r/handtools

Built this a little while back, 2022 I think.

Just a little dovetailed box, big enough for a deck of playing cards. Walnut, maple, friction lid. Finished with Danish oil and paste wax.

All hand tool, including resawing and dimensioning all stock.

Feedback welcome. Thanks!

A while back I challenged myself to make a hand plane completely out of black walnut using only hand tools over the course of a weekend. This time I let myself use everything I have available and took closer to a month of on/off work.

The knob and tote are glued on while the frog attaches to the base plate using wooden screws and can be removed. Depth adjustment and lateral adjustment are both functional in the sense that they move and use wooden screws as well. Same deal with the blade, chip breaker, and lever cap.

Fantastic way to use up a lot of wood that was sitting in the off cut bin and I’m planning to enter it in a local competition later this month.

Still have room for some additions!

This turned out way better than I expected. This board had been sitting in my parent’s garage for about 25 years. I recently cleared out the old wood to use myself at my workshop. Apparently, this board came from a neighbors apple tree.

I finished this flipper today for my dear old mother’s birthday. I worked on it off and on when I had time this past month.

I used hand tools and carving knives for 90% but I couldn’t get the smooth finish I wanted. The wood is very hard and the flaming grain pattern was a nightmare for my knives. I usually carve green wood so this was a new challenge.

I switched to an orbital sander using grits 80,120,180 and got the finish I wanted. Soaked in mineral oil for 30mins and here we are.

I think I will make many more utensils from this wood.

I hope this is not too unglamorous for this group. Apologies if so. I understand. I’m curious though. 

Broken handle. Does anyone happen to know how this might be constructed? 

I am guessing a straight oval piece of wood, slotted for a few inches, and hidden expanding wedge used. It seems this would manufacture incredibly easy. Simple handle. Simple cut. Quick glue application. And driven home in seconds. Passes the lawyer/liability test. 

But maybe someone actually knows? 

And yes, I am aware Chinese handles are only $20-$30 on Amazon with free shipping or from the big box stores. 

And yes I could drill and/or chisel it out to see for myself. 

Finally finished my tool display wall. Everything is sharp and 100% functional. They are all mounted on hooks so I can easily remove and use them. Still debating whether or not to add a drawknife above the two-man saw. I felt like it was a good way to display my collection while still keeping it accessible.

Acquired an early Made in England Stanley 5 1/2 in a job lot of planes and after taking off a considerable amount of rust, this is the state of the mouth (the toe is on the right of this image).

What do we think? Is there any point spending an hour lapping the shit out of this on some 80 grit or is it a complete write-off?

From the research I’ve done Stanley didn’t make a bronze transitional plane so I’m trying to figure out what’s up with this plane magnet will not stick to it. The lever cap is also bronze. I also don’t wanna scrub all the patina off the bronze it just yet I don’t know if that would be a bad mood but the spots that I’ve scrubbed is where you see the bronze and like I said a magnet won’t stick

I was planning to reusing an old box, but these bolts were in the way. Any idea on how to remove these?

My flexcut roughing knife just fell out of its shaft. It's been "jangling" for some time before it fell out midcut.

So my question being, what do I do now? Can i just glue it back in? But it was jangling before, do I need to put a wedge in? Or just a shitton of glue, and what kind of glue?

... I'm finally ready to begin my project.

My second furniture build, a little side table. Very clear 80% of my time will have been spent dimensioning lumber from rough boards with saw and plane. And 15% will probably be finishing with card scraper because, apparently, Ash grain likes to party.

But, hey, mortise and tenon, here I come!

Mounted my new @rutlandstools sharpening jig. Any tips for repeatability of, say 25°, for chisels and plane irons? Three moving parts doesn't help at all!! Works very well though.

I’ve been casually looking for these two for probably 4+ years. Was able to buy them direct from Lie Nielsen. Never got in stock email notifications (I was on both lists for years)and only found both in stock checking the website around midnight on both occasions.

They are definitely extreme sizes and will have limited use cases. I’ve wanted the 1/8 for cleaning up very small dovetails and have been using it for small detail work.

Can’t believe how massive the 1-1/2 is in person. I hope to build a Rubo style workbench in the next few years and will use the 1-1/2 for large mortise and tenons.

Long time lurker first time poster. I’ve been doing powered woodworking for a little bit, but recently had to relocate. I got rid of most of my big tools, but still wanted to do some projects in my smaller space.

I started out with the No 5 and No 6 I got on CL for $20 each. After that I just went down the eBay rabbit hole. I took a couple of weeks to clean up all the components and resharpen the irons. The only one that needed a replacement was the No 6 because the iron was just so short. It had maybe one or two resharpens left in it, so I ordered a Hock replacement.

The only thing I have left to do is apply finish to all the totes and knobs. Maybe I’ll post an update here with individual shots once it’s all done.

This was a lot of fun and got me through some grueling house projects. I would take breaks from house projects to go sharpen an iron or scrub some rust and it was the perfect meditative break. I even got to use the planes for a few of the house projects (which is sort of what inspired the first purchase anyway).

Also not pictured here are the No 78 and No 90 that are also restored, but in another location.

Just wanted to share. Thanks for looking!

4² Dandy on a Space Cadet 30" Octagonal haft. Zebrawood and Paduak wedge. Ground to 20⁰. Hoping to get out and buck this weekend. This is my grail. Thanks for looking!!

I decided to pull the trigger on an eBay listing and was hoping to get some help in identifying what year this Stanley plane is from. Thanks in advance.

I’m thinking of picking up some molding planes in my area for about $10 each in similar conditions as pictured. Should I be wary of those with similar cracks?

It’s in pretty good shape, but will eventually try to clean it up and restore it a bit so it works better, would love for it to be my apron/pocket tape