The Allure of Old Iron Realized

Last year (just scroll down, not like I've posted much lately) I mentioned a Powermatic 1200 drill press I was in the process of restoring. Last Friday I finished it. Here are some pics of the completed machine. Right now I feel the urge to write something patriotic, or reminisce about the heyday of manufacturing in America, but I don't have the skill to. I'll let this machine speak for me.

Daed Toolworks, and An Upcoming Article In Popular Woodworking Magazine

I'm very pleased to announce that my good friend Raney Nelson has launched his website Daed Toolworks. Up until now Raney has been blogging about his work, but today he posted several pages about his tools, including construction details and prices. Browse through the tabs at the top of the page.

I've had the privilege of using and owning several of Raney's planes over the past three years and they just keep getting better and better. Raney's offerings at WIA this past autumn were simply incredible. The small boxwood miter plane pictured above is one of the finest planes I've ever used. There is some interesting physics that happen at the mouth of this bevel-up plane, but I'll let Raney explain that. See his page of miter planes for more.

Speaking of miter planes, I use a Dead Miter for shooting small geometric inlay patterns, also known as parquetry. And speaking of parquetry, about a year and a half ago Christopher Schwarz asked if I would be interested in writing an article for Popular Woodworking Magazine. I brought a bunch of parquetry examples to a Lie-Nielsen hand tool event and Chris gave me the go-ahead. I was just about to start a backgammon board for a friend of mine, so I thought I'd use this project to feature some of the geometric inlay. I know what you're thinking, "I don't see any inlay". Well, you'll just have to pick up a copy of the magazine, or wait for it to arrive to see inside. Suffice it to say, I'm a big fan of birdseye maple and cocobolo.