This is an original Black and Decker Workmate from the 1980's. For a while in the '80's it was my only carving bench.
Old Tools Don’t Have To Wear Out
Compact tools for efficiency and cost
Lots of us have small shops either through design or necessity. In my case, I deliberately downsized as I shifted from doing larger maritime work like quarterboards and transoms and started focusing on ship and boat portraits. Whatever reason you have for smaller quarters, I encourage you to rethink the conventional wisdom that large is always best.
Glossy
You probably receive several monthly fliers from the tool manufacturers. If you've worked in wood longer than six months, the shiny things come in every few weeks. These insinuate that you'll be a better craftsperson with their reverse bobtail jointing jig ( only $175.00). Of course, you don't even know what a reverse bobtail joint is, but you'll pour over the glossy pages with pure tool lust in your eyes.
Lost and Found
Yesterday it went over the fifty-degree mark in the carving shop. So I went out to sort through almost done projects left from the end of the December rush. Mostly I was looking for a way to store them until I completed the early spring cleanup. However, I tend to get a bit rambunctious, so it makes sense to get the all-most done separated before I accidentally drop something on them.
The New Bandsaw
This winter, I have been enchanted by my new bandsaw. What? A bandsaw, enchanting? If you are a woodworker, yes, delighted and enchanted.
Safety
Christmas list for the shop:
Methods of work: the nail board
Inelegant, unattractive, and probably never seen on a photoshoot for Fine Woodworking - it's a nail board.
Flashback Friday – July 16 – Critical Tool?
Articles regularly appear in the woodworking periodicals about the essential power tool in your shop. The authors make convincing arguments for their choices, too. I prefer to think in terms of what suite of crucial tools makes your work possible? Your answer will vary with the materials you work with, how you change them, and the product you produce.
Facile Bonum Est
us how we came up with so many neat program ideas. We were flattered by the compliment, but my colleague and I looked at each other, hemmed and hawed a bit, and then expressed our formula
Making Mast Hoops At The Pert Lowell Company
mast hoops are a bit of old technology still needed to make traditional vessels sail.
Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver 
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