Bessey Tools

After all of the help the folks at Bessey gave me on Wednesday’s post, it’s only fitting I throw a little love Bessey’s way.

Nice folks, and they make some great clamps for both wood and metal working. They also make a line of sheet metal snips for those of you who may want to do some of that kind of work.

Of course, you can never have enough clamps, right?

Hometown Woodworking

In addition to Marc Spagnuolo, there’s one other person I have to thank for helping me take that first step into woodworking blogging. Her name is Gail O’Rourke. She’s a talented woodworker from Cape Cod who invited me up to a charity build-a-thon at a woodworking school in Indiana back in the fall of 2005. From that one contact, I was inspired to take the next steps into the wonderful world of online woodworking.

Gail has recently had her website redone, and it’s still being tweaked. But, I thought I would list it here today to let you know she’s back online. Check out her site, which links to an article about her Cabinetmaker Magazine, he brand-new blog and a video pilot of a show she had shot. It’s a great tour of what you can find in a lumber yard.. a great primer for the new woodworker.

Thanks, Gail, for all you have done for me!

New Yankee Online

His show is no longer in production. But, if you ask woodworkers who entered craft from the late 1980s through the late 2000s, you will find a surprising number of them got into woodworking because of Norm Abram and the New Yankee Workshop.

While the show started its life before the Internet, the folks running the program have set up a great page where viewers can buy plans and DVDs, get the gear and watch featured videos each week. If you haven’t visited in a while, you might want to stop back and see how this woodworker got his start in the craft.

And, yes, it’s Friday of Get Woodworking week, and we’ve got more posts from some awesome blogs. Read. Learn. Enjoy!

• The Wood Ninja: Get Woodworking
• Stu’s Shed: Humble Beginnings
• Giant Cypress: What it takes to get a kid into woodworking
• The Renaissance Woodworker: Get Hand Planes
• Watkins Wood Works: To sharpen or not to sharpen?
• Uppercut Woodworks: Get woodworking Boy Scouts
• Flair Woodworks: Every shop needs a Br’all
• High Rock Woodworking: What happened to shop class?
• The Garage Shop: Get woodworking again
• Ben’s Workshop: You can make dovetails
• Woodworks by John: My contribution

Around the Woods

Wood turners are an interesting bunch. They can crank out projects from rough blocks to finished masterpiece in short order – often times in one shop session.

Want to learn some of their secrets? Around the Woods is a site that offers interesting links to wood turning tips, tricks and projects for turners from the novice to the expert. Find out about building turning tools, what to look for when buying lathe accessories and even take a look back at some archived turning classes – from the early 1900s! There are also links to other sites that deal with wood turning.

If you are interested in turning, why not give this site a spin?

Woodshopdemos.com

In February of 2010, the online woodworking community lost one of its pioneers. John Lucas, who had run Woodshopdemos.com since 1999 passed away, leaving us – fortunately – with an impressive eleven years worth of online woodworking knowledge. The question many of us had, though, was what was going to happen to that treasure trove of information?

Enter Craig Bentzley.  He has worked with the Lucas family and has taken over the Woodshopdemos.com site. While no one can fill John’s shoes, Craig promises that he will work to keep John’s spirit alive through his posts. Check out Craig’s new posts, and be sure to visit John’s old site, which has been restored to the way it looked when John wrote his last post.

Vintage Saw’s beginner’s saw filing primer

Old hand saws are great tools. They were built to work hard and give years of outstanding service.  Only, of course, when they are properly sharpened.  And, somewhere along the line, woodworkers went from sharpening their own saws to relying on shipping their prized tools out to be sharpened.

To help get sawyers back to sharpening their own saws, the folks at Vintage Saws have prepared this very detailed page about the process. From understanding saw tooth geometry to process of straightening, jointing and filing the teeth, users can go step-by-step from dull and lifeless tools to ‘sticky sharp’ teeth that cut like a dream.

Even if you don’t want to sharpen your own saws, this page will at least give you a good introduction to saws and how they work.

Wood Magazine’s free shop organization plans

Woodworking is an awesome hobby. Until you realize what kind of disorganized mess you can create.  There are chisels and saws to keep from banging together, dulling their cutting edges.  Hardware to keep sorted by purpose and size. Specialty sawblades for your band, table, circular and other saws. Racks to store the lumber you are storing for that special project. Stands to hold the tools you aren’t using. Sandpaper storage. And, what’s up with all of those clamps? It’s enough to drive you crazy… if you don’t have a plan.

That’s exactly what Wood Magazine is offering at their shop organization plans page. Get a whole passel of free storage plans featured over the years in the magazine that can take your shop from a hot mess to a cool place to hang out and get work done. Not only can you safely store all your things, but you can find them easily, maximizing your shop time.