Fun With Bench Hooks!

January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 ~ Doug

After using bench hooks for many years, I recently made some using tapered shims as the stops. The idea was to make bench hooks that could be used for both planing and shooting very thin, narrow stock, as well as stock up to a half inch or so thick.

I’m very happy with how they work.

It takes me about 5 minutes to make one of these. I use whatever I have on hand for the base and a shim from the hardware store (I use those shims all the time!) as the stop, a few dowels, and glue.

The business side of the shim gets planed true and is square to the edge. I also plane off the saw marks on the gluing surface of the wedge.

I glued a piece of hardwood on the inside of the stop on the bench hook on the left to see if that extends its life. Time will tell.
–
I regularly post about the thrills and chills of being a dulcimer maker and player on Instagram

Book Recommendation – “Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking”

May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 ~ Doug

I’m working on the design for a new model of dulcimer, and I am also looking at my tools, mostly hand tools, but also, a few basic and rather funky woodworking machines, and figuring out how to approach building the new model efficiently.

“Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking” is a book I often turn to for ideas and inspiration. Mr. Frid was an old-school woodworker. He taught his students how to accomplish most tasks with hand tools and/or the power tools available at the time so they can do whatever work was necessary with whatever tools were at hand.

The book was written long enough ago for him to recommend purchasing a table saw that can use a 10″ blade rather than an 8″ blade if possible. There’s no fluff about buying fancy, expensive gizmos, because with knowledge, skill, and ingenuity, one can do complex work with relatively simple tooling.

Bending wood and finishing are covered, again, using accessible materials and methods.

In a section on sharpening, he mentioned what he calls “a Belgian clay stone.” One day, while reading the book, I wondered what the hell a Belgian clay stone was, and after some time on the Internet, I learned he was referring to Belgian coticules, and this ignited my interest in learning about the various natural sharpening stones people around the world have used for ages, and in many places, still use daily.

The book covers everything one needs to know to turn rough wood into fine, finished objects in a small shop or a larger production facility.

A beginning woodworker or luthier might find there is a lot of information presented a bit too quickly to absorb, but there is just about everything you will need to know about woodworking tools and methods to get the job done between the covers.

There are various editions of the book, and I believe at this time all are out of print, but it is fairly easy to find them using a used book search aggregator.

My Most Recent Setup For Sharpening Scrapers

November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 ~ Doug

This is my current hi-tech setup for sharpening scrapers.

The chalk helps keep the file from clogging, and the little Japanese rust eraser helps scrub swarf from the pores of the stone.

I have a big burnisher for big scrapers and a small burnisher for small scrapers. Either burnisher would do the job on all sizes of scrapers, but using a small burnisher to turn the burr on a small scraper feels less like driving a nail with a sledgehammer.

I started making little cardboard or heavy paper sheaths for the smaller scrapers a year or so ago. I use the small scrapers much more than the large ones, and the sheaths let me keep them out on the bench without worrying about the edges becoming damaged.

The larger scrapers are kept wrapped up in a piece of cloth, though I still occasionally use pieces of plastic paper binding clips to protect the edges when they turn up while cleaning the shop.

I like having multiple scrapers on hand. They often look identical, but some are sharpened for very fine work and others for more aggressive work, and like my drugstore reading glasses, if I have enough of them lying about, I can usually find one when needed!

Tools I Use To Make Dulcimers – A Miller’s Falls No. 9 Smoothing Plane

September 3, 2023September 3, 2023 ~ Doug

When I first acquired a Miller’s Falls No.9 smoothing plane, I found the feel in my hand, the weight, and the balance, to be very pleasing and comfortable, however, the seller on the online auction site where I found it did not mention it had been “improved” by cleaning the rust off the body using coarse sandpaper, possibly with a belt sander! The blade was also rusted and pitted, making it unusable. It was quite a mess!

I soon acquired another Miller’s Falls No. 9 plane, I think at an antique mall, with yet another rusted and pitted blade and some missing parts, so I cannibalized parts from both planes and created what some woodworkers refer to as a Frankenplane. In addition, I replaced the useless blade with a Hock plane iron and lever cap. After a little oil on the moving parts and some lapping to remove a slight twist from the sole, I had what has been one of my favorite smoothing planes for the past 20 or so years.

Every wooden part of the dulcimers I make has been touched by this plane.

I once wrote a post about another smoothing plane I referred to as a favorite. Well, when it comes to planes, I am polyamorous, and each plane has a function that is best for particular situations. When it comes to difficult hardwoods that want to tear out, I reach for this one.

I sporadically add a post to this blog, but I regularly document the thrill and adventure of making dulcimers on Instagram.

A Sharpening Stone Known By A Variety Of Names, And What I Like About It

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022 ~ Doug ~ 2 Comments

To be clear, it is a type of sharpening stone I will discuss that is known by a variety of names. The two examples of this type of sharpening stone in the photograph are known by the names Gabriella and Giuseppe.

Only kidding. Or am I?

But seriously, these two stones, depending on various times and places throughout history, have been referred to as Turkish Oilstones, Levant Sharpening Stones, names referring to different locations in the historic Levant, such as Syria, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, parts of Turkey, Greece, etc.

The stones in the photo were mined in Crete, and though there are varied opinions whether these Cretan sharpening stones are identical to historic Turkish Oilstones, I have read many have found them to perform similarly. Having not had access to any other stones of this type, I have no opinion on the matter.

I only learned of this type of sharpening stone about a year ago. Though once in common use in many parts of the world, these stones are currently little known in the United States. I was only able to find one source carrying them in the United States (the small one) and the larger one was shipped from a tool merchant in Europe. I wonder if a customs agent was perplexed as to why someone would ship what looks like a worn old cobblestone across the Atlantic!

Here is a reference to this type of stone from “Turning And Mechanical Manipulation“, by Charles Holtzapffel (1856)

“The Turkey Oilstone can hardly be considered as a hone slate, having nothing of a lamellar or schistose appearance. As a whetstone, it surpasses every other known substance, and possesses, in an eminent degree, the property of abrading the hardest steel, and is at the same time of so compact and close a nature, as to resist the pressure necessary for sharpening a graver, or other small instrument of that description. Little more is known of its natural history than that it is found in the interior of Asia Minor, and brought down to Smyrna for sale. The white and black varieties of Turkey oilstone, differ but little in their general characters, the black is, however, somewhat harder, and is imported in larger pieces than the white.”

The examples of Cretan sharpening stones I have both contain fissures, small voids, cracks, and other irregularities. From what I have read, this is typical for this kind of stone. These are natural stones, so rather than thinking of them containing flaws, I think of them as a remarkable substance produced by nature with all the complexity of anything else produced by nature.

These stones are porous, and traditionally, a new stone would be soaked in olive oil for several days to permeate the stone before use. In modern times, some prefer using mineral oil rather than olive oil.

This type of stone also works very well with water as a lubricant, and that is how I choose to use them.

A remarkable quality of these stones is the ability to serve as a moderately coarse sharpening stone as well as a stone fine enough to produce an excellent working edge. I can bear down hard with a chisel, plane blade, or knife without damaging the stone, and the bite of the stone removes metal very quickly. Lighter pressure produces a finer edge.

In addition to how much pressure is used, the surface of the stone can be quickly abraded using another coarse or fine stone, and this both changes the quality of the sharpening surface and creates a slurry of stone particles and water of different consistencies. In the photo, sitting patiently on top of the two Cretan stones, are two small Arkansas stones I use as slurry stones, one being a coarse Washita stone, the other a Hard Arkansas stone. I also occasionally use a diamond sharpening plate to true the surface of the stone and/or to create a slurry.

Being a natural stone, the exact grit is irrelevant, but depending on technique, the surface, slurry, and amount of water, I can quickly get the results I would expect using an 800 grit synthetic waterstone through to about a 4000 grit synthetic waterstone. With a little extra time and care, I can achieve a more finely polished edge like that from a 6000 – 8000 grit synthetic waterstone, but I will often just switch to a finer stone when that need arises.

I still consider myself in the learning stage of using this type of stone, and as happy as I am with them, I look forward to discovering more of what they are capable of. In my day-to-day work in the shop, it is typically my go-to stone for maintaining edges.

I post far more often these days about dulcimer making and the tools of the trade on Instagram, so please feel free to follow me there.

Stay healthy and safe!

Having Fun With Edges Of A Dulcimer Peghead

June 13, 2021June 13, 2021 ~ Doug

Detailing the edges of a dulcimer peghead.

Though the basic pattern is the same, each dulcimer peghead I make is a little different from the others. Sometimes the size and shape of the peghead may vary and/or the more subtle details, like the shape or bevels on the edges, may be unique.

This is in part because I work on the peghead until it looks right to me on the particular dulcimer where it will spend its life. It is also because I thoroughly enjoy working with edge tools and files, and shaping the edges of the peghead present the opportunity to have fun!

For the long edges of the peghead, I begin the bevels with a block plane, on shorter straight sections I begin with a chisel, and on curved areas, I start with a knife.

Detaling the back of a dulcimer peghead.

A small scraper and a file clean things up and round or soften the edges as needed.

I regularly post photos of my work in progress on Instagram.

Flattening Waterstones On A Sunny Day

September 11, 2020September 11, 2020 ~ Doug ~ 4 Comments

Fall will soon arrive, perhaps my favorite season, and it seemed like a good time to take on some tasks that are easier outside the shop rather than inside the shop.

The front steps of our house is a perfect place to flatten waterstones. I can enjoy a beautiful, sunny day and splash water without trying to avoid making a mess!

Flattening waterstones is a general maintenance task I need to do every few months. The stones become concave after a few weeks of sharpening, and though not a problem for honing an edge, a concave stone doesn’t lend itself to polishing the back of a blade very well.

It just takes a few minutes to flatten waterstones. I draw a few lines on the stones with a pencil, add water, and rub the waterstones against a hard, coarse, flat surface until all the pencil lines are gone.

For years I relied on a cinder block as the hard, coarse and flat surface and it worked well, but a few months ago I bought a stone made specifically for flattening waterstones and it does leave a nicer surface on the stones, though I don’t know if that really matters.

Now it’s time for coffee and a trip back into the dulcimer mine.

You can see dulcimers in progress by following me on Instagram