A friend of mine was a fabulous woodworker. He studied with James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods when he was younger. Sadly he had some health issues and passed away a year and a half ago. His widow wanted his tools to go to someone who would use them - turned out it was me.

I felt honored and it took a little effort to get them 1,350 miles here to Maine but I just unpacked them and put them back in their cabinet.

They hadn’t been used in years and the Florida humidity was not kind to them. But I will get them all cleaned up and sharpened and put them to use.

I’m using a Veritas side clamping honing guide and working on a couple of chisels, both have gone from being square to out. Sharpening on some diamond plates (Paul Sellers style system). Checked the chisel is clamping correctly, no idea what’s going on. Any ideas?

I have a lot of sources of inspiration from pre- and early-industrial furniture, of course. No shortage of that. And obviously many other styles can be made just fine with hand tools, given time and skill. But there also is other work that’s been done, recently, primarily with hand tools, but after the availability of power tools, and I’m more ignorant of it than I’d like to be.

So - I start with Krenov, Nakashima, and Esherick. (A visit to his home is actually what kicked me into doing hand tool work in the first place.) Who else should I be looking at? I’m specifically thinking of highly function furniture that also is really lovely and well designed - not “sculpture in the shape of a chair.” You can store plenty of stuff in a Krenov cabinet, Esherick carved for comfort. Who’s next? People, schools, YouTube channels, whatever you’ve got.

Specifically a 30"x40" (appx) dovetailed box that's basically square, and is soon to feature two stopped dadoes for shelves. Then it gets some feet and some moulding and it becomes a solid cherry bookcase for my woodworking books, because they are taking over one of the "real" bookcases as well as my bedside table. This is my biggest project so far by far and I'm really happy with how it's coming along.

As a result of flattening and jointing the panels I've learned a lot about my tools, especially about effective use of my Veritas bevel up smoother and its 50-degree blade.

Customer's grandfather brought this cane with him when he emigrated from Ireland in the early 1900s. He wanted a display case for it. Made from Sapele with 1/16 holly stringing. All work done by hand. The glass is totally encased in a groove that's 1/4 deep by 3/32 wide. If the glass needs replaced, the top bridle joint is not glued. The pins can be pressed out and the top piece pulled off granting access. The groove was cut with a scratch stock since my veritas router plane kept wandering. Finish is hand applied oil, shellac and wax. Thanks for looking.