Izzy Berger

Hi Raymond,

Thank you for your message.

Paul says:
I would make an educated guess and try it. No need to reinvent the mouse trap, don’t fix what ain’t broke.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Jeff,

Paul says:
I would use Boshield, this will prevent rusting and keep the plane looking good. I certainly would not paint the side of a plane.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Jasper,

Paul says:
They are very good clamps, excellent quality but tend to be a little more expensive. I like them very much because they, again, are lightweight and damage the wood much less than steel […]

Hi Nial,

Paul says:
No, you shouldn’t be worried at all, it shouldn’t matter if the lever is way off centre. Many people think the lever will be in the middle if the iron is correctly sharpened. That’s not the c […]

Hi Trevor,

Paul says:
I think it’s true. I also think it’s a lot more expensive and prohibitive for users. So I remove the moveable pin and slightly bend the bar, put it back and the friction fit is improved mar […]

Hi Sergii,

Paul says:
Once the first face is trued, the opposite parallel face will be marked with a marking gauge that gives the line to plane too and thus guarantees parallelity.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Christian,

Paul says:
I avoid some kinds of DIY and that’s one of them. The pre-bottled version is more convenient for me, that’s all.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Stephen,

You can find more about diamond stones here which includes information about lubricating the stones with Auto Glass Cleaner.

In regards to the diamond pattern, Paul said:
I’ve experienced these d […]

Hi Derek,

Thank you for getting in touch.

I passed on your message to Paul but he’s never experienced shellac flakes ‘going off’ so can’t really help.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Jasper,

I passed your question on to Paul and he replied with the following:

The best thing you can do, is to try not to use it and buy a Veritas replacement iron with a square presentation. I never use the […]

Hi Stephen,

Paul says:

If it has handyman written on it then it doesn’t have a spring, you just turn it with the chuck uppermost and drop the bit in.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Steve,

When starting off the cut, use your thumb to align the saw. Paul would not recommend creating a groove to begin with, this is not good practise.

Start off the cut on the furthest edge, use this to […]

Hi Christian,

For a beginner, Paul recommends a honing guide, he uses the Eclipse, you can find out more about this at the bottom of this guide.

In regards to sharpening freehand, all it is is being self […]

Hi Steve,

Don’t try to correct your cut, go back up to the same start point and start a new cut. Use the ‘angled cuts’ exercise for practise, as that is how you will learn to avoid this problem, with pract […]

Hi Jeffrey,

Paul says:
You can make them work because there’s so little difference between the two types and you will always set your gauges to the chisel anyway.

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi James,

Paul says:
Any burnisher will work, none work better than others unless you make your own as I have which is the very, very best 🙂

Kind Regards,
Izzy

Hi Nial,

Paul says:
This is a self discipline issue and self correction is second by second rather than after several minutes. It is most likely that you are biased in one direction or another which can be a […]