• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Recent content by Andy Kev.

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    Not a straight edge - a cautionary tale.

    I'm currently working on a book case which will be 5 ft tall. My longest straight edge is 4 ft, so I bought a very long (about 7 ft) spirit level at the local DIY place: I assumed that being made of aluminium, its accuracy would be good enough over a length of 5 ft. However, I discovered...
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    Bird table

    Are those sacrificial toes which can be replaced when they rot? Very clever idea if they are. Also, will you be putting some sort of finish on the roof and feet? It's such a lovely piece of work that it would be a shame not to.
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    Lost! Now found.

    I'm glad it's not just me who has wandering kit. I have an ornate tin box - I think it originally housed posh biscuits - my "bench box" and it holds pencils, a two foot four fold rule, 6"rule, an awl, pencil sharpener etc etc. I am convinced that everything which lives in that box is distantly...
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    Wood suitable for window shutters.

    Andy P: that's really interesting but unfortunately the shutters in question have a frame construction with lots of cross pieces (styles, I suppose). I was surprised to note that they are not angled, thinking that they would slope from back to front so that rain could drip off. I have seen some...
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    Wood suitable for window shutters.

    I've been asked to make some replacements for ageing window shutters. The existing ones seem to be of some kind of pine type wood and their best days are long behind them. I was wondering if there is a particularly suitable kind of wood. I don't think that anything particularly heavy e.g. oak...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    That's shocking news! I wonder if Dictum has over-extended its stock range. It does offer an awful lot of alternatives for any given function e.g. I reckon that the marking and measuring section could be pruned right back.
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    Ref the change in shopping habits. As far as I am aware, there are only two shops in Germany which qualify as real tool shops. One is Dictum in Munich and Plattling and the other is Dieter Schmid in Berlin. Unfortunately after Covid, the latter switched to online only, which made sense because...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    Here's the documentary about Gerd Fritsche. It's in German but you'll all understand what's going on. https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/handwerkskunst/wie-man-einen-hobel-baut/swr/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzEzNTQ1MTM
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    Sad, isn't it? I think that we are still in the middle of a huge shake up as a result of the development of online shopping. I suspect that in the medium to long term there will be a bit of a revival in the manner that e.g. vinyl MPs have come back a bit. Perhaps people will come to realise...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    I'm so glad I got in my sentence above about being open to correction and never having run a business!😁 FWIW I think that my idea would only be feasible for a (very) small group of people who were in no way dependant on such a venture for their livings. I suppose it would essentially be a...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    Certainly the Americans frequently refer to the hand tool revival. I assume that any such revival is only amongst hobbyists as hand tools are surely not viable for pros. I had gained the impression that hand tool prices generally increase but I have to admit that it's not something I've...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    I've been thinking hard about this. It's obviously more complex than the initial idea and as I have no experience of running a business, I'm open to correction on just about everything. However, here goes: My first thought was something more along the lines of a one man and his dog set up or...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    It is good in the sense that it is well made. Although I've not drilled a hole with it yet, I'm confident that it will work perfectly. It's clear from the picture that the Footprint is just a tad longer. I prefer that as it gives the drill a slightly more slender feel which for me makes it...
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    Have you had a look at the Dieter Schmid website (feinewerkzeuge)? They seem to have a lot of vices. You'd have to look for yourself because I don't feel qualified to comment on them.
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    If there was one hand tool which you would like to see made again.

    I sometimes wonder if a small British company could not be set up to make high quality tools at a fair price. It would have to be a niche enterprise making things like the vice you suggest or decent hand drills. It can be done. There is Clifton making planes and as Andy T pointed out above...
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