Author Archives: michaellangford2012

I enjoy work.  In particular, I enjoy putting my entire body and mind to work using large, sharp pieces of steel to shape timbers into structure.  Broadax, boring machine, framing chisels, the entire kit, pencils to pegs…I live for that.  Everything else … Continue reading →

Today I finished rebuilding my Uncle George’s 1938 Craftsman table saw. a month ago, it looked like this… broken teeth on the rack, and the pattern for casting a new one Much thanks to Eugene Sargent, who took a couple … Continue reading →

We spent the day sharpening plane blades and chisels. Evan had received a couple of Norton combination synthetic water stones from Highland Hardware, and we needed to try them out.  In spite of glowing reviews from the leading magazines, I’m not impressed. … Continue reading →

I received a new file in the mail today.  That’s it in the top of the picture. I haven’t been sharpening handsaws for some time.  Other major life issues took precedence, and besides I had several sharpened saws in reserve. … Continue reading →

I may have missed something.  Most of the 80’s, for instance, and I still don’t own a smartphone.  If we were going to draw a line at owning something smarter than ourselves, where would that line be?  Not far out … Continue reading →

I used to carve spoons and give them away.  It took so much time, I would have been at a loss trying to either get a decent wage or to sell them at any reasonable market value.  Besides, it seemed like … Continue reading →

This exchange began on Monday, and I have been back and forth for a week with Lie-Nielsen’s very patient customer service rep.  For some reason that nobody seems to be able to explain, the blade dimension of the #102 block … Continue reading →

Officials at Colonial Williamsburg today declined to confirm the provenance of a trove of 18th century carpenter’s drawings tentatively attributed to the legendary woodworker Christop herr (Chip) Swarf, recently discovered in a local tavern. Venerated antiquarian Rawry Bumberbill, author of … Continue reading →

The boring machine from the tool show in February, repaired, scraped, re-assembled.  The rack and latch still need some adjustment, that round hole in the cap is about 3/32″ off.  Otherwise, after cleaning up the usual dings and grunge, a … Continue reading →

Finally: It was stated at the outset, that this system would not be here, and at once, perfected. You cannot but plainly see that I have kept my word. But I now leave my cetological System standing thus unfinished, even … Continue reading →

“Each stick was carefully mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by this time.” Henry David Thoreau There’s a wealth of information packed into that sentence. Most people reading Walden will never grasp that Henry … Continue reading →

Details are Empire, construction isn’t at all typical of Empire.  Cherry primary wood is light in color, suggesting Pennsylvania or further north.  Sides are 1″ thick white pine, drawers have cherry fronts with properly dovetailed poplar sides and roughly planed … Continue reading →

The Old Records of the Fraternity of Operative Freemasons, under the general name of Old Constitutions, or Old Charges, were written in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The Dowland Manuscript, as reproduced in Hughan’s Old Charges (1872) is … Continue reading →

I have a couple of dozen wooden spokeshaves, different sizes, each unique. Each one of them, without exception, has a distinct curve in the blade, parallel the long axis. This curve has a direct relationship to the curve in a … Continue reading →