Paul Sellers
Published Jul 5, 2024At least half of my woodworking life has been dedicated to demystifying the art of hand tool woodworking, and this video proves the truth of it.
The simplicity is this though; with just a handful of hand tools, I create three housing dadoes in 4″ wide hard maple, and the watch strapped to my wrist tells it all. I hope you enjoy seeing this video as much as we had making it.
We wanted to show you exactly how hand tools are still current technology at its best, and it’s available for everyone, including your kids!
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November 15, 2024
Three Ways to Cut a Housing Dado | Paul Sellers
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October 25, 2024
How to Make a Simple Picture Frame | Episode 2
Paul Sellers
Published Jun 21, 2024This is a uniquely different way to make a picture frame, but Paul designed it specifically to work with hand tools.
Sizing the eight components with the level of precision needed can be tricky, but two guides make the whole process quick and simple. We have dispensed with the mitres normally associated with picture frames altogether, giving these frames an assembly process and look you’ve never seen before.
It’s a step-by-step process with accuracy and we walk you through every step.
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October 9, 2024
How to Make a Simple Picture Frame | Episode 1
Paul Sellers
Published Jun 7, 2024This is a uniquely different way to make a picture frame, but Paul designed it specifically to work with hand tools.
Sizing the eight components with the level of precision needed can be tricky, but two guides make the whole process quick and simple. We have dispensed with the mitres normally associated with picture frames altogether, giving these frames an assembly process and look you’ve never seen before.
It’s a step-by-step process with accuracy and we walk you through every step.
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September 28, 2024
How to Make a Ladle | Episode 3
Paul Sellers
Published May 24, 2024This is the last third of making a substantial kitchen utensil from solid hardwood. It’s a lifetime kitchen tool designed to develop your carving and shaping skills with substantive insight into how we must learn to work our wood according to the changing direction of the wood grain.
This last episode focuses on shaping the back of the bowl, and for this, we use different spokeshaves, saws, and rasps to get the shape we want for the best-looking ladle.
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September 9, 2024
How to Make a Ladle | Episode 2
Paul Sellers
Published May 10, 2024Shaping any wood has a therapeutic effect on all of us, and this ladle is no different. With the bowl scalloped, we now focus on shaping the handle using tools ranging from flat chisels, saws, card scrapers, and rasps.
Remember, when you’re shaping a handle, you use just the same tools and techniques as you would for the neck of cellos, violins, and guitars.
By the time you have shaped your handle, you will feel relaxed and satisfied.
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August 29, 2024
How to Make a Ladle | Episode 1
Paul Sellers
Published Apr 26, 2024It may not be a large project, but creating a ladle from fully kiln-dried hardwoods like sycamore and maple differs from green, uncured wood. Tougher to carve yes, but there is no shrinkage and no risk of cracking through drying. It is a wonderful project for learning to work with multi-directional grain and to also use gouges and such.
This is a great beginner guide for those starting with gouge work.
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May 22, 2024
Making a French Cleat | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published Sep 9, 2015Have you been looking for a way to hang your wall shelf or clock? Ever wondered what a split cleat or french cleat is? Paul shares this traditional method that really works.
To see a beginner friendly version of how to make a Hanging Wall Shelf, see our sister site: https://commonwoodworking.com/courses…
This video first appeared on https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com
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April 30, 2024
3 Chisel Mortise Method | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published Jan 19, 2024Sometimes, we avoid simple joinery because we believe it cannot be done well, and efficiently by hand. This mortise, 4″ long and 1 1/2″ deep by half an inch, took me around seven minutes.
In any hardwood, oak, for instance, it might take a minute longer, but no more. I did this video to show a technique using my mortise guide and a strategic way using three standard chisels and a method.
I am making a bed with eight mortise and tenon joints, and the mortise I chopped here is one of them.
Enjoy real woodworking with me; it doesn’t always need to be called work!
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April 10, 2024
Three Joints, a Handful of Tools | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published Jan 5, 2024It was almost 35 years ago when I was about to teach my first woodworking class, and I struggled because what could be taught in a one-day workshop that would have any value? I agonised for two weeks, and one day it came to me; with three joints and a handful of hand tools, you can make just about any furniture piece you care to name.
Since then, I have used this basic tenet to teach and train hundreds of thousands of woodworkers, just like you. It’s still working!
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March 29, 2024
Drawer Joinery Explained | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published Dec 15, 2023We should never take too much for granted, especially when it comes to which joints are used for this or that.
If no one has explained the reasoning behind drawer joint choices, this simple video will help. Drawers take a lot of stresses and strains, and the dovetail joint is the signature joint of drawers and boxes. But did you know that a housing dado can also improve the functionality of a drawer?
This video will walk you through the reasoning for both joints.
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March 20, 2024
Jointing on a Bandsaw | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published Dec 1, 2023This bandsaw hack is one you have never seen before because I invented it.
Planing dead flat for hand planing or power planing can take time, but this bandsaw method takes only a few short minutes to do, and you are on your way to your work faster than blinking.
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January 10, 2024
How to Sharpen and Set up a No.80 Scraper | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 6 Oct 2023The #80 cabinet scraper handles the wildest grain, but because of its name, it is also one of those misunderstood tools with misunderstood sharpening.
In this video, I walk you through the most unique sharpening method there is for any woodworking hand tool. Once you learn how to sharpen and set up this tool, you’ll be able to refine any hard and dense-grained wood surface you will ever encounter, bar none.
Where the hand plane might fail you, the #80 cabinet scraper takes over.
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December 28, 2023
Making a Dovetail Guide | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 22 Sept 2023Often, we woodworkers make boxes the same size over and over again, especially if or when we sell them. I designed this dovetail guide to replicate the same-sized dovetails to the four corners of the box we make and make dozens of boxes if we have a batch production run of them.
You need to lay out only once, no matter how many dovetails you make and the dovetails will even be interchangeable. Additionally, you can vary the dovetail sizes proportionally by sliding the workpiece up and down the guide for larger or smaller dovetails too.
I hope you enjoy this little nugget!
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December 13, 2023
Vice-held End-grain Guide | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 25 Aug 2023It’s true. Sometimes an idea should always be shared, and this is one I just had to tell you about.
I know that shooting boards work well, but for end-grain planing with added security vice-held stock and the guide, you add solidity and comfort. This one has no equal. You don’t have to believe me because in ten minutes and from scraps, you can make your own and check it out for yourself.
You can find the drawing of this project here: https://paulsellers.com/wp-content/up…
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October 18, 2023
Sharpening a Chisel in under a Minute | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 15 Jun 2023I see more and more options for sharpening a chisel and yet, with no mechanical means at all, I go from a chisel I have dulled to surgically sharp in about a minute or less.
The fact is I never need to use a grinding wheel, and I was taught to sharpen by the masters of sharpening in my apprenticeship days 58 years ago which I have never strayed from because I found every other option too slow and, dare I say it, DULL and time consuming no matter which method or which machine!
Watch the video and see what you feel.
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