Author Archives: joemcglynn

(In a British accent) Careful designing, Reliable materials, Expert craftsmanship in every stage of manufacturing Turn out a British bicycle second to none. If you remove the words “British bicycle” in the last line this stands as a fundamental truism.

I got a woodworking DVD in the mail today.  That’s not really that surprising in and of itself; I got 7 of them last week (the Paul Sellers set). Here is what is weird, and unappreciated.  We all get plenty of junk mail.  Generally it goes right in the recycle bin. The DVD I got [...]

Saturday my son and I decided to carve a couple of spoons.  Why spoons?  That’s a great question. I recently got the book and DVD set by Paul Sellers called “Working Wood”.  It’s not an inexpensive kit, about $150 depending on where you get it.  On the other hand, it includes a book and 7 [...]

A few more pictures from May Day at Blue Ox Mill.  This is an interesting place, besides being a working mill that produces decorative trim it’s also an alternate high school where the kids learn blacksmithing, wood turning, printing and other crafts.  What a phenomenally cool idea. The whole place is part museum and part working shop. [...]

This is too cool, can you guess what it is? Any better? It is a “Portland Picket Pointer”. Who knew?

Hi, my name is Joe, and I’m powerless over hand tools.  The first step is to admit you have a problem, right? When I got home from work yesterday, guess what was waiting for me?  Interestingly, it was accompanied by a flat stare from my wife. Wait, I can explain.  I ordered this months ago, in [...]

I had to do some welding today, so I haven’t been able to make progress on my saw chest.  Hopefully after I do homework with my son I can sneak in an hour or two for some woodwork. Luckily it was cooler today, it was in the 90s yesterday.  Welding on a 90+ degree day [...]

My blog buddy Marilyn sent me a link to a cool video that I want to share. As best I can tell, based on my rusty high school Spanish and attempting to read French, this is a film that was made in 1931 that shows students at several “professional” schools around France.  There is blacksmithing, machining, [...]

I started making the top for my saw chest recently.  It’s going to be a frame and panel construction with the stiles having tenons that fit into blind mortises in the rails.  Or maybe through mortises, we’ll see. I made the frame, and wasn’t satisfied with it.  There were a few problems: First the groove [...]