About the shop

One bench, a wall of chisels, and a window that faces north.

The shop started in a rented garage with a second-hand vice and a badly flattened try plane. It moved twice, lost most of the machinery each time, and ended up almost entirely hand-tool based - not out of principle at first, just out of floor space. The principle came later.

The bench

Top

Laminated ash, 95 mm thick, flattened by hand each spring.

Length

2.1 m, which is as long as the room allows.

Vices

A leg vice with a wooden screw and a wagon vice cut into the tail end.

Holdfasts

Two, forged locally, still the fastest workholding in the shop.

Tools worth naming

A 1920s jointer plane that came out of a house clearance, rehabilitated over one winter. A set of firmer chisels with handles turned from an apple tree that blew down two streets away. A backsaw filed rip at 13 points, which does nine tenths of the joinery here.

Getting in touch

There is no contact form and no newsletter. Enquiries come by post, and the address is given to people who ask in person. The queue is usually full anyway.