Some of you might be saying, “What the heck’s a spokeshave?” The simplest way to explain it is to say that a spokeshave is a woodworking tool kind of like a plane. If you’re in the “not sure I can see it in my mind’s eye” camp — did you ever use a plane in wood shop in school? Or know a woodworker in the family who used one? Don’t worry, links follow and you can see what they look like for yourself. Wikipedia, of course, has an entry for it, though it’s not comprehensive: spokeshave It’s a fairly simple but fairly sophisticated way of holding a blade for accurately cutting wood. Continue reading

I’m sticking this under “Tools” because I don’t have a category for “Musical Instruments.” While it’s super-easy to create a new category, I have this feeling that a category with only one post in it is less useful. I’ll re-tag it later if I need to. So now you’re wondering, “What kind of tool also can be used to make music? Is he talking about ‘playing the saw’?” Continue reading

What’s a convivial tool?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about that topic. I recently shared some of my thoughts with a friend: Continue reading