When a young Thomas Lie-Nielsen set out to start making premium handplanes in the early 1980s, he launched his business with an adaptation of the Stanley No. 95 edge-trimming plane.

But Lie-Nielsen wasn't the first person to make this tool in bronze. That footnote goes to machinist Ken Wisner, who made the planes in small batches and sold them through the Garrett Wade catalog. When Wisner decided to get out of that business, he turned over his patterns to Lie-Nielsen, who took them to Maine and set up shop in a shack on his farm.

I've always wanted to own one of these Wisner planes – partly out of curiosity and partly out of my desire to own a piece of recent history. But they're hard to come by. And they're expensive when they do come up on eBay.

So this weekend, I got a little schoolgirl thrill when Jeff Skiver pulled a Wisner out of his bags of tools during a class on handplanes at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. He wasn't looking to sell it, and I won't tell you what he paid for it. Suffice it to say that Skiver practically stole it from a starving widow who had substantial medical bills.

The Wisner is an interesting piece of work. On the one hand, the main casting was nicely polished and the machined areas were crisp and clean. But the thumbscrew on the lever cap was black plastic (the screw itself was metal, however). And the main screw that joined the lever cap, iron and body casting was an off-the-shelf hex-head screw.

Wisner signed his name on the plane with some sort of rotary tool (perhaps a Dremel). And the blade was thinner than the Lie-Nielsen version.

Of course, when you are blazing a trail like Wisner was, you have to overlook details like this and appreciate the sheer fact that this plane exists. Plus, look at what this little plane led to in Warren, Me.

And if anyone has a Wisner plane they'd like to part with (for the sake of history, natch) please drop me a line.

— Christopher Schwarz

You can now download an enhanced pdf of the March 2008 issue of Woodworking Magazine (Issue 9) for $6.

Our instant digital downloads are compatible with any computer running Adobe Reader 7.0, a free program available from Adobe that runs on Macintosh, PC and other systems. The downloads are delivered to you on a secure and fast server (a high-speed Internet connection is highly recommended). Plus, if for some technical reason your download is interrupted (power outage due to nefarious squirrel activity etc.), it’s quite simple to get back on and download the issue again.

Issue 9 focuses on the act of handsawing, and it explores the three backsaws you need for hand-cut joints – the dovetail saw, carcase saw and tenon saw. Plus we explain the nearly-lost English system of cutting joints by hand.

We also delve into cutting circles with a simple (and very cool) jig, plus how to properly use glaze when finishing. All these skills will help you build the Stickley Tabouret featured on the cover.

On an administrative note, we’re still working on how to deliver subscriptions digitally to subscribers and have narrowed it to a couple options. More news on that to come this summer. Until then, these enhanced pdfs will (we hope) keep you informed and inspired.

For more details on the digital downloading process and to place an order, click here. You can view all our digital downloadable products here.

— Christopher Schwarz

Recently, joglo can be applicated as :

* Decorating of the house

* Support of the roof to get Pencu style.

* Placed in the edge of the pools as a relaxing place

* Placed in the house yard or garden.

*Placed in the backyard or terrace at the back house

* Garage or as a roof protection of a car

* Soko Guru or support of pendopo

As you may noticed I’ve added new posting rules to the site. You can see red “View the posting rules” link above each textarea. Just click on it to expand the latest version of the rules.

These rules are not here to restrict healthy woodworking discussions. They are simply the reaction to some recent incidents and are focusing primarily on personal attacks, offensive posts, advertising as well as political and religious controversies. Note that these new rules will not be retroactively applied to any past posts.

There are two rules that were especially tricky to define and set – advertising and religion/politics – so let me share my opinion about them:

1. no advertising – we must start getting strict about this since we have real advertisers spending money to advertise on our site. Plus it’s evident that personal business interests can dramatically influence the tone of discussions. There are following exceptions to this rule: you can still label your woodworking projects as “for sale” and you can include your personal business website in your signature as well as in your profile. And I’d like to add premium business membership features in the near future.
2. no politics/religion – although we respect everyone’s views on politics and religion we have found from past experiences that it’s in the best interest of our online community to avoid such discussions unless they are directly related to woodworking (ex. discussing woodworking project from the church). There is simply no better and faster way to derail a topic than to bring in religion/politics. Let’s talk woodworking here ;)

So here are the current posting rules:

=======================================

The goal of our online communities is to provide individuals with a place to share and discuss common interests and to form friendships with others from around the world. We reserve the right to remove any messages that are contradictory to this goal and/or ban the offending member from the site.

READ THE RULES BELOW AND UNDERSTAND THEM BEFORE POSTING

• Be civil, courteous and respectful to all.
• Keep your posts appropriate for our members of all ages to read/see.
• Don’t get personal. A good general rule to follow is, “criticize ideas, not people”.
• We do not tolerate abusive, malicious, personal attacks.
• Postings deemed to be Spam will be removed.
• Don’t discuss politics and religion, as long as it is not directly related to woodworking.
• Don’t advertise directly on the site. If you have a product that you would like to advertise contact our advertising department. Note that labeling projects as “for sale” as well as adding your business website to your profile and signature is allowed. Premium business features will be added in the future.
• Off-topic discussions should be posted in the Coffee Lounge Forum. Please remember to keep such postings appropriate for all our members to read/see.
• Debates with other member(s) that are not beneficial to the site as a whole are to be done through the private message system.
• You are responsible for following the copyright rules. Don’t post photos/content by others without consent/credit given.

LEGAL OWNERSHIP
Each message posted is owned by and the opinion of the original poster. Neither lumberjocks.com nor its owners or webmasters are legally responsible for anything posted on these forums.

The site managers reserve the right to remove any or all of your messages at any time and remove you if they see fit.

HANDLING OF INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT

1. Refrain from responding to such content in a manner that perpetuates the situation.
2. Inform the site managers of comments/contents that you deem inappropriate
3. The site managers will determine if intervention is necessary and what the next course of action is:
   • The offending material may be removed from the site immediately.
   • The individual may be contacted privately and told to refrain from posting inappropriate material immediately.
   • The individual may be banned from the site immediately without any warning.

=======================================

I hope this step will help to further enhance the overall quality of the discussions here at LumberJocks.

When it comes to essential reads in the world of woodworking, I consider "Choosing and Using Hand Tools" by Andy Rae as one of the most important. 

Andy does a great job of presenting an amazing amount of information about a large number of tools both traditional and non-traditional to the woodshop.

This book isn't just filled with a few pictures and a couple of little descriptions of each tool, but instead Andy does a great job of making sure the reader has a good understanding of the limitations and capabilities of each tool and to which family they belong.

Copies of "Choosing and Using Hand Tools" can be found at both Sterling Publishing and also at Amazon.com.

Hendrik has agreed to come back in May to talk about starting a woodworking business.  So remember to get your questions in as soon as possible.

Also, Hendrik is starting his annual three part finishing seminars: 
Part 1 "Preparing the Surface and Staining" - April 26th or May 3rd. 
Part 2 "Hand Finishing and Rubbing Out"    - May 10th or 24th.
Part 3"Antique Restoration Techniques"      - May 31st or June 7th.
So if you live in the Toronto area or feel like visiting it, and you want more information about Hendrik's finishing seminars, send an email to info@passionforwood.com

Of course you can always drop me a line with your questions, comments, suggestions and schwag entries anytime.  Just send them to mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com.

 Listen to today's show by clicking on the player below

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For those of you who didn't know, I am an American living with my wife and kids in the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic. I am working as a Baptist missionary planting a church in Santo Domingo.

Last week, we went to a beach town called Juan Dolio. It is located an hour or so east of the capital, Santo Domingo, and is a fairly popular tourist destination.

Around the area, there are a number of bateys, or sugar cane fields. Even today a lot of the cane is cut by hand by Haitian immigrant workers. One of the problems with sugar cane is that it is an extremely bulky material to handle.

I haven't been to any of the bateys when they were harvesting for several years, so I don't really know how they are doing it now, but carts like this one were used to haul the cane out of the fields to a light railroad or trucks or directly to a mill where it would be ground into something more manageable.  read more »

Gail and I visited the greater Detroit area this weekend to visit with Chris Schwarz and John Hoffman who were teaching classes at the Sterling Heights Woodcraft Store. Gail and I didn’t make it to the store, but we did spend some quality time visiting with Chris and John over dinner at the Royal Oak Brewery along with several members of the Southeast Michigan Woodworkers’ Group. They were nice guys, and I once again made new woodworking friends whose talents are far superior to mine. I sat next to a guy named Jason who showed me pictures of original furniture and art pieces he has recently made. I showed him pictures of my latest tool acquisition. I wish I was a better furniture maker, but so far my real strength is spending money on tools.

Comparison: I used my God-given talents to create this…… Oh yeah, well I used real US currency to buy this….

Whining excuse: I have been sooooooo busy lately…..

About three weeks ago I managed to get a great tool I have been wanting. I have been holding off talking about it until I finish the workbench, because I want to show it off on top of the bench. Well, wouldn’t you know it…I acquire this tool that is clearly a “Lifer� for my collection, and before I can even brag about it on my blog I managed to get a better one. Yes, boys and girls, last week I acquired an even rarer tool I have been wanting ever since I first laid eyes on a sample. It’s a “Double Lifer�; that’s one that makes you take up Eastern religions so that you can hold out hope of reincarnating with your stuff. Obviously, I have to finish this workbench so I have a suitable palette for displaying my freshly adopted children.

Sunday, when we returned from Detroit I set to work on the bench. Within minutes it turned into a classic example of why one shouldn’t work when he is really tired. It was SNAFU city. Luckily, there were no injuries.

Sunday night I started my draw boring process. My ebony pegs are 3/8�, so I am going to drill my holes 23/64ths (as I discussed with Chris Schwarz Saturday night). I decided I would pre-drill the holes with a 5/16ths brad point before going back with the 23/64ths metal twist bit. I thought this would allow me to use the 5/16ths brad point as a center punch to better mark the tenons before offsetting and drilling. So I drilled holes into the sides of the first two mortises of the legs.

As I take that leg from the drill press over to my bench, I think, “Hmmm, those 5/16ths holes look almost as big as my pegs.� My 3/8^th pegs dropped right into my holes that were pilot drilled with a 3/8^th brad point. Apparently I was tired enough to grab the wrong drill bit. So screw it…I will just make 4 pegs a hair bigger than 3/8ths to fix these.

Then I went on to try to end the evening’s work on a high note. So I started on a new leg and predrilled the holes this time with the correct 5/16ths brad point. I used that same bit as a center punch and I marked the tenons. Given the scale of the mating parts, I used a full 1/8^th inch offset on the drawbore and I marked the tenons and drilled them with the 5/16ths brad point. I thought I would check the alignment before going back to drill all of the holes on this leg and stretcher joint with the 23/64ths. I dry fit the joint and saw a perfect 1/8^th inch overlap. WAIT…. Oh Dear God…NO!!!!!!!!!!!!. Yeah, baby, when I insert a drawbore pin or a peg, it will ensure there is a full 1/8^th inch GAP between the face of the leg and the shoulder of the stretcher, because in my fatigued state, I somehow offset the hole in the tenon on the wrong friggin’ side. I offset it 1/8^th inch AWAY from the shoulder.

Trying desperately to end the night on a victory, I did quickly make a 5/16ths peg that I used to plug the wrongly offset hole in the tenon, and I am going to re-drill it with the offset the correct direction sometime this week.

Years from now when I finally reach the point where normal drawboring no longer presents such a monumental challenge I am going to raise the bar by having Gail subject me to a good dose of Waterboarding before I lay out where I want to drill the holes. But for now, I am failing without any extra distractions…. other than the internal voices screaming at me to stop sniffing the hide glue before I kill all of the remaining brain cells.

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.Here?s last week?s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

Drilling a centered hole in a dowel can be a challenge. It?s hard to get the drill bit centered and keep the dowel from turning as the hole is drilled. To make it easier, I built the jig shown below.

Build the jig by first drilling a hole the diameter of the dowel in a piece of hardwood. Then just cut a saw kerf through the hole from the end to make a clamp.

Using the jig is simple. Begin by centering the dowel under the bit. To do this, clamp a piece of scrap wood to the table and drill a hole to fit the dowel. Then change out the bit to the size needed.

Next, slip the dowel into the hole in the scrap wood. Then slip the clamping jig over the dowel and squeeze the kerf together with a small clamp. Now you can clamp the jig in place and drill the hole in the center of the dowel.

To learn more essential woodworking tips and techniques, just go to: http://www.plansnow.com/basics.html.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Here's another episode we shot at The Woodworking Show in Atlanta GA. While at the show we had the opportunity to interview Joseph Strong with Bad Dog Tools. Joe demonstrated their Rover Bits to us, and to say we were impressed would be an understatement.

Rover Bits are like a forstner bit, an auger bit, and a spade bit wrapped up into one. Ever tried to use a forstner bit in your cordless drill? How about drill straight into a nail embedded in a piece of wood with any bit without damaging it?

Watch this video to see what amazing things you can do with Rover Bits.

To learn more about these bits visit our website at:

www.WoodworkersResource.com

Craig Stevens

P.S. Just to let you know, I have no financial part with Bad Dog Tools. This is strictly a demonstration video of a cool product that I though you might find a need for in your shop.

The Union Village Shaker community is about an hour north of my home in Fort Mitchell, Ky., but it doesn?t figure large in the world of Shaker furniture like the eastern Shaker communities do.

Union Village was the first and largest Shaker community west of the Allegheny Mountains, and it was the parent community for the western Shaker communities in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Georgia.

Founded in 1805, more than 4,000 Shakers lived at Union Village during its peak and they were known for selling herbal medicines, seeds and brooms. The community declined until it was sold in 1912. The site is now a retirement community in Warren County, Ohio.

One of the artifacts remaining from the village is a walnut blanket box with fine lines and tight dovetails. The box is similar in form to many Shaker chests that are extant, but this one has always been a favorite.

I chose to adapt this design because it highlights the advantages of my preferred chest-building method. The fine bit of transition moulding around the plinth is easy to accomplish with this traditional construction technique.

While I retained the proportions and lines of the Union Village original, I used finger joints instead of dovetails. And I used figured maple instead of walnut. These two alterations give the box a contemporary feel.

Statistics:
Dimensions: 21-3/8? high x 38-1/2? long x 18-1/4? deep
Materials: Tiger maple exterior; poplar interior parts
Finish: Custom blend of oil, varnish and linseed oil.
Construction Details: All surfaces are handplaned using traditional techniques. Plinth and box are joined using entirely traditional joinery methods. All the hardware is iron with traditional pyramid-head screws.

? Christopher Schwarz

Matt Vanderlist has just posted a podcast of a conversation he and I had last week. I hesitate to call it an interview because it sounds a lot like us just goofing around and joking about woodworking.

So I guess, it actually just sounds a lot like a day at the office.

In any case, we discuss handsawing, premium tools and how we generate story ideas here at Woodworking Magazine and Popular Woodworking. Plus Matt and I brainstorm an idea for a shop garment that ensures you never have to take a break while woodworking – and it composts the yard. (If anyone has a good name for this product, post it here.)

It was a fun conversation and if you have some time at your desk and want to look like you're working… I highly recommend it.

— Christopher Schwarz

Today I want to share with you two strange desings.

The first one is a very nice pair of earrings, made of wood beads (they´re beautiful). It seems they belongs to an indian, isn’t it?

The following desing it´s a spiral. I love spirals! I made the wire structure first and then embroider the beads.

See you next craft!