Please note this opportunity is now closed. We have created our step-by-step courses to suit beginner woodworkers, they have visuals accompanying each step along with a written description breaking down the process. However, you might find that you’ve followed all the instructions but your joint still doesn’t seem to turn out the way you had…
This exercise will focus on using two registration faces to mark around your wood which will help when you need to crosscut wood to length, which requires an accurate knifewall on all faces to prevent tearout. It will also help you to understand how to mark around a piece of wood when defining a knifewall…
We have listed the common characteristics of each wood group to help you choose wood, although the following applies to the majority of hardwoods and softwoods, there are some exceptions. Which wood is best for indoor use? Generally you don’t have to worry about durability for indoor use unless it’s being used a lot and…
We recently put out a survey to find out a bit more about our sites users. We asked what level each user considered themselves and what projects they have made, if any. The feedback was really useful as it gave us an insight into how our users defined ‘beginner’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘advanced’. There was such…
Paul doesn’t consider these an essential tool, however he understands that some beginners may not feel comfortable starting with freehand sharpening. The honing guide is useful if you want to achieve an exact angle, however there is a bit of leeway when sharpening as chisels can be sharpened anywhere between 25-35° and plane blades can…
Ensure all your boards have been trued and are square, to see how to do this, see our Truing Stock guide. For this you will need: Lay the boards flat on a large surface such as the workbench top to decide their configuration. Then, put your boards together and align the edges on two pencils….
Note: Some oils spontaneously combust, see Paul’s blog post here, do not use these in the rag-in-a-can-oiler. Equipment Needed: Use a chisel hammer in the vise and a steel hammer to remove the sharp inside edge, make sure you are resting on the metal part of the chisel hammer, not the nylon or rubber face….
These exercises will work on your control of the flat-bottomed spokeshave and establish good patterns for continuously reading the grain: Convex and Concave Chamfer Stop- Chamfer Rounded Edge- End Grain Rounded Corner- Along the Grain For these exercises you will need: Convex and Concave 1- Start by driving two panel pins into your wood, 1”…
With a new year comes new resolutions and we hope woodworking is one of yours! It can be daunting starting a new hobby, especially with all the information on the internet, it can be difficult to know where to begin. We want to help those new to woodworking get started by guiding them through the…
As the new year approaches we have been reflecting on everything we’ve done these past few months. It’s been a busy time for us as we’ve moved to our new building and built our custom garage studio which has enabled us to up our content quality. We also officially launched Common Woodworking, the response has been…