Author Archives: The Write Biz

About The Write Biz

By day, I'm a mild-mannered copywriter who harnesses frontal-lobe creativity (right brain) to help B2B marketers generate leads and sales. By night I pick up hand tools to create wooden masterpieces...and give my black lab Bella the "red dot" laser to chase after.

Restoring a $3.00 garage sale backsaw find

Posted on May 18, 2013

The Craig’s List ad said there were some old woodworking tools. That’s it. No pictures, no heart-throbbing prose. Still, the garage sale was in an older neighborhood. And close by in case it was a bust. So I fired up … Continue reading →

Posted in Backsaws, Rehab, Saws, vintage tools | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Building a chess-piece box that’s better than the pieces it contains

Posted on March 21, 2013

I’ve always loved playing games. As a kid living in Puerto Rico, my parents complemented the street Spanish I was learning with a Monopoly game in Spanish. I still have it today. By the time I got to high school, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Restoring a depression-era Miterbox for a 21st-century workshop: Part 4-Restoring, sharpening and testing the saw

Posted on March 5, 2013

In the last post, you read about how I finally tracked down a soul-mate for my Goodell Manufacturing Co. miterbox. Next it was time to clean it up, sharpen it, test its cutting ability and add it to my tool … Continue reading →

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Restoring a depression-era Miterbox for a 21st-century workshop: Part 3-Finding a suitable vintage saw

Posted on March 3, 2013

In my last post, we talked about the restoration of my Goodell Manufacturing Co. miterbox. I also detailed the fabrication of missing parts, as well as the process of mounting the whole affair to a base. Next, I’m going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Backsaws, vintage tools | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Restoring a depression-era Miterbox for a 21st-century workshop: Part 2-Restoration, fabrication of parts and mounting to a base

Posted on March 1, 2013

In my last post, I talked a bit about acquiring my Goodell Manufacturing Co. miterbox and researching its history. In this post, I’ll detail the restoration I did of it. The restoration When I was a kid, I was great … Continue reading →

Posted in vintage tools | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Restoring a depression-era Miterbox for a 21st-century workshop: Part 1-Acquisition

Posted on February 27, 2013

During a rust-hunting expedition last summer, I picked up six saws and a miterbox. I didn’t really “need” it because I already had two sitting on shelves at home. Still, this one had all the earmarks of an industrial-age tool—definitely … Continue reading →

Posted in Saws, vintage tools | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Rehabbing a Coffin Smoother For Use In My Shop

Posted on February 14, 2013

History, curiosity, performance. Those are the three things that motivated me to add a coffin smoother to my tool kit. I got this plane at an antique mall in Scottsdale last summer. It had air conditioning and I reasoned that … Continue reading →

Posted in Hand planes, Rehab, Tools, Uncategorized, vintage tools | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How I finally got a handle on tanged tools.

Posted on February 10, 2013

When I first got into sharpening my own saws, I crafted file handles out of wood scraps. The unshaped, rectangle wood pieces dug into my hand and didn’t allow for much filing finesse. Next I tried making handles out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Sharpening, vintage tools | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Spicing up your handtool life with unusual planes

Posted on February 2, 2013

When I first got into hand planes, I focused on picking up bench planes for use in my shop. Then I started adding specialty planes, like a scrub plane to dimension wood. After that it was joinery planes (plow, rabbet … Continue reading →

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Flea Market Tool Finds-Something I’ve never seen-13-01-27

Posted on January 28, 2013

Here are the latest cool items I picked up at my favorite flea-market booth dedicated exclusively to vintage tools. First, a Bit Brace Extension, a Millers Falls No. 35. It’s in fantastic shape. I didn’t even know these existed until … Continue reading →

Posted in Tools, vintage tools | Tagged , , | 2 Comments