I Axed Dave to Post! :)

I have been bugging Dave (the husband, aka Harry) to help come up with some ideas for this blog. Finally he has provided me a MARVELOUS piece! He has also promised me that he will be contributing to the blog in the future!!! So look for his posts!! Thanks!

It’s not very often that I post, however once in a while I get the bug :) when something grabs my attention or if its possibly something that others may be interested in. Several weeks ago my Wife got two amazing documentaries… One I recall seeing MANY years ago but the overall concept had not stuck… this time however it was as if I were in a trance… I'm referring to the “One Man’s Wilderness” story about Richard Proenneke. What an Amazing story and equally amazing accomplishments with such a tiny compliment of basic hand tools. I was fascinated and look forward to watching it again. Highly recommend it, just wish there was more. Seeing this documentary sparked the creative juices again as well as the interest in hand tools… As you can see from some of the other posts I grew up with woodworking and tools and have many prized tools from my Dads collection which I still use today. The collection of power tools is HUGE and fills a two bay garage at home and I’ve used them over the years to complete cabinets, furniture, vanity’s etc… that could be a post all its own, however what we are focusing on here is the human powered.

Last year though I started to gain a much greater appreciation and fondness for the hand tools that my Dad passed down to me as well as the ones that I’ve been collecting since that time. Starting with the more basic (Similar to what Mr Proenneke had in his video) I’ll try to give some detail on each and then move on to some of the more task specific tools as we go. If you want any specifics, just drop a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Lets kick off the “Woodworking with Harry” Miniseries with an assortment which includes (Axe, Broad Axe, Double bit, Hatchets. Adz)


Some of these were handed down by my Dad, More recently, I purchased the double bit axe from ebay in Oregon for about 12 bucks and slapped a new handle on it. Didn’t take very long to put a nice razor edge on it. The Broad axe is probably to pitted to work with or restore but I’ll give it a shot and keep an eye out for a broad-axe that is in good shape. Other notables here are the $9.00 bowl adz that just arrived…. Ebay has proven to be quite a good resource for vintage tools. Some of these were previously painted and are in various stages of being brought back to original condition.

Stay tuned for the next installment which covers assorted Planes