The Inquisitive Woodworker» Tool Makers

Lie-Nielsen – More new tools

TheInquisitiveWoodworker — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:41:11 +0000

I received the latest newsletter from Lie-Nielsen last night and they have a couple new tools that just came out. They aren’t new flashy planes but a couple of tools that are hard if not impossible to find these days.

The first is a set Drawer Lock Chisels. These are very specialized chisels that I haven’t seen for sale, except for antique ones. There is a nice video on YouTube that shows how they are used. Now I just need a project to justify buy this new tool!

The other new tool is a pair of Drawbore Pins. Again an almost impossible tool to find these days. I have used the Drawbore technique on a couple of my projects. This technique makes an incredibly tight and strong joint. Because I couldn’t buy any Drawbore Pins at the time, except for expensive antiques, I had to make mine. I followed an article Christopher Schwarz wrote on the subject. You can see the blog I wrote on making my pins over on Lumber Jocks.

Panel Gauge from Lie-Nielsen

TheInquisitiveWoodworker — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:18:33 +0000

After just posting the news about Lie-Nielsen working on some new hammers, I received a newsletter from Lie-Nielsen. They are now selling a new Panel Gauge. This is another tool I’ve been in the market for. I think it might be a late Christmas present for me. They have a few other new tools and DVDs, so check out their What’s New.

New Hammers coming for Lie-Nielsen

TheInquisitiveWoodworker — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:07:27 +0000

For those of you that don’t follow the Lost Art Press blog, Christopher Schwarz just wrote about some new Warrington hammers Lie-Nielsen will be producing. Have a look at Chris’s post, it’s exciting news. I’ve been looking for some quality hammers, and I haven’t had the best luck finding them. On eBay, most are in pretty sad shape, and the nice ones are typically over priced. I love that toolmakers are continually coming out with new tools. Hand tool users are living in a very exciting time.

An evening with Wenzloff and Sons

TheInquisitiveWoodworker — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:09:00 +0000

I spent last week in Portland, OR at the Handsawing class with Chris Schwarz. I will write more about that experience in the coming days. Besides meeting Chris for the first time and spending 5 long exciting days doing nothing but woodworking, we had a field trip out to Mike Wenzloff’s shop. This was one of the highlights of the trip, although there were many highlights. I forgot to take my camera with me on the trip, but Chris has just written about the visit on his blog. Chris did a great write-up on our trip and has a few pictures.

Mike and his sons are some of the nicest people you’ll ever want to meet. Mike is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to handsaws and their history. We were there for a couple hours but it only felt like a few minutes. Mike gave us a detailed tour of the shop/production and explained every step in making his saws. They just moved into this new shop and it is modest in size. Mike told us their original shop was only a couple hundred square-feet. So, this new shop is huge in comparison.

You get a real sense that all of them enjoy their work, and that quality is number one. They will not sacrifice quality for speed. Although, they are working hard to streamline their processes, so that they can get through the mountain of orders they have waiting.

Mike will be at the Woodworking in America conference, in November. If you are going, stop by and see Mike you will not be disappointed.

In the coming days I will write about the class itself. It was 5 of the best days I’ve spent woodworking so far.