It was rattling around in back of my mind for months. An impending problem would certainly arise. I could see it, the aftermath, the damage. But the problem itself refused to yield. Well, that is not quite fair. It yielded perfectly to the pedestrian rubber band...
I took the time to do a few simple things that will make working at the lathe much more enjoyable.
It is the morning of Christmas Eve, December 24th 2025. I wish I could say that I am relaxing and gazing out at my bird feeder watching the house sparrows make one last attempt at adding to that layer of…
It is Christmas eve 2024, a snowy cold day here in south eastern Pennsylvania. I’m sitting in a comfortable chair with a pipeful of Germain’s Plum Cake Mixture (it is at least 10 years old and tastes like Christmas in…
It is the morning of Christmas eve 2023 and I am in my workshop-cum-office enjoying a warm cup of coffee and Haunted bookshop in my Boswell Bing’s Favorite. It is a cool 41 degrees F and the outside world is…
In woodworking, the chisel edge is the most fundamental of sharp edges. Planes are just chisels held in a jig, and saws are just long rows of tiny chisels. So understanding chisels is fairly important. I own a lot of…
I had been wanting a French wheel for my shop for sometime, and just never got around to either making or buying one. The concept is simple, a slightly (more or less) domed sanding disk with padding that allows the…
Christmas eve 2022. I normally try to write this annual post in the morning when the day is new and bursting with possibility. But today got off to a very slow start (more on that later). I’m enjoying a bowl…
It is the morning of Christmas Eve 2021, and I am sitting in my basement-cum-office with a hot cup of black coffee and a bowl of Haunted bookshop in my Savinelli 622. I re-stemmed this pipe, and it is actually…
I had a challenging repair come through the shop that I thought might be worth documenting and possibly would be of some interest. The pipe is an Orlik Calabash and the cap and shank extension on the pipe appear to…