Introduction Hand planing has a lovely simplicity — until you have to hold the board. A bench hook works until it does not, clamps bruise edges and get in the plane’s way, and the classic beginner’s arrangement of one knee and a prayer produces boards that skate forward at the exact moment the iron bites. … Read more
Introduction A bench vise is honest about one thing: it does not care what your workpiece looks like afterward. Those hardened, serrated steel jaws that grip a pipe so well will emboss their cross-hatching into hardwood, chew the edges of plastic parts, and leave a finished surface looking like it lost an argument. Every woodworker … Read more
Introduction A band clamp is the kindest way to pull a frame together — and it still manages to bruise it. The strap rounds each corner with all its force concentrated on a few millimeters of wood. Miter tips, the sharpest and most fragile part of the whole frame, get crushed, rounded over, or pushed … Read more