Adapting the Thien Baffle to a 5-gallon bucket isn’t hard, and overall; it is going to reduce a lot of the suction clogging dust that gets to the filter of any shop vac. I feel it is a worthy addition to the shop vac portion of your dust collection system, so here is the stuff you need to know.

This may seem a little over detailed for some readers and I apologize, but there was some strange engineering involved, and it is a bit involved regarding the measuring and layout, so I will detail my approach, and leave you, dear readers, to you own devices. Welcome to blaze your own trail or follow mine. For my part, all I can say is I am happy I did it, and feel it can benefit anyone who is inclined to make one, so I am sharing it with you.

First you will need to obtain a 5-gallon bucket, which is available from most any hardware store, and the Woodcraft Mini Dust Collection Separator Lid. (part# 143868), which is of course available from Woodcraft. Once you have those; please take not of the following critical measurements, and double check them for yourself.

The bucket will not be perfectly round, but on average, at the rim, it will be 11-1/16th in diameter, at the least if the bucket is held to nominal roundness. If you find the bucket is deformed beyond this roundness, I would reject it, and get a different one. This is easy to check with something like a telescopic pointer, or magnet, if you have one. Those handle inside measurements really well, and then simply compare them to a steel ruler or tape measure.

The lid and baffle has to seal on the bucket lip, and side. The lid will come with open cell foam on the under side of the lid to seal the separator, and it will work to seal up the device just fine.

From the rim of the bucket, the Thien baffle will protrude down 4-3/8ths inches. I concluded this by measuring the inner dimensions of the lid, the rim ledges, and the inlet pipe protrusion, left a touch of space and added the thickness of the material, which the baffle plate is made from. With the protrusion into the bucket figured out, and the offsets molded into the lid itself, the length of the stand off dowels that connect the baffle plate to the cyclone lid can be found.

For the visual idea, I measured down 4-3/8ths inches from the top of the bucket and made a dashed mark, just to see how much space the device really protrudes. I can say that there is such a thing as a 6-gallon bucket, and it is the same as a five in every way, except taller, and is a viable capacity enhancing alternative.

To make the spacer stand offs, the dowels that connect the baffle to the lid, I selected 3/4 inch hardwood dowels and cut three of them 4-3/4 inches long. Please note, yes, I did say 4-3/4 inches long, because this compensated for the offsets in the lid. Find the center of each end of the dowel with a center finder, center punch this, and drill a 3/32nds inch holes into both ends of each dowel. I clamped the dowels in a small wooden hand screw and drilled them on the drill press approximately 1-1/4 inch deep. This hole size is the appropriate size for use with fine thread drywall screws, fine threads grip better in hardwood, and we need this to be a 1-1/4 inch screw because we are screwing into end grain, and want to elongate the area where we stress the long grain connection. When you are finished, coat these with Teak Oil and Wax

The baffle plate will be made in the same shape as the Thien design. Remember the dashed lines you drew on the bucket at 4-3/8ths inches below the rim? Grab your telescopic pointer and verify that you have a 10-7/8th inch nominal diameter at that point. I did, so that was the major diameter of my baffle circle. This dimension compensates for the taper in the sides of the bucket.

Laying out for the baffle plate is not too hard, let’s go over it. Cut a square of 1/4 inch MDF 11-7/8 inches by 11-7/8 inches on the table saw. Don’t cut it a foot, because you want to have scraps that will be 1 foot by 1 foot and 1 foot by 2 feet, as they are handier sized scraps.

Take your MDF Square and using a steel ruler, find the exact center of this and mark it for a compass radius point. Set your compass for exactly 5-7/16ths inches, set it in the radius point and mark your circle. If you do not have a compass that will swing this radius, small holes drilled on the same hole centers in scrap-anything will do.

Using a protractor, you need to mark the edges of the circle with a tick mark at 120-degree spacings, just as if it were a Mercedes Benz Logo. One at the top and eh, one around 4 O’clock, and 8 O’clock positions. Set a pencil on the radius point in the center of the circle and set your steel rule against it, and locate the opposite end of the rule on the tick marks on the circumference. Measure in 1-1/8th inch from the circumference and draw a line from there to the edge of the circumference in the 4 and 8 O’clock locations.

Reset your compass from 5-7/16ths inches to 4-5/16ths inches, replace it in the radius and position the lead at the 8 O’clock position. Draw a line from the 8 O’clock (240 degree radian) clockwise through the 12 O’clock (360 degree radian) to the 4 O’clock (120 degree radian) and stop. Mark a few “x” marks in the 240-degree area you just drew, as you will be cutting it off.

Using a band saw, or a jig saw, even a scroll saw will work if you have one, carefully and smoothly as possible cut out the baffle plate. Once you have it cut out, carefully smooth the edges with a mill file. If you have only sandpaper, hand sand with a block.

Test fit this baffle at the dotted line you marked in the bucket earlier; it should fit with close tolerance along the 120-degree portion left proud. If you like, sand this with 180 grit and coat it with Teak Oil and Wax, or wait until you are about ready for final assembly.

Now we begin the lid alterations. The lid requires a little fabrication on it, but it isn’t too drastic. However if you choose not to, the Thien baffle is not going to work effectively at all. The lid as supplied will allow the shop vac to suck most of the debris straight through the device. Baffle or no. The problem is that the 5-gallon bucket only has about 18 inches of circumference to decelerate particulate matter in the air steam before the stock lid inlet/outlet arrangement allows the vac to suck the air out. If the inlet and outlet are in line with each other, and they are, then this is not much time to gain on cleaning the waste from the air stream. We need to help buy it a little more time. This is why we need to modify the air inlet and outlet locations and add the baffle.

Turn the lid over and pull the elbow pipe loose. It is just a compression fit. Set it aside. Remover the two screws which hold the handle on the lid. The handle will not be reused, however it is leaving two vacuum leaks in the lid. The simple fix is to get a tube of Amazing Goop Adhesive from the hardware store, and glue a dime in each hole. Yes, a dime is a perfect fit. It adds value to the project too, A lid that was not worth a dime, is now worth at least two!

In the location where the handle was, there is a circular indentation in the center of the lid. Using a 2-1/2 inch diameter hole saw without a center drill, preferably chucked in your drill press, drill this center indentation out. Do not use a center drill. Once you have drilled this out, do not damage the blank that came out.

Using that mill file we used to dress the MDF earlier, clean up the edges of the plastic disc you just made and set it into the top of one of the molded-in vacuum fittings on the lid. See how it rests on the landing in there? Nice eh?

Grab the Amazing Goop, and lay a thin bead on that land, place the disc over that and press, then lay a thin bead of RTV silicone on the top side of the disc along the edge after the goop cures up enough. It will be sealed up nice.

Now that you have prepared the lid, for the new exhaust air outlet, center the Woodcraft 2-1/2 inch Router Fence Dust Extraction Fittings (part# 85O13) over the new 2-1/2 inch hole you just drilled in the lid and mark the hole locations for mounting the outlet with a sharpie marker, just the hole centers is fine. Then, using a center punch, mark them. You can choose to drill these free hand or on the DP, whichever is most convenient. Make the holes 3/16th for 10-24 hardware. De-burr the holes, test fit dry, then spread a thin coat of amazing goop to the underside of this outlet, position it and bolt in on. Set aside the lid and allow the goop to kick, the off gassing fumes during cure are not fun to breathe.

The balancing act, or assembling the baffle went something like this. Why am I detailing this? Well I fooled with it 2 hours before I was happy with the process. I want to share what I learned in hope of reducing your frustration, because, it will be an exercise in patience.

On the underside of the lid, there are two plastic runners cast into the lid, which run perpendicular to the lid as braces, and are parallel to each other on both sides of the center part where the air inlets and outlets are cast. It is best to position the dowels next to the outside surfaces of these runners. You have three dowels, so you need to balance the lid on a tripod. While positioning both the lid and the runner against the dowels, and the dowels on the baffle as best you can. What I felt was the best positioning, looks like the assembled Thien baffle photo I have supplied for study here.

The lid needs the elbow tube assembled back onto it. It is a compression fit so there is no need to glue, in fact, I would not recommend gluing it. I would position it as such so it seems to follow the radius of the bucket side a bit. Find two things about the same size and weight of block planes, (yes, even actual block planes) and have them ready. You will want to carefully set them on the lid once you have the lid up on the dowels above the baffle plate. This is because the dowels and lid will need some precision positioning and this will help stabilize things.

The measurements on mine can be different on mine than yours due to nuance differences in perception and layout. But first thing first is to position the dowels for their permanent mounting on the lid.

Refer to my photo again. See the dowel mounted next to the inlet elbow? That is dowel number one. Dowel number two is mounted at the opposite end of the same runner. The hole centers on my separator are approximately 3-5/8ths inches apart, and are not centered on the lid. They cannot be centered. Dowel number three is mounted against the back runner, and positioned so as to balance the lid. On my baffle, I found this spot to be near the corner on the vac outlet we added to the center of the lid, and on the vac inlet elbow side. When you find what feels like a solid balance for you, and this is a little tricky, carefully reach under the lid with a sharpie marker, because it shows up well, and try to circle the locations by tracing the place where the dowels meet the lid.

Ok that was fun… Right? Still with me? Hope so. Ok in the dead middle of these circles you just drew, use your center punch to mark the center on the circle and drill these for 1/8th inch and de-burr. I used drywall screws with countersink washers to mount the dowels to the lid. Go ahead and use the hardware you like, but remember if you are following these instructions, we center drilled the dowels for drywall screws.

Half done now and continuing, the next step is to position the lid over the baffle plate so as to be in the proper rotation for the air stream and the proper offset so the baffle touches the sidewall of the bucket in the wide section. Again, please refer to and study the photo. Note the position of the inlet elbow above the edge of the wide 120-degree section of the baffle. This is the position I felt would maximize the running room for the outlet, without causing decelerated turbulence in the narrow gap area of the baffle. Consider that everything you suck up has to decelerate along the wall of the bucket and fall through a 1-1/8th slot to get below the baffle. All this in 36 inches of circumference and windstorm.

That is the rotational orientation. You will want to assure that the next adjustment does not alter the rotational orientation. Now we have to tackle the offset orientation. Grab a four to six inch engineers’ square, or a square you have that is nearly equivalent. Stand it upright on the table so that the blade touches the edge of the lid in an orientation that is perpendicular to the radius of the lid and the wide 120-degree portion of the baffle plate.

Next, lay a steel ruler on the table along side the square and affirm that a 9/16ths inch offset is created from the outside edge of the outermost portion of the lid to the edge of the wide part of the baffle below. It should measure 9/16th on average along the entire arc.

How do we know this offset? The rim of the bucket is 11/32 wide. The thickness of the lip on the rim of the lid is 1/8th. The taper in the bucket, from the rim to the location 4-3/8ths inches below is 3/32nds. Add that all up you have 18/32nds of offset, or 9/16ths. Positioned as such, the baffle will touch the inside edge of the bucket circumference, exactly, with the lid on, and this is what you want for maximum efficiency. Now with a pencil, mark the dowel locations by circling them, find the center of those circles, punch and drill them for 1/8th inch diameter, de-burr, and sand the MDF baffle.

Now if you like, go ahead and apply Teak Oil and Wax to the baffle plate, if you chose to wait, or repair with the same from the de-burr and sanding, and assemble the baffle plate on the dowels.

There it is, the Thien Separator Lid for a 5 gallon bucket… this is the last time you will see it clean, and it was a lot to build in a small space, but it will be a good addition to your vac, and help develop your chops for future tougher projects.

Like most of us in woodworking, the shop vac is generally a rather central figure, and pulls the short straw on helping keep dust and waste collected in the workspace. The shop vac’s primary design is based around vacuuming smallish sized particulates, usually dirt into a canister, with a motor drawing air through a filter while trying to evacuate that air from the canister. Overall, the design works pretty well for most of the uses asked of it. They will even vacuum up liquids.

When I think about it, I have made it possible, directly or indirectly to be able to use a number of my power tools with my shop vac. Specifically, I have a 1/4 sheet palm sander adapted, 5 inch Random Orbital Sander, PC Saw Boss circular saw, DeWalt 621 plunge routers with a Leigh RVA1 router vacuum attachment, Hitachi chop saw with vac port in the hood, router table fence, 10 inch band saw, even the drill press, all with the ability to utilize the shop vac for dust and chip collection.

Then, there is the general clean up from all the woodworking activities that do not have the direct ability to collect dust. Drilling, jig saws, all the various hand tools and since I consider all the power tools to be efficient with shop vac DC in the 85-90% chip and dust collection range, there is all the waste that escapes that needs to be cleaned up there as well, So you see, without even discussing the high volume uses on the full sized dust collection system, The shop vac is really carrying a lot of the load here.

Woodworking materials present a different challenge to the shop vac. The woodworking tool industry has adapted many tools complete with proprietary adapters to operate with a shop vac hooked to them directly. Sanders, in my opinion, should not be operated without a vacuum attached to them or some form of DC in operation during the sanding process. The atmosphere in your shop will become very unhealthy if you don’t, to say nothing of the mess. Sanders are the generator of some of the finest particulate sizes you deal with in the shop, but the saws and routers create particles in many sizes at a relatively high volume. All dust collection is doable, but there are trade offs that occur and decrease some efficiency.

Two objectives the woodworker has in mind is minimizing a mess, and trying to keep the air in the shop relatively safe to breathe. The problem inherent with shop vac design is that we want it to give us filtered air from the very same filter we are clogging with fine dust, and as the filter fills with dust and clogs, the ability that the motor has to move air through that filter becomes greatly reduced. It has been determined that while it is difficult to completely isolate the filter from dust, we can scrub a great deal of the waste from the air stream before it gets to the filter. By doing this we can run the vac with higher flow efficiency, and deliver better quality filtered air for longer periods of time. This is most productive.

Over time, a number of different solutions have been offered for particle separation in shop vac systems. They run the gamut of high cost – high efficiency, to low cost – low efficiency, and all work to some degree or another. The nice thing about them is that they remove a great deal of waste from the air stream before it gets to the vacuum, and helps keep the filter cleaner and flowing air at higher volumes, longer.

The mini cyclones offered by companies like Oneida, the Dust Deputy and Clear Vue, the Mini CV06 offer the highest separation efficiency to the smallest particle sizes. This is some of the best scrubbing action available, removing most of the waste from the stream before it gets to the filters. Yet the cost to the woodworker can be difficult for some budgets. Another advantage of these designs is that the cyclonic portion of the scrubber is not taking up any of the space in the waste drum, and is separate from it. These units are desirable and a very good addition to your shop vac if you want the best separation you can get.

Going forward, there is a number of trash can lid separators, which are helpful in removing a great deal of waste from the air stream. They all work to a degree but they are realistically just trash can lids with vac hose inlets and outlets, and some take more care in the orientation of the airflow than others. As delivered the lids seem to do an adequate job of removing the large particle waste from the air stream, but a much more difficult time with the smallest particulates, like we see in dusts from exotics and MDF.

My thoughts have been for a while, that if there is any way you can help clean the air a shop vac is pulling without the material reaching the canister and filter is helpful. However, where the trash can lid separator falls short is that it is really nothing more than an in hose line expansion chamber for the shop vac, where we hope the airflow will act sort of cyclonically, allowing the materials in the air stream to fall out. At the same time, the design does little to help the air being drawn from the separator remain free of the filter clogging particulates.

Enter the Thien Cyclone Separator Lid
and Thien Cyclone Separator Baffle. Once you read up on Phil’s Thien’s page, you understand, there is the small budget / small space operation that needs better DC capability and help generating cleaner air for shop vac efficiency. I’ll just briefly say that Phil’s lid has several required design elements. It fits tightly to the container it is meant to seal. It has an inlet and outlet that fits common shop vac hoses. Its inlet is positioned in the right location to direct inlet waste stream around the perimeter of the container in a cyclonic manner. It has an outlet positioned in the center of the lid that takes air from the container in a way that keeps interference to the cyclonic airflow to a minimum.

Phil’s baffle is suspended below the air inlet and outlet about 3 to 3-1/2 inches it has a 1.125 inch slot which parallels the side of the container for 240 degrees of the circumference allowing the waste to fall out of the air stream as it slows, and fall below the level of the baffle. The baffle separates a chamber where vacuum air is drawn from the container so the air leading to the vacuum itself is separated from the waste below the baffle and the waste is not disturbed and re-introduced to the vacuum stream. Phil has a video on his site, which shows that in his 30 pound can design, it works very well, and the design is scalable.

Scalable. Nice. I wanted a 5-gallon version. I contacted Phil and asked him his thoughts. He felt there could be some issue getting the Woodcraft 2-1/2 inch Router Fence Dust Extraction Fittings (part# 85O13) properly positioned on a 5-gallon bucket so he suggested adding the baffle design to the Woodcraft Mini Dust Collection Separator Lid. (part# 143868) So I went to my local Woodcraft and obtained one.

Fortunately for me, my own shop vac was filthy with testing materials. The filter was encrusted with fines, chip sizes ranged from what random orbital sanders and saw blades make… Planing shavings, drilling wastes routing chips, Maple, walnut, poplar, even some MDF dust from jig makings. Throw in a few dead leaves and spider webs, you get the idea. It was real world shop wastes from a bunch of small projects. I dumped it all out on the shop floor and cleaned the vac, filter and all, plumbed up the Woodcraft separator, as supplied in original condition, and tested.

The heavy stuff mostly stayed in the separator until it reached a level where the outlet could get to it – suction wise, and then the rest went to the shop vac. I am pretty sure the highest percentage of all the light material went to the shop vac, and re encrusted the filter. It is such a small space and with only 17-18 inches of circumference to slow waste down in, before the Vac sucks the air back out—with an outlet exactly in line with the inlets air stream the space is just to small to really be effective. I gave the mess a 60/40 split between the Vac and the separator and took note of the particulate segregation.

I re-dumped the mess and tried vacuuming less of the pile thinking I overfilled and caused scrubbing as well as slower feed rates to emulate real world scenarios on a tool and I still got in the neighborhood of 70/30 splits between the vac and the separator. The small space is too turbulent to assure that the outlet will see cleaned air. Anything passing too near gets sucked straight through.

I cleaned the separator and dumped the mess back in the vac. As is, I will say this. Any 5-gallon bucket separator purchased as is, is not as effective as you hope it will be. But hope is not lost. The answer is in Phil’s designs.

I reworked the separator lid based on Phil’s baffle, scaled, and a moved the vac outlet to the center of the Woodcraft lid, using the same part Phil specifies for the full size design. Skip moving the outlet to the center of the lid at your own peril. My initial test proved to me that the biggest flaws the Woodcraft lid had was the inlet and outlet locations being equally opposite, and it did not need a handle. The nice thing about the design is that it is well-made, heavy duty, has most of the plumbing it needs, and fits the 5-gallon bucket very precisely. It needs no assistance to seal when the vac is running.

Testing resumed. I dumped the mess out on the floor and tested with a clean vac and filter. In test one, I sucked up the pile as fast as the vac would take it. This is not realistic; this was abusively ridiculous in terms of real world shop vac use, under all but the most severe mess cleaning scenarios. I lost no suction. I filled the separator to the underside of the Thien baffle.

I estimated the efficiency at 95-96% to that without a separator. The interior of the vac canister had a thin coating of the lightest dust, about 1/8th to 3/16ths inch at the bottom of the vac, mostly MDF and mixed fines throughout, with the heaviest concentration on the filter. Nowhere near the encrusting I observed without the baffle on the separator, and the same waste had thinly, yet fully caked the filter pre separator. The filter pleats seemed to have less than 12% of what had been embedded in them without the separator.

I cleaned and tested again. This time I fed the pile slowly; at about 1/8th or less the speed I fed it the first time, trying to emulate what real world vacuuming might be in dirty circumstances, or heavy waste collection from a tool and filled the separator to the baffle. This improved efficiency again. I witnessed improvement in the Vac by better than half, so call it 97-98%. I did however notice that on these first two tests, there was heavy waste accumulating above the baffle, and reasoned I may be over filling, so I decided to test again.

I cleaned the shop Vac a fourth time. I really am over cleaning it now. Honest. I may dream about it in scary ways though, for a night or two yet. I felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, or Tommy Chong going down town to look for a job on the first three days of his summer vacation.

I tested again. I sucked up 1/4th of the pile fed at the same slow feed rate I had in Baffle test two, and then I peeked. Nice. I found nothing on top of the baffle in the separator. The vac was receiving the finest dust only, and like I said, I had been working MDF so I had some tough dust. Generally speaking, most users will not routinely see this type of fine dust unless they work MDF or tropical hardwoods. If those woods are not in use, I would expect to see cleaner filters yet.

My observations based on the first three tests with the baffle, I feel on test three the vac was 98-ish percent cleaner than with no separator in line. These are just non-scientific observations, and I’ll accept no liability for them, as I am just eyeball estimating comparative quantities. I was not able to observe the cleanliness in the vac, like Phil’s video shows on the full size Thien collector with all the additional room it has, which I feel is an attribute that enhances overall efficiency. This was not as clean as the Oneida or Clear Vue products with their true cyclones fully out of the waste container, either.

In the 5-gallon bucket, there is little space for waste with the baffle in there, but the separator lid with Thien modifications really does improve the airflow to the shop vac so much, it is worth using, you just need to monitor it, and dump it more frequently. It is more efficient when not allowed to fill too near the baffle, yet very easy to empty. No fasteners to fool with, just lift the baffle lid off and dump the bucket.

My testing isn’t concluded. I need to just observe and see how well it works under routine usage, in real world collection, working whatever woods and tools I work. I imagine it will be a bit more efficient than I have observed so far in this manner. Keeping airflow cleaner at the filter will be a boon to higher suction overall, for longer periods of time. This means cleaner shop air when sanding, and hopefully now, less sanding dust will find its way to the shop vac filter. I may see collection improvements at other tools I use it with as well, based on routinely having a cleaner filter and higher airflow, this may improve chip capture most notably at the chop saw, saw boss and router table fence.

At the 5-gallon size, this separator with the Thien modifications isn’t going to replace the real shop vac cyclones in all materials. It cleans out larger particulates on par with the cyclones, but it is not near as efficient with fine dusts. However, at around $30.00, the 5-gallon separator with Thien modifications is a vast improvement over a shop vac and a separator without one. It bears repeating, keeping air velocities higher, longer is the key to better collection, and cleaner shop air. I feel, based on the videos I have seen of all three separators, at the 30 gallon size, Phil’s design gives the mini cyclones excellent competition.

After observing its limitations at this scaled size, I would recommend this small Thien modified separator to anyone if you are on a budget, space or money wise.

During the evolution of a woodworkers development… A development which never ends by the way, a person observes design, considers various methods of joinery, acquires the tools that coincide with their preferences for the various methods of work, develops a style they enjoy as they continue to grow, and accumulates a TON of hardware along the way.

Back in the 30’s, 40’s 50’s and 60’s of the last century, woodworkers commonly used containers named “MJB”, “Hills Bros”, and “Folgers” for the proper containment of “hardware”. The proper methodology for sorting the “hardware” was to sort through the top inch and a half of the can, and then up end the contents on the bench for a closer sort of the needed hardware at the bottom of the can.

A higher tech solution was to use mason jars, commonly used for canning, and errr, other handy and imaginative uses, and all you had to do was deny knowing anything as to where the canning jars were when it came time to put up preserves, and the high tech part was that you could see in advance that the “hardware” you were looking for was at the bottom of the jar.

Advances in baby food preserving had the Beech-Nut Corporation putting 13 varieties of food into glass jars, beginning in 1931, and the resourceful woodworker in fatherhood found this as a boon to “hardware” storage. The thing was you see, the integral lids could be mounted to the bottom of shelves, making use of otherwise unusable space, and the woodworker could simply look from underneath and see the needed hardware at the bottom of the jar, and not have to spread as much on the bench to sort for the needed pieces.

The 70’s brought forth the use of plastics and many innovative storage solutions came to light. Boxes and bins made from plastics that handily held large quantities of hardware, mixed quantities of hardware where the odd sized and weird shapes would fit, and the part you needed would still furrow to the bottom of the bin.

Then there were the tiny metal cases full of even tinier transparent drawers filled with barely any hardware, which would fail if you tried to actually use it, so you tossed the hardware you bought into it but eh, still dumped the contents on the bench because your fingers wouldn’t fit in the drawers.

The steel fab folks came up with some wonderful hardware storage solutions, and when you went to town to the parts houses, you asked for parts and the counterman would reach back and grab a drawer, set it on the counter and open the lid and man, you wanted the sliding drawer storage cabinet worse than you wanted the “hardware”. So you ask the guy behind the counter and he shrugs and says eh? “That comes that way from the supplier”… Bummer.

The Fishing Tackle industry went big on modular storage containers in the 90’s and boy was that stuff great, but… But then you had to choose, because if you used that, what would you store your gummy worms and crappie jigs in? Worse yet, you have the hardware boxes with the worm and lure boxes in the shop, so on the last second phone call from your buddy for fishing excursions, invariably you wind up in the boat with a box full of jewelry box hinges. Wait! Trout hit shiny stuff right? Rig the hinge with some donor leader and some split shot… Of course McFeely’s came to our confusion issue rescue with the Super-Sortment Chest, and Adjustable Compartment Tray.

Problem solved. Right? Well, no.

The Calliard and Bowser Company has been supplying those curiously strong Altoids in metal tins since the 1920’s, c’mon… You can’t throw those perfectly good tins away, can you? Nah, and you haven’t been either. You got them laying around, and saving them up for when there is something you need to store, just in case, or something. Besides, they are shallow, they latch shut, hardware can try to furrow to the bottom but they are (ahem) shallow, and your fingers fit in them! Eh, so why not use ‘em? You can’t save them all for a “what if” situation forever, so stop the hand wringing, and make some of them into hardware storage.

My approach was to use the Altoid tins for organized hardware storage. The costs of having them was almost nothing since they were purchased over time, yet Costco will sell you a dozen full tins for around $13 dollars. That is still so cheap that the costs are nearly negligible even if you throw the mints away.

You can use them just the way they come, once they are empty if you like, or you can give them a bit of an upgrade by getting one sheet of 12 x 24 x 1/8th inch thick cork, and two sheets of 9 x 12 inch self adhesive felt, all for less than five dollars. This is enough material to line 24 tins.

Make some cardboard patterns for measuring and marking the needed sizes from old shoeboxes. It is a heavy and durable cardboard for this purpose. The altoid tins, bottom inside measurements are 3-11/16 x 2-9/32’s inches, and the radius on each corner is 1/2-inch. This will mark your cork. The sides of the altoid tin, after the cork is installed, measure 5/8ths inch wide to under the lip. My template is 10-7/8’s inch long and has some overlap, which is desirable to me. I overlap the felt in a corner.

For tooling, I use a sturdy hobby knife with a fat handle, a 24-inch, straight edge, but a ruler is just as useful, I just prefer the heft and high sides of the straightedge. I also use a 4-inch engineers square. I use these as layout and cutting guides. I also use a washer with a 1-inch diameter to trim the 1/2-inch radius corners of the cork. It may be useful to be able to re hone the blade of the knife as you work.

Once the cork is cut to length and width, the washer is placed in the corners as a guide to trim the radius.

It is a nice press fit to the bottom and since cork compresses a bit, the cork stays put once installed, without needed adhesives.

The cardboard template lays out the needed width for the self-adhesive felt strips, and the straightedge is a great cutting guide. Honing the knife a bit before you cut the felt is a good idea, and you may need to run the knife through a couple times anyway.

Then remove the back and apply the felt to the sides of the tin. I am right handed and decided it was easiest to deal with the lid hinge side first, so I start in the back left corner of the tin, and I wind up with approximately 1/2-inch of overlap in that corner when I finish. The overlap isn’t a requirement, but it works well with big fingers.

Then all there is left is to load up the tins with whatever it is in your hardware storage you want to organize more accurately. Best of all, the size of the tin is such that your part can’t furrow too deep, contains enough for a project and your fingers will fit into while not taking up too much space on the bench while it’s needed. And the tins latch shut very well. All qualities I enjoy in a hardware storage container, and they look cool as well as being a useful way to recycle something.

Oh, there’s one other detail… How are you going to organize all those altoid tins full of hardware? Well, in a cigar box of course! Everyone saves those too, don’t they? I found some that will store a dozen altoid tins stacked on end in two columns, six on each side. The cigar stores sell empty boxes between one to five dollars apiece all the time.

It is just another way of tackling shop organization, and helpful on a budget, if you would rather spend your discretionary income on projects or tools.

Yup. The Challenges to Squareness.

You didn’t actually think this was going to be easy did you? Well, it isn’t always, but I think the endeavor of overcoming some of these challenges can make things better, especially if you like taking good to great. Knowing what some of the issues can be, and how to overcome them when and if they arise, can help our results better match our desires.

We learned in The Constructs of Squareness article that geometrically speaking, a right angle is 90 degrees, and if it isn’t 90, then it isn’t a right angle. Everything can be represented perfectly on paper, in CAD drawings and in theory, but in building, milling, and manufacturing there are a number of factors, which can affect the quality of accuracy. Some we have to accept, some we can learn to work with, and knowing the difference is how we approach closer to fine, if fine is the goal.

Things that affect the accuracy we use to build do vary. Goals, philosophy, materials and tooling all play a part.

Goals affecting accuracy are often production oriented, cost oriented, or what the intended use of a final product is. If the Goal is to build a doghouse, it needs done quickly, and the price of materials and labor needs kept low, then, the accuracy of squareness need only be relative. If the goal is to make a jewelry box, where scale is small and appearances will be highly scrutinized, then the accuracy of squareness becomes much more important, because the philosophy behind jewelry boxes is seeing how far craftsmanship can be taken. Close tolerance fit and finish is a very large part of how this type of work will be evaluated.

Philosophy does not always have to do with goals, but is often a party to goal-oriented work. All craftspeople over time develop an inner guide regarding the level of accuracy and craftsmanship that are acceptable for their work. Sometimes it is based on the kinds of work they most enjoy, the styles they work in, the level of patience and time they have to give towards their efforts, and if they are working to requirements which are or are not their own.

Materials are often a factor. Consider many different materials, and the methods that render them into a finished product. Casting, molding, rolling, extruding, machining cutting, grinding, all leave behind a surface quality which can affect accuracy, the very accuracy that may be needed to reach a goal. The layout work for a piece of rolled or ground steel may have a smooth surface and take place on a granite surface plate. This smoothness of the surface qualities are enhancements to accuracy.

Wood smoothness is variable, and dependent upon the state of milling it is in. Cutting marks on an 8/4 board from the hardwood dealer can easily be in the +/- .005 to .015 range, and some board surfaces can be found that are coarser than that. Saw tooth marks, planing snipe and other machining factors are the norm. It is up to us to render woods smoother with our own processes, and some woods are rendered smooth from machining processes easier than others.

Moisture content can also play a role. Beyond the limits, which the cellular structure of the wood itself inherently provides, the smoothness from our milling often determines how well we can do with the quality of accuracy we can render upon it. We can mark it for squareness anytime we like, but the quality of squareness we get, no matter how good the tool can be degraded or enhanced by the quality of the surface we are working with. This is why it is a good shop practice to sneak up on the final sizing you need as the board is milled to final dimensions, the process can become more accurate as you go.

Tooling can be a factor. Tooling is available in a number of levels of quality, and accuracy. The higher the quality, of course the higher the cost, and the level of accuracy is commonly better, yet it does not mean that lower quality tools can not be found to be, or made to be highly accurate. It should be evaluated case by case. There are budgets to consider but I’d like to advocate that when it comes to layout tools and approaches to Metrology, it never hurts to do the best you can, and buy the best tool you can afford.

Straightness is a factor, which I touched on, in an earlier article, called The Utility of the Straightedge. Too, squareness benefits from this same straightness, and angular precision is also brought into the mix. Consider a Starrett combination square. It is adjustable, blades are interchangeable on it, commonly to 24 inches, but 36 and 48-inch blades are obtainable. At 24-48 inches away from the squares head, one can begin to realize the value of having straight edges, and precision angular accuracy coming from the tool very easily. If a square with this capability were to contain error, imagine how amplified the error would become at three to four feet from the reference edge.

High accuracy in the tooling pays you. Even when wood surface quality is poor, the layout cannot be more accurate by any tool that is not accurate. The surface quality of the wood can be improved though accurate machine setups, various cutting, planing and machining methods to enhance layout accuracy, if the layout tool can “bring it” to begin with. This means finer accuracy from layout tooling is possible if layout is performed after the surface quality of wood is improved.

Certainly the doghouse we talked about earlier will not be rendered higher quality by using a Starrett precision square, but the jewelry box will suffer if the square used to lay it out was not accurate. If you choose to tool up well, then you are free to work at any level, choosing the level of accuracy you desire, and often even verify the quality of other tools you may own, so you can be aware of the quality of layout they offer, and you can account for, compensate, or restrict the tool for use where it is adequate for the work it is called upon to do.

Wood movement is often at issue, as a reason precision accuracy is not necessary, or desirable for woodworking. Most often, the argument stems from not knowing the ways which wood moves more specifically, therefore ruling out wood altogether as a material capable of high accuracy and precision. Yet those who endeavor to understand wood movement achieve very high quality, stable results from wood in as built conditions.

Here are a few notable thoughts regarding wood movement.

Select grain structure is important. If wood stability for a project is desirable, consider that quartersawn woods are more stable than plainsawn, because the board grain does not cross the pith;

Quartersawn wood orients the growth rings radially, that is, at 45 to 90 degrees to the wide surface. Wood movement is along the rings, and rings are kept short by half or greater in quartersawn boards than that of plainsawn, and the movement from moisture content expected from quartersawn is half that of plainsawn.

Plainsawn lumber deals with growth rings from zero to 45 degrees to the flat side of the board, otherwise called tangentially, it does cross the pith, and movement in these boards can be expected to be twice that of quartersawn.

Vertical, clear grain boards will be most predictable. Avoid boards with interlocked grains, variable grains, reaction woods, tension woods, and mineral deposits, as seasonal movement from moisture content in boards like these is not predictable even at equilibrium moisture. If the figure and beauty these woods can offer is desired, it is up to the woodworker to design with this in mind, and build into their project the compensations needed for these factors.

Once EMC, Equilibrium Moisture Content is achieved, and considering the common ranges of humidity for the area of the country, as well as where the wood will reside in regards to climate control or not, and whether the air handling has air conditioning which is capable of dehumidifying are other factors.

The good news is, wood movement in a climate-controlled area, such as indoors, often has very predictable movement in select, uniform grained boards. A great deal of research and observation has been conducted over the last century, dealing with the many species of woods that are used as building materials, and the data is freely available for use to the builder. Please see Wood As an Engineering Material, written by the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory as one of the foremost writings on this subject. There is a copy available in the Woodworks Library.

The details can be accurately worked out. Properly sawn, select lumber is also helpful when future predictability is desirable, and most boards will not shrink more than 0.2% longitudinally from green to kiln dry, so most any angle cut on the end of a board will remain accurate, as originally cut over the service life of the piece, meaning the accuracy of squareness, can be made highly precise, and can be counted on to remain that way.

Learn to familiarize yourself with the various appearances of grain in wood, and know where and when to put it to the best use. While they can be very, very beautiful, boards of any variety containing interlocked grains, variable grains, reaction woods, tension woods, and mineral deposits will not move consistently when the seasonal moisture in these boards swings. Cupping, twist, warp and wind are all plausible factors, which will affect dimensional accuracy in any direction and the best way to deal with this is to bring these boards to EMC and let them move all they want as they acclimatize.

Begin final milling difficult boards by starting a bit bigger than the intended final size. Work your way in, so as to relieve any of the stresses these boards may have, correcting as you go, so that when you have them at the final dimension, and in the realm of the target EMC, you have the best chance of knowing the future outcomes, and then design around the seasonal movement they will still require.

Once the boards have been milled to the flatness, squareness, and dimensions needed, the next step often includes joinery, and adhesives. Joinery inherently enjoys flatness, straightness and squareness as components of it’s fit and finish. The need for close tolerances is relatively high. Glues commonly call for joinery tolerances for squareness and parallelism of .002-.005 inch, for optimum adhesion, and clamping forces will not help you achieve better results from improper milling.

If the factors affecting wood movement and surface smoothness are observed, wood should be able to be worked and milled easily to accuracy approaching .001 inch, and certainly .001-.003 inch, depending on grain smoothness. As previously discussed, not every project will require this precision in every way, and it will be up to the builder to decide what works best for the project. However if the tooling you own cannot bring .001 inch accuracy, cutting tools cannot mill to accurate lines, and the bets for precision are off, whether the project would benefit from fine looking accuracy or not.

The prevalence of the right angle in engineered structure is probably second only to the straight line in order of importance. Engineered structures in wood are often using plane geometry to help describe and document what they are and how to build them.

Much of the way we think about civil engineering, architecture, woodworking, and even some metalworking, call it flat work if you like, is based on previously understood, maybe even taken for granted, notions about geometry.

Every line that goes in a given direction without variance to that direction is straight, all points that lie upon a line, line segment, or ray can be thought of as congruent. At any point on a line, another line, line segment or ray can intersect, begin sharing a common end point, and create an angle.

There are four ways we look at angles… The most basic angle is the right angle, the angle of 90 degrees, which when measured, corresponds to a quarter of the 360 degrees in a circle, or some thing other than a circle that circuitously begins and ends at the same point. The other ways we describe angles are of angles smaller than 90 degrees which are “acute” and angles larger than 90 yet smaller than 180 degrees, which we call obtuse. If the angle is greater than 180 and less than 360 degrees we call it a reflex angle. When working in terms of squareness, we are only concerned with the 90 degree, or right angle.

Classically, a square has four angles and each of those angles is 90 degrees. If we add all four of those angles together, the result is 360. The interesting thing to note here is that in geometry, and fine work, 360 is not acceptably 359 or 361, and considered a fit. It is either square, or not.

Unlike all the other geometric shapes that use right angles, the square has four sides that are of equal length. This gives us two diagonals, which are also equal. When the diagonals are equal, they are equal to 1.41 times the length of the sides, otherwise known as the square root of two, and this value is referred to as Pythagoras’ constant. These diagonals also form the hypotenuse of right triangles, if the sides of said triangles are equal length.

Now, making your head hurt is not what I am trying to do, but you now know that you can check for squareness if the diagonals within the square are equal length. But what if the sides are not equal length? Well if 2, 3, or 4 sides are not equal, then you don’t have a square, and the angles will not be 90 degrees, except in one case, and that is when each pair of opposite sides of the 4 are equal length, yet adjacent sides are not equal length, This too creates square corners, can be checked with equal length diagonals, and Pythagoras’ Theorem is used instead to find the length of the diagonal. and conversely

Did you guess? This squared, non square is called a rectangle.

Square to the builder is simple, it can be the box or the rectangle, but it is most usable as another name for a right angle. Cutting something to square, or squaring something simply means to form an accurate right angle on the end of it.

With that and a tape measure you can square boards, boxes… Power at your fingertips!

The creation of square where there is not square is easy to do, positioned wherever you need it. You need sharp pencil, a ruler and a compass. Follow along with the diagram, hand drawn by the way, just to show that it can be drawn anywhere. Here are the steps:

With the ruler, draw line AB, and make point A on the left end. With the compass point positioned on point A, swing a short arc mark at any radius length you like, roughly off to the right of the intended perpendicular near the 45 degree radian. Pick any spot you like on that small arc line and cross it to mark your RP, or Radius Point.

With the same compass setting, transfer the point of the compass to the RP and starting at point A, draw a circle based on this unaltered radius length.

At the point where the circumference of the circle intersects line AB, establish point B.

Place the pencil at the RP and position the ruler against it. Align the ruler through the RP and point B. Then draw a line through the circle that intersects point B, the RP, and the circumference opposite point B. Establish this new intersection as Point C. This is Line BC.

Position your pencil on point C, and position the ruler against it. Align the ruler to point A, and draw line AC.

Depending on the how and where this is arranged, this creates a right angle every time. Layout lines for square. The process is called Erecting a Perpendicular. Simple, accurate, scalable, uses few tools. Squareness wherever it is needed. You can even draw it upside down and backwards.

Perhaps line AB and AC already forms the edge of a board or panel. That works. If point A is allowed to be the corner, a point B is established along the horizontal, and a Point C is established along the vertical side, and measurements are taken of line AB and AC. Plugging these measurements into Pythagorean theorem, and conversely will give the length of the hypotenuse, and if it does not measure the same, the board or panel is not square.

In any case, the constructs of square have some pretty simple and humble beginnings, and when observed in working, they help things fit. Now we know a bit more of the back-story. The fit and finish of any project is often defining of many things. Squareness often plays it’s part in the mix, and is often what we are striving for.

…Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Honing. (Dr. Strangelove has nothing on us.)

Ok, this is a little longish, but there is no substantial way to provide a sharpening primer in a sound bite. I’ve tried to write about what will work well overall, without getting too focused on too many particulars in any sharpening media. No matter which way you choose to go ahead with sharpening, this advice should be helpful to you overall. It’s a reasonable primer that will put you on the road with usable sharpening skills. So grab a snack and a drink, and settle in for a bit. If you really want to learn to sharpen, reading this will likely be worth your time. Your Questions and Comments are invited as always!

When it comes to sharpening, abrasives are abrasives the world around. They may have particular idiosyncrasies you need to pay attention to, but they all abrade metal. Once you choose the abrasives you feel will work best for you, you will establish your own routine for working with them. All paths are means that will lead to a similar end. Waterstones, oilstones, ceramics, particulates, sandpaper, various styles of machine sharpening etc. The steel does not care; the abrasives don’t care either, as long as the grit equivilents of abrasiveness are appropriate to the goal. Sharpness.

For the sake of this discussion, I am referring to the abrasive grits, as they correspond to the grits common to waterstones. I do this simply for the reason that waterstones are very popular, but I am in no way advocating that waterstones are the best abrasive. Most all abrasives will sharpen, and it is up to the end user to investigate the pros and cons of the various abrasives to determine the best paths for themselves. For cross-reference please refer to this cross reference chart to derive the equivilent grit for the media you choose.

It is important to keep in mind that the goal of sharpness has stages.

Coarse grits are for grinding, heavy material removal, bevel forming, flattening. Initial flattening and bevel angle forming are the biggest jobs and to aid getting the job over with, the coarsest grits should be used to get the bulk of these tasks done.

Fine grits are for honing and polishing. Once you have established bevels and flatness on the backs, you will want to polish it. Removing coarse scratches in steel with finer ones is what creates finer sharpness. Sharpness actually is where the intersection of the two planes formed by the bevel and the back meet. The finer they are polished, the sharper they will be. the act of creating the wire or feather edge happens when the bevel side of the iron or blade is abraded until the dullness has been honed away. This is required to establish a fresh edge on the tool, and can be done with any number of the different honing or grinding grits.

It is up to the sharpener to determine how dull the tool is, and select the coarseness or fineness of abrasive grit needed to restore the edge to sharpness the fastest way. This means, it comes down to how much steel needs to be removed on the bevel side to form the wire, or feather. You must determine the condition of the edge, and the fastest way to restore it. If only a lttle honing is needed to restore the edge, don’t select coarse abrasives when you begin. If a lot of honing is needed, don’t select fine abrasives when you begin, but realize you will have to polish all the way up through the grits to the fine abrasives to restore the sharpness.

It is important to get a feel for the finish your honing equipment will give you as a finish result at each stage of the work. It will aid you to learn to evaluate what is needed, where to start, how long to hone, and when you have reached what was needed. Knowing this simplifies the task and helps you save time. This is experiential– it is learned by using the sharpening tools you have on your edge tools. It is getting to know one another. Call it sharpening intimacy if you will.

A little about flattening the back. Many people take this as meaning they must flatten the entire back of a chisel or plane iron to properly complete this step. Nothing could be further from the truth, but you can be happy if you’ve the mind to. Try thinking of how a knife has a bevel on each side of an edge. Remember how we hone both sides to make a knife sharp? We are simply trying to hone both sides of a chisel or plane iron too, but we want to keep the flat side in plane with itself for the most part.

Flattening the back really only means that you only need a planar surface near the location where the bevel is, and the width of flatness on the back, or in other words how far away from the edge on the backside need be no wider than the bevel is, but you are welcome to flatten more of the back if you like, because sometimes it is easier to hold the tool on a wider surface.

Flattening doesn’t have to kill you or be drudgery, just buy a Kanaban plate and some silicon carbide grit or diamond paste and get it over with. There are a number of places that sell those items, so in all fairness to them, please use a search engine for pricing. That is the fast track to flat backs. It is more important for backs to be a planar surface, flat, than it is to have a mirror finish, but the mirror finish is what we often wind up with eventually anyway.

The bevel side too, the bevel’s actual surface, is a narrow flattened plane. It is the intersection of these two planes where the angle forms. The flatness of these two planes are what help them succeed at being very sharp, at the angle point. In fact it is difficult, maybe impossible to achieve a high degree of sharpness if this planar-flat surface isn’t present on each surface that makes up the bevel.

It is geometric, and has to respond to a couple different things all at once to be most effective. Just like you would hone both sides of a knife to restore its edge, It just happens that on edge tools, the back makes up half of the beveled edge. It is the straightness of these two planes which form a line along the intersection of these flattened and honed surfaces, and that makes this edge. It is also often helpful if this honed edge is square to the side of the blade, unless skew (an angle that is not 90 to the edge) is desired.

Guides are useful for grinding specific angles. Please feel free to use them for the heavy work. Honing and polishing are something often done quicker, which is more useful and easy if you can learn to do it free hand. Free handed, the side sharpening method is likely the easiest to learn and use. The steel does not care, the wood does not either. If you cannot do this well enough, please, feel free too use the honing guide.

Remember, forming a wire or feather only means you have ground, honed or polished past the dullness, depending on how long you allowed things to dull. It means you can now stop grinding and start honing and polishing.

Honing up through the finer grits is how we remove the wire edge created by honing past the dullness. If you hone and do not create this wire or feather, then you have not honed past the dullness. The dullness is the wear on the edge that you want to remove. The wire edge is what you want. It is the indicator that you have abraded the steel enough to have ground away the dull parts. Once you have achieved this all the way across the edge, you can then begin working both sides of the bevel with the grits appropriate to the level they are currently polished, alternately, to hone the edge to working fineness.

When honing off the wire, always hone the backs of the tool with the finest grit you have previously honed the back with. It often means alternating stones from the bevel to the back, but why scratch up the back if it is already polished?

If you examine your backs and bevels after honing to a mirror finish and see a glint of light right at the angle point, that is a flaw in your work. It should be a complete surface with no glints of light sparkling at you, especially from the bevel angle point. Glints of light indicate dullness.

In most steels, once you have honed through the grits to the 8000 grit stone, you have honed finely enough to pare end grain pine. End grain pine is the most difficult wood to pare without crushing; it really is the toughest task an edge tool for use in wood will ever see. **(Japanese tools often use finer steels and traditionally were used in softer woods, so there may be some benefit in honing good Japanese steels slightly finer if for use in soft woods)**

There are no recognized tests of, or charts with “scales of sharpness”. The time honored test for sharpness has been and always been; if the edge is sharp enough to do the required work in the material required, to the level of result desired, then sharp was sharp enough. I personally contend that with the wide ranges of tooling, sharpening media, and woods to use them on, this test for the woodworker is still good enough to be true.

The only major corollary to this adage is concerning edge-wear. Can the sharpness last a reasonable quantity of time, so as to bolster productivity? That would depend on the environment. Is it one of production or for that of the hobbiest? Harder tooling is wonderful in a production setting where the sharpening media can match the task of maintaining it, but can the hobby woodworker go toe to toe with the price tag needed to buy in? For most of us, common tooling is just fine, and the results of adequate sharpening as shown in the work have always sufficed, once learning what is needed so as to make results repeatable has been established.

You do not have to shave off your hair! Many people contend hair popping sharpness is an adequate test for sharpness. The truth is, it isn’t. Hair is not wood, and shaving a hair from the surface of skin is is a completely different set of circumstances and dynamics happening, that actually do not require the sharpness required to take a shaving from wood.

The sharpness required for shaving is not as sharp as required for paring wood and as such is not an adequate test for pairing wood. I can shave hair with knives coming off 1000 grit abrasives. Since this is true, what if you can shave hair, should you stop honing well before you are sharp enough to do the work you need to? I was able to accomplish hair popping sharpness with spit on carborundum stones as a young kid, so I am not personally impressed with hair popping sharpness.

For woodworking, shaving hair is the equivalent of a neat card trick. Good for show, not much go. This is a long way from the sharpness we need to push a blade through end grain pine with least effort, so as to pare it. I am saying, we are aiming for and achieving a much higher level of sharpness. If you have sharpened to 8000, you are well past the sharpness needed to shave hair. (Read this as, being able to shave hair can fool you, I hope I have made that clear.)

If you visually examine the edge and see no glints of light reflecting from your edge, and you have polished to the 8000 grit level, no tests are necessary. At 8000 and after a little stropping on leather, the tool is as sharp as you will ever need, I assure you. Honing beyond here is a lot of work spent honing with a diminished work time in wood. In other word, the honing takes longer than the dulling does in this range. You can strop on leather with a little honing compound if you like for a slightly finer edge, which is sometimes temporarily helpful in softwoods. Again, if you feel the need to test, the pine is fine.

Much has been and continues to be written about sharpening, and I encourage you to study this subject, and pay attention to your own realizations as you sharpen. This here is at the heart of what you really need to know. It isn’t rocket surgery. Once you get the heavy work done, (flattening and bevel shaping) it is done forever, and “maintaining” sharpness should generally take no more than 30 strokes on most any stone as you hone up through the grits. This means, If it is taking more that 30, you chose to hone with a stone to fine for the work you need done.

Don’t let your tools get too dull before you touch them up. You can easily maintenance hone as you work. It can take less time to keep your edges in working condition if you become a fastidious maintainer. If you have to rebuild edges every time you sharpen, then you have likely waited too long, and that is a lot more work than 30 strokes of maintainence sharpening.

I need to touch on one last thing here. Bevel angles. Commonly, woodworkers like to bevel their tools so as to be easiest to push through the work. I feel there are some hard fast rules that need to be understood.I am going to touch on a common for instances.

In a nutshell, not all steels are created equal. There are trade-offs we have to learn to live with. Here are a couple.

A-2 like any Steel, has a particular molecular structure. In A-2, the hardening process forms carbide particles in the steel which has a high wear resistance. It will stay sharp longer than that of other steels, but it will require you to sharpen it at usually no less than a 35 degree bevel angle in order to maintain an edge that won’t fail. In other words, If you attempt bevels of 30 degrees or less with A-2, the effect will often result in the edge failing and crumbling. This is due to the very carbides that form to make it wear resistant. It also takes longer to sharpen than High Carbon, or O-1 Steel. As such, this steel is not the best choice for low bevel angles where paring is desired. A-2 is far better lasting where the tooling will be struck with a hammer like in mortising, or for people who prefer a lot of chopping with their bench chisels, or when used to plane in abrasive woods like many tropical hardwoods.

O-1 and high carbon steels are considered finer grained and do not form these carbides in them in the same way A-2 does. As such, these steels are able to hold a shallower bevel angle than A-2 commonly can without edge failure, they sharpen faster, some feel they sharpen finer, and lend themselves well to shallower bevel angles that works well with paring and lighter impact work that is common with many american hardwoods.

in any case, watch your edges. If you find them failing it is usually some combination of the steel type and wood hardness coming to loggerheads with the style of work you are performing and the bevel angles you have. Prepare to adjust the bevel angles accordingly.

My overall sense of this as well as my recommendation to you is this. A-2 Steel really prefers most usually to have a 35 degree bevel ground on it for best outcomes. To go shallower than 35 degrees with your bevels is something you may find works, but please don’t have high expectations. While these angles are not good for paring, they are great for rough service, so mindfully purchase O-1 or high carbon steels for the paring tools. O-1 Is not going to hold a lasting edge is really rough service. Steepening the bevel angles will help, but it still preforms better for finer work. Asking one steel to be all things to the various woodworking tasks is not going to happen. The same is also true of the tooling itself, some things simply find it difficult to interchange. Generally Speaking, Rough service bevels are in the 35 degree range, General purpose bevel angles are in the 30 degree range, and light service or paring bevel angles will be ion the 25 degree range. The steel you have may require slight adjustments, just realize your steels can not be all things to all situations and you will be well serve when reaching for the right tool for the job.

I hope these tips help get you on the path to maintaining your tooling with the least effort possible!

Lets face it, sharpening can be a big undertaking. Many edge tools we bring in our shops will benefit from having a flattened back and the optimum bevel angle for the task it is meant to do. Streamlining the process is possible, and most of that comes from organizing the honing gear so it can work the best with your applications.

Sure, That is a very large amount of application options. There are variables such as steel types. Cast steel, hand forged, high carbon, O1, A2, and D2. There are sharpening options. You have scary sharp, water stones, oilstones, and diamond stones amongst your choices for abrasives. There are a number of different sharpening methodologies, various jigs, freehand, even machines.

I use a portable sharpening station designed for use with stones, with both jigs and freehand manner. This helps facilitate the process, contain the mess, protect other shop furniture from damage and helps keep the honing tools organized. It can be used in a couple configurations, and can be moved out of the way when necessary. It is simply stored when not in use.

The base is made from 1/4 inch MDF, cut 19 inches deep by 16 inches wide. It is bordered with 1×2 poplar, mitered in the corners, glued and screwed to the base. It has a poplar 1×2 running along the front beneath the base. It is designed to be a bench hook. The hook registers against the edge of whatever you place it on. You may see in the photos, where I placed a small F clamp on the left front corner to keep the station in place while in use. You could use a holdfast, the bench vise; squeeze it between bench dogs, your option. It is designed to work however, wherever.

On the left side of the base, a riser made from 3/4 MDF, cut 11-3/4 x 4-1/2, is meant to be a stone base, and is glued along the edge rail on the main base. It has a poplar backstop for helping hold stones in place, added to it. The 3/4-inch riser is what is needed to allow clearance for your fingers when holding tools in various positions, especially during the back flattening process.

There is room inside the station for your spray bottle of water, can of honing oil, or the stone lubricant you prefer, various stones, jigs, edge tools, and what have you. If it is dirty from sharpening swarf, this is the best place for it.

For a resilient finish, this assembly was treated with 3 coats of Teak Oil, applied as directed, allowed to soak the MDF, wipe off the residue and allowed to fully dry. It was then wiped with mineral spirits to clean up any residual oils from the oil finish, and coated with 2 rubbed on coats of Poly.

In the front area on the main base, there is also a removable 3/4-inch MDF base, designed as a bench hook, which is cut 10 x 4 inches. This size is the exact size of the DMT brand, Non Skid Mats, and will accommodate most common stone sizes. It also has a poplar 1×2 backstop along the back, mounted to the edge of the base, and a 1×2 hook on the front mounted from the underside. It is finished the same manner the large base is.

The complete ensemble is very water resistant, very easy to clean.

When in use as a 2 piece station, a non skid mat is placed under the portable base in front so it wont skid, and a non skid mat is then placed on top of each sharpening station to help keep the stones in place, a job these mats do very well. You can flatten a wide chisel or plane iron with a stone like the DMT XX coarse 120 grit diamond stone, and the stone does not move. It is very effective.

When used for shaping bevels, or doing major flattening on edge tools, I use both stations in ensemble. The long station on the main base is great for use when using jigs for bevel reshaping. The portable auxiliary station is placed in the front of the main base, and is used for general maintenance honing, and for flattening and honing the wire off while major bevel work is being done. Both stations offer all the finger clearance needed for holding most any tool in the needed orientation for the sharpening.

The auxiliary station is a little more versatile when it comes to various tasks. It is handy for odd shapes like router blades. It will allow the stone to be placed near the front edge in a stable manner. It is also handy for honing off the wire without having to remove the tool from the jig. The sideways orientation is also very useful when honing cutlery and other knives.

For general woodworking, the small station can be used by itself. Just place a Non Skid Mat, or any non-skid material available on the bench, and place the little station on that. Another non-skid mat is then placed under the stone. Simple maintenance honing is possible, freehand using push pull or side sharpening methods, or with simple edge holding or side sharpening jigs. Touch ups only take a couple swipes on the finest stone, and depending on the wood you are working, you can choose to strop or not.

If needed, the little station gets out of the way, simply pick it up. Gravity and the non-skid mat are all that is needed to hold it still. Since it is a small bench hook, it can be used any place on the bench edge that is convenient. The hook can even be held in the vise. It only needs positioned on the edge during the honing process.

Feel free to design a station to meet your sharpening needs. Sharpening is a workflow, and is best made to suit the way you work. If you are still developing your workflow, this may help. You may have just been wondering if there is a better way to organize the process or help contain the mess. Maybe you have a space limitation, and need to move the station in and out of the work area as you go. This is just a concept. If it seems like it could help you, then use it. If you are a southpaw, simply reverse the layout.

For those who would like more views of the station, which can be expanded to much larger, more easily viewed images, please follow this link to the Sharpening Staton in my woodworking gallery.

Precision refers to the amount of dimensional accuracy or incremental refinement used when something is made, and can be attributed to the quality of the layout, workmanship, or machine set up.

Accuracy refers to the confirmation of dimensional tolerances.

Dimensional tolerances differ with the various types of projects a woodworker will commonly undertake. The set up of shop machines and precision hand tools often requires the precision of accuracy to be at the thousandth of an inch level, however most woodworking projects require accuracy at a level which is commonly referred to by fractions, and is often referred to in the 1/32nd (.031) to 1/64th (.016) range.

The quality in our craftsmanship is inherent in our understanding of these constructs, and our personal stake in setting for ourselves, a level of tolerances. These tolerances are the differences between woodworking, and fine woodworking.

It may not seem relevant, but here is an analogy for higher accuracy. A surveyor will set up an optical instrument, and first, sight their back sight. What they are establishing is a couple of different things, but what is important for us to know for this discussion is that the further away the back sight is from the instrument, the higher the precision of accuracy will be when the surveyor makes other measurements that are shorter than the distance between the instrument and the back sight. The practice is sometimes referred to as going long, and is meant to create higher precision.

One of the common things I have heard over the years, is that in woodwork, a high degree of accuracy is not needed, and then there is the ever ubiquitous, “wood moves anyway”. The understanding being overlooked here is that a lot of assumed accuracy is inherent in the process, because it has been manufactured into the tools we buy, as well as a lot of the lumber we purchase, and we take for granted that it is already “there”. Even wood movement is understood and can be compensated for with relatively high accuracy. None of these assumptions fully get us off the hook.

Consider the ruler. Sure, the ruler has the increments we need, the 1/32nd, and the 1/64th… But we rely on the very same precision accuracy at the fractional level to be consistent to the thousandth of an inch, to assure each of those graduations are where they’re supposed to be. Someone in some lab and factory put all that accuracy into our tools. If we want our precision to maintain 1/64th accuracy, it has to be consistently maintained to 1/64th, plus or minus .001-.002, otherwise the eye will be drawn to errors. After the tool has done its part, the rest is up to us.

Unfortunately, not all levels of woodworking accuracy can be assumed. There are some levels that each of us working the tradecrafts are personally responsible for, and things go better when we are mindful of them.

Take for instance, straightness. The layout of lines is many things, but few things in the layout of lines are required to have the precision of accuracy we have come to expect from straightness. From precision straightness, we can evolve precision flatness, and also use precision straightness as a construct of precision squareness. Parallelism is yet another important derivative of straightness. How straight, straight is, is a pretty important matter. It is always best to start from the best we can do, as it will surely be degraded from there.

Think about the tooling we use to create straightness and flatness. It is inherent in the tooling and machinery. It had to get there somehow. We have to accept that the industrial designers, engineers and machinists did their part, and many woodworkers rely on the good graces of a millwright they never met for a lot of built in accuracy, but there is another part, which they left to us.

One of the more important tools a woodworker can own is a good straightedge. You can have them short or long and there are a number of makers offering them, but if you choose only one, a two-foot straight edge offers a lot of well-rounded utility to the Woodworker. Once you have one, what I want to encourage is; the use of it. Sure they are high accuracy, but it isn’t just for hanging on a peg and looking at.

Straightedges in the woodworking shop have a lot of application. They are available in both steel and aluminum, however they all have more utility if they are made from flat bar stock. Steel straightedges are generally made from stress relieved, 01 steel and are hardened. They are precision milled straight and parallel, and often offer accuracy generally to .001 over the length of the tool. The manufacturer will state the accuracy of their tool, sometimes offering a letter of certification as well. They lay flat on their backs for scribing or drawing lines, and stand on their edges for the comparison of surfaces. They are available with or without beveled edges, and with or without graduations for measurement, but these upgrades are not a necessary requirement, and usually add cost. If you can only afford one, it is better to leave measuring to steel rulers and tape measures.

I find the non-beveled, non-graduated types are less expensive and if it is less specialized, then it usually will offer more utility. Another rational is, that the less it costs the more likely a craftsperson will own it, and if you don’t have one, you can’t put it to good use. There is a lot of good use to be had. Longer than the average ruler and better quality ones are thick enough most generally to stand on edge.

For layout work, the straight edge is a heavy, wide tool, which stays where you put it and has a tall side, which is great for the marking of your work. It is very comfortable for use with any pencil, and it really shines while a marking knife is registered against it. It is an excellent way to connect all the straight lines after you have laid them out. It is also a very nice extension for use with the squares you have and will extend the reach of shorter tools when more reach is needed.

To the hand tool user, the straightedge brings a lot of utility. It can be used to verify the soles of hand planes. After you see where the work needs done, you can then lap the soles to correct the issues and verify as you go. Feel free to verify the flatness of your honing equipment. Flattening the workbench with the use of feeler gauges, a straightedge, and marking is a great use of the tool, because the high spots can be found and removed. The flatness of the workbench is a frame of reference for all future work that comes off it.

Is your board, especially when prepped by hand ready to accept the joinery profiles you intend to put in them? The flatness and trueness of boards is crucial for the fit and finish of dovetails. The plowing of slots and grooves such as dados and sliding dovetails, as well as the treatment provided by hollows and rounds are always made to look a lot better on boards that have been properly evaluated as ready by a straightedge. Handwork is a challenging process; why not evaluate the needed quality before moving to the next part of the process? Besides, the evaluation of a freshly jointed board edge, is just a quick quality assurance check, and a savior before you find an error in mid glue up.

The straightedge is also useful when evaluating the cup, twist, and wind in boards as well as evaluating the flatness of panel surfaces. A pair can even be used as winding sticks. Another good use is for establishing the straightness of the chute edge and fences on a shooting board as well as the overall flatness of its surfaces. While you are at it, evaluate your other shop built jigs from time to time as well.

For machine setups, routine adjustments and maintenance, the straightedge is a great tool. It is invaluable for evaluating the surfaces of the jointer beds for parallel and coplanarity as well as the proper calibration of its vernier settings.

The table saw can be evaluated for table flatness, which is not uncommonly found to be less than perfect yet in some cases correctable. There is also the adjustment of side tables, out feed tables and the trueness of miter slots. It is also valuable to know what the relative flatness and straightness the fence faces have. If there are anomalies, you can then compensate or adjust for them.

Miter saws can use the straightedge for evaluating the trueness of the fence, and are also aided by the straightedge when side wings, when used, are leveled with the main surface of the saw.

A straightedge can also be used for the routine set up of roller stands when used as an in feed or out feed support on any shop machine.

The router table is a high precision shop machine which is commonly shop made. There are many uses for the straightedge with this tool. Evaluation of the tabletop is a constant need with some designs due to the weight the tabletop supports. Many designs are under built and table sag is an error inducing issue. The plates often used to fit the router to the table can be ill fitting in their mortise, and require fine adjustments be made, in order to be brought flush with the table surface.

The router table fence is often in need of straightedge evaluation as well. It needs to be flat and straight, if split, it also has a need for coplanarity. It also must be evaluated to determine if it has any tendency for deflection. The router fence is also a candidate for using a straightedge along with 1-2-3 blocks, gauge blocks and feeler gauges for the settings of the fence and router bit height. With these tools in use, on a well-made table, one can expect fully repeatable accuracy from a router table to be in the .001 range.

The evaluation of any wood, which has been prepared for milling, is important as well. Any cup, twist, warp or wind is something that will throw off the fit and finish of the simplest joinery, and even make edge treatments like bevels, round-overs and more sophisticated profiles look awful. Further, these evaluations can make a lot of difference as to how safe a milling process may be. Knowing ahead of time saves a lot of needless frustration. There are few tools available to the woodworker which can assure things go right, and evaluate why things go wrong, with more power than a straightedge.

If I thought about it, there is probably much more which could be said about such a simple tool, but this is a reasonable well-rounded look at it. It may seem to be a cost prohibitive tool to some, but after thinking outside the box with me awhile, you see it has so much application, and with its evaluatory prowess, how much money could it save you in error free or error caught woodworking, even over the short run? In my shop, it has more than earned its keep and continues to, as I find that wood is costly, even more so than tools. In fact, around my shop, the straight edge offers more value than many other needed tools, and if you can get your mind around that, one will serve you just as well. It can touch so many aspects of your woodworking, that is, if you give it a chance!

Hey all! Thanks for stopping by! It is nice to see so many people dropping by and looking around. The Woodworks here is a work in progress and will grow over time. I thought I would take a few moments to show you around, so that while you are here you will be able to find what you came for, or, or… Well let’s just show you around the place. Trust me, there are lots of cool distractions in here.

Across the top of the site there is the moniker, which like the “Home” block, you can click and return to the home page. Along with the home block, there are six others across the top there, here is a little about them.

The “About” block is a little about me, just so you have some sense of who I am and what my background is. Some of us like to have a sense of the writer, or the person they are interacting with. So there you have it, a bit about the man behind the curtain.

The “Contact” block is a way for you to email me directly for whatever reason. There is a form that comes up and you just fill in all the appropriate details, click submit, and it gets to me. You can offer suggestions, or request things or just say hey, what have you. I am always up for a good conversation.

The “Gallery” block opens a page here in the Woodworks with a link to my Gallery. It is still in its infancy, because many of my preceding projects were not well photo documented, if at all. It is partly due to the, “who would have thought there would be an Internet” factor. Since the Internet, while I have made projects, I haven’t always had a digital camera, nor a desire to be on the web, and detailed documentation just wasn’t something I had been thinking about. So I have some stuff cobbled together there, some of it is fairly documented, some needs help, or is in some state of coherent recognition, but it is all a work in progress and aren’t we all managing a few things like that?

The table saw restoration, miter saw wings and router table in the gallery are all pretty complete presentations, and I think you’ll find that if you click to see the large photos, the narrative I wrote about each photo is often more detailed as well. It is also a place where I’ll toss things up when the photo says it well and so forth. Sometime I am sure I’ll refer to a photoset in the gallery from my journal posts but either way, it will always be evolving and I can’t say when, but it is worth a look.

The Library was something I already discussed in a previous post, so I’ll just say that clicking that block will take you to the link to go there. Over 100 old woodworking related books, digitized and in the public domain, please, enjoy. If you know of any books I don’t have in the library and you think they would be a good fit, feel free to use the contact block and say hey!

The “Reference” block leads to a page with a link to the Woodworks Reference Library. It is a small, yet hopefully a growing listing of pages I have designed for clean print and readability that you can take to the shop and put on the wall for the many things you will refer to in your woodworking or other shop endeavors. Things like steel hardness charts and tap drill sizes, things we all have to hunt the internet for, and hopefully as time goes by, I’ll accumulate and format more of what is needed in one easy to find place.

Again, if you have suggestions, please feel free to contact me and ask. All the reference charts will be of common free use data, it is free to use, and I put it there for everyone to use, so print it and take it to the shop. There will also be technical papers I’ve written in the Reference Library. Please feel free to print them for your personal use as well, however, if you wish to use my technical writings and other work in your publishing endeavor, please contact me.

The “Links” block leads to a page of links… an obvious duh really, but have a look, it is not just the average page of links. I have Cian Perez’s “Neanderthal Braintrust”, and “Power Index” there, as two of the best, most comprehensive “How To” oriented link sites on the Internet. I am really proud to be able to feature, and help people find those, as they are a true resource for us all! It is a huge undertaking, Thank you Cian! Also, I have links to things like the Shrinkulator and Sagulator, just to help you build better. There is a listing of Artesian Tool Makers there to help you find the best of what’s around. I have also listed a number of well-respected dealers in new and used tools. Again, its not an exhaustive listing and not meant to be, and there may be some great places to shop out there, which I may have missed. If there are places you trade and feel it would be helpful if they were on the list, please contact me and we can look into what possibilities may be.

In the “Sidebars” you can click the little orange button to subscribe via RSS newsreader to the latest writings here at the Woodworks, or I have added an email subscription service which will allow you to receive email updates as a heads up, when I add a new post here at Woodworks. You can manage your own subscription and change addresses, unsubscribe, or what have you. This is a legitimate service, you have to completely confirm your subscription or any changes to your subscription via the email address you supply to prove you are subscribing legitimately. Your personal data requirement is minimal, never shared with anyone, and you will never be spammed. All it is for is to notify people when I have posted something new. It is also control that I put completely in your hands.

Also in the Sidebars is the listing of my last ten posts, listed by title, in chronological order. A clickable listing of Archives, posts made in any given month and year. A growing list of categories, of which, there are about 25 so far, which will reveal themselves as I continue to write, and a search engine which works fairly well. It isn’t Google, but it will get you into posts where I have used the keyword you are searching with, so the more specifically you search, the better the result it will supply. There is also a calendar, which displays the days I have posted during the selected month, and if you click the gold colored dates you will be taken to the post made that day. I am offering an archive of information, which will hopefully grow over time, and my want for you is to have a lot of different methods to search for and find topical information inside it, depending on the way you remember things best.

There is also the “Blogroll” which showcases a number of other woodworkers who are writing their thoughts down about the craft, and publishing them on the net. They are sharing their insights, approaches, philosophies, ideas, and reviews of tools with us. Some are very hands on, giving you a look over their shoulders at the way they woodwork. Some are tool makers, some are tool resellers, some are journalists, some are downright funny, some are podcasters, and the biggest common denominators is that they all have heart and want to make woodworking a better experience for others. I cannot possibly decide which of them will be a best fit for you, so I am offering you the links which I hope will help you find them. Please feel free to click their links and have a look at their sites, as there is a lot they all have to offer us, and you never know what will become a best fit with you.

To finish the sidebar, there are just a couple other sets of links. One is a duplicate of the top links for those who still eschew graphics, and a picture of my logo… The Logo is a Ying Yang symbol which for those who may not be familiar, refers to the interactions of opposites, which cause everything to happen, and cannot exist without each other. For a more in depth understanding, research it further at Wikipedia. It is overlaid on a background of curly bubinga, a wood of immense beauty, which will take you to school, when learning to work it. Woodworking is full of Ying and Yang theories; feel free to think about it sometime, I think you’ll see them. Working wood has its parallel metaphors in life. It reminds me always that there is always something more about both to learn.

Finally there is the part where the latest message is. I am trying to keep the page scroll light so just a taste of each thought for a paragraph or two, and if you like, you can click either the title, or the “Continue Reading” link to finish the rest of each post. These too have been organized so as to be easy to read and easy to print, should you find them useful for use in the shop. If you read all the way to the bottom of any post, there is a comment box down there, and you are free to use the feature if you like.

Amongst the many dilemmas facing the woodworker, just a few are what to build and how to build it, but even as those questions seem like early ones in the process, the earlier ones considered are even more elementary.

The nature and ways of wood, joinery, adhesives, and style are all things that need to be dealt with in the “what” to build and “how” to build it. Is it furniture, casework, cabinetry? Will it involve carpentry, as a built in as many elements of Arts and Crafts styling will? will it include some metal work or upholstery? Other leading questions like, will I have the appropriate tools, and can I properly fixture the work for all the different elements of construction? What finishes are most appropriate, and how best to apply them?

You see, it is a lot of questions. Fortunately there are a lot of answers. The art and craft of woodworking is age old, in fact, even our great grandparents and grandparents knew a lot about it, and lucky for us, even as much of an undertaking it was to publish books back in the day, the understandings of the woodworking trades, the methods and the how to with hand and power tools was something they authors of that period wrote about quite articulately. There was a want for future generations to know these things, and there was a lot they understood.

With all things old becoming new again with the resurgence of interest in woodworking as well as some of its somewhat forgotten ways, many libraries as well as groups like Project Gutenberg and companies like Google and Microsoft have taken on the mammoth task of digitizing many of these old texts, of which there were few left in access to the public, before father time could claim them. Fortunately many of these books are now available in the public domain and can be used quite freely by anyone as long as their purposes are not commercial.

The daunting thing I have learned is that it is hard to know what all has been digitized to the public domain, and where exactly to find a particular kind of knowledge, because each place has a bunch of books but none of them has all of them. Harder still the books are not categorized for easy access to the woodworker with a need for specific information. My desire was one amongst others I am sure, to help people find and have access to this old but still completely relevant information. By the time I finished hunting (for now) I came up with over 100 books and nearly 1 gigabyte of collected works.

This collection became The Woodworks Library. My criteria for the library was to only have complete books which were fully clear in the United States as existing freely as public domain. The original copyright holder has not renewed their claims and the book is no longer of commercial value to publishers, this means you can have it, I can have it, and as long as we do not use it for commercial use in any way, then the priceless information within is available to help us all be better at the things we hope to achieve.

The Woodworks Library is organized in a somewhat comfortable fashion. I did not bother with over-categorization of it, because many of the books in it cover a wide range of subject matter. After evaluating each book, I placed it in the list according to what seemed to be the biggest theme of the book. You will find that many of the books will cover many of the same things, topically, but once you wade in, you will see that the books were written at different times and or each author came from a different school of thought, and so the cross comparisons of information will be very interesting.

Read with an open mind and remember the era for which they were written as well as the audience the author was writing to. While it is great to feel a certain book speaks to you more than another, there is something in all of the books and the differing methods and understanding are of note, because it affords us all a chance to walk in that author or editor’s shoes. Wood, and the crafts that are supportive to it, are a many faceted knowledge, and you never know when a knowledge you discount or disagree with today may become your saving grace tomorrow. So just do your best and absorb all you can. Trust me, there is a lot to read and many of these authors clearly made sharing it with future generations it their life’s work.

Is there something in here for everyone? Perhaps a little, maybe not. I’ll leave that up to you to decide for you. That which is here, I’ve tried to organize by listing books and writings in categories which were most directly related yet not overly topical, and as a descending list in an order, which mainly attempted to group like with like without being too constraining.

By topic, we have; Understanding Wood, Furniture and Design, Woodworking, Carpentry, Turning, Carving, Finishing, Patternmaking, Shop Mathematics and Calculation, Blueprint Reading, Hand Tools, Machine Tools, Shop Machinery, and finally, Blacksmithing Welding and Metalwork. Remember, There are over 100 full-length books, and the occasional technical paper, just waiting for whomever to have a look and learn something new.

Feel free to bookmark the Library, and remember there is always a link to it directly on every page here at the Woodworks, so help yourself, and learn what was known about working wood long ago. It is here for everyone to use as a resource that helps us all become better woodworkers. All the information is as valid and applicable today as ever. If you know of any books in the digital realm, which are in the public domain as complete works, and seem like they are a good fit for the Woodworks Library, please fell free to contact me about them and we’ll see what we can do to add them. After all, it’s all for anyone practicing the crafts.

I want to have that little talk with you about, Fractions. Yeah. But the plan is, if all goes well, that it won’t hurt – as much as it did last time. Working in sub inch territory usually involves the use of little buggers. The problem many people have when working with fractions, is that they relate the use of the common fraction to their math education experience when they were in school as children.

Our school systems scared the bejeezus out of everyone by forcing us all to learn a series of mathematical exercises, which evolved around fractions that we would never use again in our entire lifetimes. For many, this often created mental blocks to the entire notion of fractions, even the simple useful ones, because after that harrowing experience, it seemed that nothing pleasant could possibly come from the manipulation of fractions at all. In fact, when people are faced with dealing with fractions, they generally feel some panic along with it. A panic that rates up there with the sound of high speed dental drills and root canals, and it is most likely from their harrowing experience in math class. Folks remember what all the wonky practice of solving mismatched fractions was really like, and relate that it was way, way too similar, and maybe even the diabolical preparation, for diagramming English sentences later on during their high school education.

I hope I can help make this a lot more user friendly!

Fractional arithmetic for measurements within the sub inch territory is much simpler than the nightmare a lot of people conceive it to be, because there is a fixed set of fractions that are in use, and memory tricks which you can learn to make well practiced calculations that you can do in your head. This is the reason why the trades have been slow to discard the use of the inch. The fractions are just too handy for halving, quartering and doubling.

There are just some basic constructs we need to know about fractions. A quick few definitions of terms, and memory tricks for using them quickly, and we can be off and running with this for most linear measurement purposes.

Basically put, a fraction is a division problem, which is meant to deal with components of a unit that are smaller than the unit of one. Within the realm of linear measurement, the constructs used are expressing the halving of the unit from the whole on one end, to what is commonly considered usable with common tools on the other. The tools are made to fit the fractional intervals.

Commonly, the scale by incremental division looks like this:
1, 1/2. 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128.

In descending order you have a process of halving, and in ascending order you have a process of doubling. Divide or multiply by 2. So there is a memory trick. Get used to doubling and halving units less than one.

Though the numbers in the fractional divisions seem to become larger, it does not indicate the size of the unit, but rather, the quantity of units, which will fit within an inch, so it is best to think of it inversely. The larger the number gets, the smaller the unit is.

The parts of a fraction are worth touching on for a moment.

1 (the numerator) It is the first number or the above number as written.
– Then there is this dividing line, which signifies the division problem.
2 (the denominator) It is the second number or the below number as written.

The dividing line has a name and the name is different depending on how the fraction is written, but the names of the separator do not help you work with fractions easier. So don’t worry about what to call it. For us, “Slash” and “Dash” are fine.

The denominator signifies the sizes that the divisions of one (1 inch in our discussion) are. The numerator signifies the quantity of those denominated divisions we have.

For most of our purposes in linear measurements, these fractions when used strictly as fractions of an inch, will only be added and subtracted to and from each other.

It is important to accept that 1-inch can be expressed as a fraction. No matter what the denominator may say, if you have any quantity of numerators equal to the denominator, the quantity is equal also to one. Such as 4/4ths, 8/8ths, 32/32nds.

For expressing results when two fractions added together create a numerator, whose quantity exceeds the value set by the denominator, then a whole number, such as 1, 2, or what have you, is generated, and the fractional remainder is then expressed with the whole number. This expression is called a mixed number, and is the final expression of your result. As an example you would express 3/4 + 3/8 as 1-1/8, instead of 9/8.

When expressing fractions, they are best expressed in the reduced or simplest form possible. If the numerator is able to be added to another numerator which will derive an even number, the denominator level you are working with may not need to be referred to as a smaller unit, in fact, when numerators added together resulting in an even number, the denominator can likely be expressed as a reduced or simpler unit. As an example: 1/4 + 1/4 = 2/4 = 1/2, and 3/8 + 3/8 = 6/8 = 3/4. It is considered best practice to express the fraction in its simplest form.

A useful property of numbers, which creates a memory trick that we can use, is that if one of two numbers to be added together is an odd number, it will always result in the sum of the numbers being added together to be an odd number. Interestingly, even numbers when added together will result in an even number, and when any two odd numbers are added together they will also result in an even number. Learning to notice this trick will alert you to when the numerator will result in an odd number. When the fractions numerator is an odd number, the denominator cannot be expressed more simply than the finest size being used amongst the mixed fractions, and you will not likely be able to simplify it beyond that resultant fraction. As an example: 7/32 + 1/8 = 11/32. The trick here is that 1/8 has to be converted to its 32nd equivalent, 4/32, and then you can easily add it to the 7/32. The result is as simple as it can be made, because the numerator is an odd number, and cannot be reduced.

Halving all fractions, which are not part of a mixed number is a pretty simple process. Halve the denominator, (multiply the denominator by 2 as this doubles the fractional division making them smaller by half) the numerator remains the same. The result is always half. For example: 3/4 halved is 3/8. 5/16 halved is 5/32. 7/8 halved is 7/16, and so on.

For mixed numbers it is almost as easy. Convert the mixed number into a pure fraction and multiply the denominator by 2. When finished, convert the fraction back to its simplest form, which includes reverting back to a mixed number if that is the simplest form. For example: 1-7/8 = 15/8ths. 15/8 halved is 15/16ths. This is its simplest expression. 2-9/16 = 41/16ths. 41/16 halved is 41/32nds, which is not a simple fraction, so converted back to a mixed number it becomes 1-9/32nds. Please note again, the numerator numbers in simplest expression form did not change from the original expression. Remember when you see the numerator, the trick is that it will still remain the same but the denominator changes by half, leaving little to think about once you remember the trick.

Fractions by the 128th, from 1/128th to 1/4th, as expressed in simplest form. Observe the patterns: 1/128, 1/64, 3/128, 1/32, 5/128, 3/64, 7/128, 1/16, 9/128, 5/64, 11/128, 3/32, 13/128, 7/64, 15/128, 1/8, 17/128, 9/64, 19/128, 5/32, 21/128, 11/64, 23/128, 3/16, 25/128, 13/64, 27/128, 7/32, 29/128, 15/64, 31/128, 1/4. See the interchangeability of denominators?

And finally the last biggie is that fractions only hit specific decimal locations, so sometimes, in order to get to an increment near the fraction you have, you need to convert to a decimal and work it from there. It is simple. Divide the denominator into the numerator for the decimal equivalent. For instance 7/64ths would be converted by dividing 7 by 64, and the result would be .1094, 3/4 would be .750, and 3/32nds would be .0937. How fine is markup to the 128th of an inch? It is .0078 of an inch. Call that about the width of two whiskers.

Why is the fractional to decimal relationship important? Say you are working on adding a shelf to a cabinet project in 3/4 Baltic Birch. This is nice plywood, commonly available, but the thickness is actually metric. 3/4 is close to 18mm but there is a catch. The decimal equivalents are not exact. 3/4 = .750 and 18mm = .709. This is a 41 thousandth of an inch difference, which will need compensation. Usually the compensation is made by working to the fraction nearest to the metric equivalent, which in this case is 23/32nds, but there is a .010 of an inch remainder. This can be an unacceptable gap in some work, so this too is good to know.

Another workaround which creates a better looking fit, could be to disregard the metric size for joinery altogether, and create a 1/2 inch tongue and groove, but in order to center the .500’s of an inch tongue on the .708 inch thick board, you are going to have to subtract .500 from .708, and halve that result of .208 to make it .104, so you know what the shoulders for the tongue will need to measure, in order to center it on the metric board. The nearest fractional increment to the proper size of this shoulder is 7/64 and as you see by dividing 64 into 7 that .109 will make the shoulder too large. The shoulder too large will make the tongue too small. If you cut to the nearest fractional increment here, the tongue will be centered but only .490 wide, and this is a sloppy fit in a .500 groove for very fine work. In fact the same quantity of slop you had working 18mm into 23/32nds. Now you can dial in the necessary compensation.

Knowing how to manipulate the fractions and knowing where the fractions lie amongst the decimals will help you build higher quality into your fine woodworking or machine work, where fit and finish is everything.

Hopefully these memory tricks and conventions will help you to work with fractions faster, easier, and more proficiently with more confidence. The understanding of fractions for use in linear measurements is conquerable, and for the most part is kept pretty simple and doable by the constructs involved with them. One could only hope that much of the rest of fractional manipulation could work as easily.

Going forward, feel free to practice these memory tricks, and if you like, add both a fractional and decimal dial caliper to your metrology tool arsenal, they will help you a ton. For further reference, feel free to use the Decimal Equivilents chart I have provided, as well as the other tools available in the Woodworks Reference Library. They are all printable and ready for use in the shop.

The way measurement is handled in the United States, and to some degree the UK and Canada, depending on the person’s age, is the foot. The foot has an interesting history, and there are a couple different accounts you can go with, but it has its beginnings in the Roman Empire.

Before the world was very big and there was not so much need to measure great distances, measurements were based on what a man had, er, handy! Sure there was mans foot, which is the foot’s namesake, but it didn’t keep a consistent length, so three hands, four palms and twelve thumbs worked better to more consistently derive it. So the Foot became the distance of 12 thumbs, and the width of the thumb became the inch. Welcome to base 12 measurement.

After the fall of the Roman Empire when the Anglo Saxons conquered Western Europe and called their new land, Angle Land (read England) they used the length of 3 barleycorns, as measured from the middle of the ear, placed end to end as an inch, and 6.5 inches was called the shaftment, which is equal to two palms. (Roughly 3 inches)

And so it was, until the Normans conquered England in 1066, whereupon they brought the old Roman system back to usage. King Henry I set the foot at 12 inches, the shaftment at 6 inches, and the yard at 36 inches. The standards for the inch? Three Barleycorns. So we have 36 barleycorn to the foot, and 108 to the yard. King Henry’s standard was made official by an engraving of one foot on the base of a column on the old St. Paul’s Church sometime during his reign. And so using the barleycorn and such, the system ascends upward through the inch the shaftment, foot, the yard, the furlong, the mile… It was known as “by the foot St. Paul’s”

John Barleycorn Must Die.

After the French revolution in the 18th century, the French Academy of Sciences divided the Prime Meridian into quadrants, which is 1/4th the distance around the earth, longitudinally. They then said that 1/ten millionth of this distance will be known as one meter. Going forward since, the want for the most accurate meter possible has become something measured by a standard of light waves in a vacuum traveling one meter as a function of how long it takes.

Descending from the meter we have the centimeter, which is 1/100th of a meter, and the millimeter, which is 1/1000th of a meter.

Because one quadrant, 1/4th the diameter of the earth can be considered such a consistent value, Science quickly adopted the metric system as the definitive method to measure, because all descending units were derived from mathematical divisions of something huge, which offers a real basis for accuracy, as opposed to the foot, which is a derivative of hands, palms, and thumbs, which are defined by three barleycorns.

In 1921 the American Standards Association responded to a request set forth by the Netherlands that a conversion factor be agreed upon between the inch and millimeters. 25.4 was recommended and between attempts by the Ford Motor Company and ASA to get this settled 10 years later, the final installment came in 1959 when the US sealed the deal with the Commonwealth of Nations. The US has been trying to adopt the Metric system ever since.

Since the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, and in many ways prior to that The US Military and many manufacturing firms have gone with the metric system. Despite the mile markers on our highways, many states go with the federal want for the metric system and the roads are built to metric specs.

But is John Barleycorn dead? No. Because the wood manufacturing trades find the good old inch convenient, in it’s fractional ways which can be halved and quartered and such, with the eye being able to see and mark to the 1/64th on average, as well as the way the foot continues to fit well the sizes which Americans like and prefer.

So raise your glasses in auld lang syne to the inch and John Barleycorn. Because ground into your whiskey and your ales, John laughs last, and lives on.

“They’ve hired men with the crab-tree sticks,
To cut him skin from bone,
And the miller he has served him worse than that,
For he’s ground him between two stones.

And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
And he’s brandy in the glass,
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
Proved the strongest man at last.

The big thing about using steel cross dowels for knock down construction is that your layout must be absolutely meticulous. I have, and continue to use these a lot in jig construction, but there are a lot of other great applications.

While a lot can be done with these, a common application is for use in workbench base construction. Real life happens. People move, circumstances change. Sometimes the dream shop in the basement relocates to a garage or an outbuilding. Many of us cannot build a bench with the certainty of knowing it will never need to be easily transported to elsewhere at some future point. This makes the use of steel or brass cross dowels a wonderful option.

While this article is about what it takes to install cross dowels, due to popular demand I have researched and included links to what I feel are the best sources for this hardware in it’s various sizes out there. The links are included at the end of this article.

It is notable that bench building is enjoying a renaissance right now. some great new designs, vises and hardware packages have recently become available.

Amongst these offerings, a top of the line All Steel Cross Dowel Package has been made available by Benchcrafted. They are marketed as Benchcrafted Barrel Nuts, and they are the best product available to the bench builder. Unlike any other cross dowel meant for use with benches, these are all steel for heavy duty applications and the design allows the installer to align them with fingers during assembly. These are top quality, a great value and installation doesn’t get simpler.

Ok, if you already have your hardware in hand, then layout for cross dowels in knock down bench legs works like this. If you have not obtained the parts you need, please consider waiting until you have it in hand.

Lay your two legs and cross piece on the bench, Inside face facing up, already milled, mortised and tenoned, and dry fit them. Clamp them top and bottom to hold the unit together with enough force so that things will not move while you perform the layout, and check them for square. Make sure you have them square.

If you have a Veritas saddle square, or equivalent, that would be handy, but if you don’t, no matter, here is a work around:

Position the leg assembly by allowing it to hang over the edge of your bench and support it with a something like a telescopic roller stand. Take a six-foot length of string line and tie a nut or a heavy washer on each end for weight, and drape it over the leg assembly, along the centerline of the crosspiece. This string line forms somewhat of a double-ended plumb bob, which will indicate the centerline of your layout work and will project these lines around corners. You can eyeball centerline of your work piece or measure. Once the string is located, go ahead and put a piece of blue painters tape on each end near the corners where it drapes over the edge.

The best position for the cross dowel on the bolt is at the end of the bolt with all the threads in the nut fully engaged. The formula for figuring cross dowel hole location from any combination of length and diameter hardware is to take the working length of the bolt (which differs if the cap screw is hex head, allen head, button head or flat head) and subtract half the diameter of the cross dowel from that length to find hole centerline for the cross dowel. The length of the bolt, when you are choosing the length optionally, is best determined by the thickness of what it has to pass through on the bolt head side, plus 1-1/4 inches minimum into the adjoining board for cross dowel centerline.

Metrology is defined as the science of measurement. More particularly for the woodworker or the home shop machinist/toolmaker, one of the divisions of metrology, which is of particular interest, is applied or industrial metrology. This is about the application of measurement, the suitability of measuring instruments, their calibration, and the quality of the measurements they produce.

So the accurate instrument is applied to create a needed measurement. The quality of the measurements becomes the layout that evolves into successful production. The gist of it is that the woodworker is trying to produce a thing, and the thing is often rendered from a drawing and plans which include materials and cut list. The go between that takes the project off the prints and puts it on the materials being used are the tools of metrology. The measurement and layout tools.

The heavy hitter in the woodworker’s and home shop machinist’s shop then becomes not only the quality of the layout tools, but the knowledge of how to apply them, and the quality of the results rendered by them, and that trifecta is the system of dimensional metrology.

One of the things I have enjoyed down through the years is the process of laying out the work. It is something I have enjoyed professionally, and something I enjoy as a hobby, because the challenge, which comes from, it is always new. I am sure that for some, the problem-solving component of woodworking is what keeps their hand in it. It is not as much the end for some, as it is the means.

In any case, the subject of metrology, most specifically ‘dimensional metrology’, the tools and the layout strategies that they help employ are something of a fun puzzle for me, and will be a part of what I’ll write about here. It has it’s own category, and I’d like to extend the invite to click into the subject from time to time, just to see if there is something there for you.

Layout work is a tedious and exacting part of woodworking. We select boards for size and grain orientation. We hope this is in part, the “art” of our work that separates our project from that which is good, to that of greatness.

We sharpen our tools and skills, we buy accurate measuring and marking tools all with the hope of accurately conveying our vision. We go to work and accurately lay out the work, checking, and double-checking everything as we go to assure we have everything right.

We cut our wood, taking care to get every cut right and of course they are perfect, except for the fact that the face of the board we loved so much is now going to be the back, because we got turned around while we were trying to be so careful. We did not mark our boards properly to affirm their proper orientations in the project above all else.

Can you imagine being half way through with some half blinds when you discover the orientation error?

Oh Man…

A bummer, but it is avoidable.

Buy yourself some chalk and mark your boards as to the intended orientation. Chalk is a buck for a box and it could save you thousands of dollars in layout errors over time. Wipes off, leaves no trace, keeps you on the intended track

Blue painter’s masking tape and a Sharpie marker is a great adhesive notepad for on board paper brain purposes as well.

As an upgrade to plain chalk, consider getting a chalk holder for your piece of chalk. It keeps you cleaner and helps keep the chalk from breaking and rolling off onto the floor. Keep it in the pocket of your apron really nice, you know, where you may find it and maybe remember to use it!

You can also use the blackboard chalk as a release agent on files so that hardwoods, brass and aluminum do not so easily clog the grooves of the file, and this helps make the files work better, last longer and dull more slowly.

Back in early February 2008, an interesting thread was started on Woodnet.net. Bob Feeser, rfeeser to those who may look for his writings, was asked by a friend to ”provide a list of what tools a well-equipped small, machine-free shop might have”. So he consulted some texts he had on hand and “enhanced” it.

Turned out, the list is quite good. On Internet forums, one good turn deserves another, and so the feedback began. …And the list grew. People came up with some great additions for the list.

I know, I know, the list is a huge bugger, and there are a lot of things on it you do not need, and can get by without, but Bob was asked to go for ‘well equipped’, So he put in the initial time, and by the end of the thread, many other great tool additions for the list were suggested.

I went through the thread and edited further, adding what all was suggested by others. For the most part, I tried to be as inclusive as possible. Depending on your methods of work, there is likely something on there for everybody. So without further adieu, here is Bob’s “Gratuitous list of hand and small electric woodworking tools”, and thank you Bob!

– MEASURING & MARKING –
Awl, scratch, brad, birdcage
Marking knife(s)
Center punch
Transfer punches
Chalk line
Combination squares
Try or engineering squares
Double square
Framing square
Saddle Square
Plastic drafting squares
Bevel gauges
Protractors
Inclinometers
Retracting tape measure
Folding rule w/ sliding extension
Steel 4R graduated rules
Steel 4R hook rulers
Center finder rulers
Golden ratio rulers (phi)
Ruler stop
Precise straight edge
Plumb bob with string
Marking gauge
Mortise gauge
Panel gauge
Dowel centers
Sliding bevel
Dovetail Markers
Compass
Beam compass
Trammels
Pantograph
Drawing bow
Level(s) torpedo, beam
Dividers
Calipers
Dial or vernier calipers
Depth gauge
Pencils (black & white, and/or mechanical)
Crayons

- CUTTING TOOLS –
Crosscut saw
Ripsaw
Coping saw
Fret/jewelers saw
Bow saw
Backsaw
Tenon saw
Dovetail saw
Keyhole saw
Drawknife
Hacksaw
Utility knife
Folding knife
Misc. knives
Carving tools

- CHISELS –
Paring chisels – a set of five or more common sizes is useful
Chopping chisels – (aka butt chisels, may be thicker, shorter, sharpened at higher angle)
Skew chisels, fishtail chisels, dovetail chisels, corner chisels
Mortise chisels – commonly 1/4th inch and 3/8′s inch sizes

- HAND PLANES –
Low angle block plane
Bevel up or down planes
Jackplane
Jointer plane
Smooth plane
Shoulder plane
Rabbet plane
Router Plane
Plough Plane
Spokeshaves
Scrub plane
Cabinet scraper or scraper plane
Card scrapers
Scratch Stock

- BORING TOOLS –
Eggbeater drills
Bits (twist, brad point)
Ratchet brace
Auger bits
Archimedes push drill with bits
Forstner bits
Vix bits

- RASPS & FILES –
Smooth, Second cut, Mill Bastard, Double Cut
Flat rasps and files
Half round rasps and files
Triangular files
Forming tools (i.e. Sureform, Microplane)
Riffler rasps and files
Needle files
File handles
File cards and brass/nylon brushes

- CLAMPS –
C-clamps
Pipe clamps
Bar clamps
Parallel clamps
Deep throat clamps
Clamping cauls
Hand screws
Web clamps

- HAMMERS –
Claw hammer
Soft-faced hammer
Dead blow hammer
Tack hammer
Wooden mallet

- SCREWDRIVERS –
Flat bladed
Philips head
Square tipped
Ratchet screwdriver
Push screwdriver
Screwdriver bits & adapter for brace
Right angle (offset) screwdrivers
Stubby screwdrivers
Screw holding screwdrivers
Jeweler’s screwdrivers

- WRENCHES –
SAE / Metric
Adjustable wrenches
Set of box wrenches
Set of open-end wrenches
Set of combination wrenches
Ratchet socket set
Allen/hex wrenches Regular/ball end

- PLIERS –
Slip jaw pliers
Diagonal pliers
Needle nosed pliers
Channel lock pliers
Wire strippers / Crimpers

- MISCELLANEOUS –
Pencil sharpeners
Drafting supplies
Graph paper
Reference data
Calculator
Magnifying glass
Chalk
Nail set(s)
Paint scraper (removing dried glue)
Pry bar, small
Sharpening abrasives (sandpaper, diamond stones, water stones, oil stones)
Leather strop
Honing compound
Honing guides
Sandpaper in many grits
Sanding blocks in different shapes
Vegetable tanned leather for clamp pads and other uses
Rags
Brushes
Finishing supplies (applicators, finishes, rubbing out materials)
Glues
Rubber brayer for spreading water based glue
Acid brushes for spreading glue
Waxed paper to protect from glue
Veneer roller
Brooms
Dustpans
Screws
Nails
Bolts, nuts, washers

- PORTABLE POWER TOOLS –
Belt sander, sanding belts
Circular saw, blades
Saw guides
Electric drills, 3/8’s 1/2, bits (twist drills (fractional, number, letter, metric), brad point, Forstner or saw tooth, hole saws)
Drill guide
Finish sander, sandpaper sheets
Random orbital sander, sanding disks
Router, edge guide, bits, template bushings
Bench top router table
Bench grinder / wire wheel 3450/1725rpm
Jigsaw, blades
Scroll saw, blades
Lunch box planer
Shop Vac
Heavy-duty extension cord(s)
Power strips

- BENCHES -
Workbench
Holdfasts
Bench dogs (round or square)
Planing stops
Vises, (woodworking and machinist styles.)
Bench jack

- SHOP MADE ACCESSORIES –
Bench hooks
Shooting board for ends
Shooting board for miters
Shooting board for long edges
Miter Jack
Miter boxes
Sanding blocks
Storage for tools hardware and other materials

After giving much thought to many woodworking questions over the years, it occurred to me that there are many, many questions. Now that would seem an obvious duh, but wait, it’s fine! Because people are all over the map at the various stages of the learning curves they are on, and who knows where they started, or what exposure they’ve had.

Some people were exposed to woodwork early on, perhaps through family or schools. Most people these days begin their foray into woodworking with a want to make something, and figure it out from there in a ’start in the middle and work your way to the beginning’ sort of way. Either way, it seems folks often base their questions from where they find themselves halted by the lack of knowing how to proceed. So the questions come and keep coming… People are approaching things in many ways, and so are their questions.

The answers? Well, there are many of those too, but in earnest, not as many as there are questions, because the answers deal with a smaller number of possible outcomes. The answers are however, worth saving, because you never know when the way an answer is presented will ultimately be the right kind of mentor, for someone’s question at a most needed moment.

The value of many answers is in the asker’s perspective. Questions are biased by the devil in the details. Who can know what will rear up and stop us. Once in awhile it is for the want of a tool, but usually it is a gap in our knowledge. So questions are posed and answers are given. Most usually the answers are a good match, a solution is found, and we can again move forward with the needed confidence to achieve the desired outcomes.

So that is the reason I have decided to create a space where my answers can last. Perhaps a perspective can be brought now and then that will help someone, and that is ‘why’ enough. Some of us were lucky to have had some valuable mentors, and this is a way I can pay my respects to them, and try to honor the knowledge they had hoped would not be forgotten.