Category Archives: Anarchist’s Gift Guide

2022 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 1

I started this “gift guide” years ago after watching a woodworking TV personality’s “gift guide” for one of his sponsors. Clearly, he’d been given a list of worthless garbage products that were severely overstocked.  I thought: What if some poor spouse actually took this clown’s advice? Our gift guide is – as always – unsponsored….

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2 Good New Tools

I hesitate to talk much about tools from other makers (Anarchist’s Gift Guide excepted). It doesn’t seem fair because of my work with Crucible. But occasionally I break my rule when I find something interesting or well done. As always, my opinions are unsolicited. I pay full price for my tools. I have no relationship…

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Anarchist Gift Guide Day 15: Pilot .5mm Mechanical Pencils

Anyone who’s taken a class with me in the last five years knows how I feel about .5mm mechanical pencils. When students’ dovetails are too loose or too tight, my first question is, “What pencil did you use to darken your knifeline?” If a dado is too loose (or too tight), my first question is,…

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Anarchist Gift Guide Day 14: Matthias Fenner Awl

I can’t remember a recent project where I didn’t pick up a bird-cage awl. From marking the location of spindles or screws to actually drilling holes for tiny screws, a bird-cage awl is essential for installing hardware, deepening marks left by your dividers and even cleaning out junk from the corners of deep mortises. I’ve…

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