Do you have trees in your yard? Do you have a reason to cut some down (like they're close to your house and HUGE)? Do you have a chainsaw or two? Do you have an Alaskan chainsaw mill? Well, we have all of those things and that's why I'm making my own oak lumber. I brought the large slabs into the shop and further processed them into usable sizes. It takes a while for lumber to dry to a usable moisture content (up to a year per inch of thickness). Here's what two sections

My dad is a coin dealer. He has a good friend in Canada who he's been doing business with for a while. He asked me to make another Canadian flag to present to him as a gift. The process for making a Canadian flag is pretty straightforward. I transfer the maple leaf onto the center piece of the wood (maple, of course) using a chisel. I then carve out the interior of the maple using a combination of bench and carving chisels. The pieces are burned individually before they a

I'm doing a lot of work using chisels lately. Bench chisels and carving chisels. There are lots of tips on how to use chisels, but by far the most important tip you'll ever learn is to keep them absolutely as sharp as possible. A sharp chisel cuts more easily, thus requires less force and us more likely to stay where you want it. By contrast, dull chisels require more force, are more likely to slip off of a workpiece and generally give an inferior finished surface. This m