1,500 absolute unique visitors! The average time spent on the site is 3 minutes and 47 seconds or about one minute per page.

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for the site.

Luke

One of the "tools" I want to get is a traditional workman's apron. There is a picture over at www.toolemera.com of a traditional woodworker wearing one. You can see it at this page if you scroll down to the picture called "THE WISE CARPENTER AT HIS BENCH."

I really like this apron although it seems that a design that had criss-crossing shoulder straps would be a bit easier on the neck and not as prone to getting the neck strap as sweaty.

If anyone has any suggestions, pictures, patterns or ideas, I would really appreciate them. Basically, I am looking for something somewhat traditional and lightweight. A pocket for a pencil or small square would be fine, but I don't plan on carrying my toolbox in it.  read more »

I am a bit cheap. I appreciate quality tools. I also happen to live in a warm sub-tropical Caribbean climate. I want to make some "woodie" planes.

Basically, I want to make a whole set of planes. I intend to start with something like a Jointer or Fore plane and then do a smoothing plane and perhaps a scraper as well as a router. Sometime, I also want to make a Jack plane to replace the hopelessly cobbled together metal boat anchor, I mean finely fettled antique hand plane, that I have.  read more »

In the US, there is a current discussion about a presidential candidate who apparently doesn't know how to used email. The question raises an interesting point.

Without going into the politics of the whole thing, which is a subject much better suited for other blogs, let's just look at the question of whether or not it is vital to be technologically integrated in this day and age.

If a person is, let's say over 50, is it vital that they get a computer and get into the internet age? I say no. I am not even convinced that the young should be totally immersed in it. Knowing how it works and understanding it is one thing, but for some of us, we would be better served to "just say no". For many more of us, we would be well served to limit our exposure.

I am not even talking about the renowned sinful temptations and cyberdangers of the internet. I am just talking about wasting our precious time in the pursuit of "efficiency."  read more »