Workshop Companion

Possibly the most satisfying – and certainly the most iconic – activities in all of woodworking is planning with a bench plane. Effortlessly cutting a paper-thin shaving from a wood surface makes you feel that you have arrived as a craftsman. But getting a plane in condition to make those effortless cuts requires careful, painstaking flattening, sharpening, and adjusting. This is what is called “tuning” a plane. Nick takes a deep dive into this essential procedure, not just showing you how to do it, but also explaining the why’s and wherefore’s. If you’d like to make the sharpening jig that Nick uses at 11:09, the plans are in his book, “Sharpening.” pages 28 and 29. You can purchase this book from the Workshop Companion store at: https://workshopcompanionstore.com/ And if you have an old Stanley bench plane, similar to what is shown in this video, and you’d like to know when it was made and something about Stanley’s history, we recommend the Hyperkitten web site: https://hyperkitten.com/tools/stanley_bench_plane/ To see all of Nick's videos and SUBSCRIBE for more, see: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk480B1pofOjThMfkBjhDpQ Also visit the Workshop Companion General store, where we offer a wide selection of Nick's BOOKS and PROJECT PLANS in digital format: https://workshopcompanionstore.com/ To follow us on social media, try: FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/workshopcompanion INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/workshop_companion/ Our Music is Licensed through Epidemic Sounds - https://www.epidemicsound.com/campaign/invite-a-creator/?_us=Referral&_usx=bkvc7i&utm_source=ref_program&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=bkvc7i And thank you so much for your time and interest!

Experienced craftsmen and women all have a "go-to" finish -- a versatile wood finish that takes minimal time and effort to apply. They use this for most projects, simplifying their finishing needs. These needs vary, so Nick shows how to find your personal go-to finish from the hundreds of choices that are available to you. He starts with some basic "coating chemistry" to reduce confusion and help you make an informed choice. Then he walks you though a simple experiment designed to compare the characteristics of popular commercial finishes. Nick has gathered high-resolution photos of the test boards and plastic plates he used to compare seven finishes in article titled, "Comparing Wipe-On Finishes." This is available for FREE from the Workshop Companion General Store at https://workshopcompanionstore.com/ He has also updated a section from his finishing book on reading wood finish labels and Safety Data Sheets titled "Labels and Data Sheets: Incomplete Information." This too is available for FREE at https://workshopcompanionstore.com/ To follow us on social media, try: FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/workshopcompanion INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/workshop_companion/ Our Music is Licensed through Epidemic Sounds - https://www.epidemicsound.com/campaign/invite-a-creator/?_us=Referral&_usx=bkvc7i&utm_source=ref_program&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=bkvc7i And thank you so much for your time and interest!

A saw sled carries your work past the table saw blade, boosting accuracy by eliminating the friction that plagues an ordinary miter gauge. Nick shows how to get even more precision; how you can easily adjust a cut to with a few thousands of an inch or hundredths of a millimeter. And in addition to being more accurate, sleds are also more versatile. Nick discusses the types of sleds you might build and shows the features you might pack into it -- fixed and adjustable fences, stops, guards, auxiliary surfaces, even a convenient storage cart. Detailed plans for the saw sleds and sled features features that Nick shows, including measurement in both inches and millimeters, are available at https://workshopcompanionstore.com/

A simple technique opens up a world of possibilities for creating figured and patterned bowls. Nick demonstrates a simple jig that slices a board into rings, then glues those rings together to make turning stock for a bowl. This not only saves time and wood, it allows you to create remarkable, eye-catching lathe turnings from scraps. The plans for the jigs and fixtures used in this video are available from the Workshop Companion Store at https://workshopcompanionstore.com/ This project plan also includes and in-depth explanation of the band saw and turning techniques, as well as the figuring necessary to determine the correct dimensions and angles for the rings, PLUS a virtual calculator that will do all the figuring for you!