• 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!

Quick introducton :)

M

MikeAnblips

New Shoots
Joined
Oct 15, 2025
Messages
52
Reaction score
55
Name
Michele Ancis
LOCATION
Linz (AT)
Hello everybody,

my name is Michele, I'm Italian, I've been spending my last 20+ years around EU, 4 of those years in beloved Kent :) , now kind of settled in a nice little Austrian town. I'm an electronic engineer by profession, and started woodworking as a way to "reconnect" and balance out that brain usage with something more hand-based. After a ton of YT videos on the last Evolution table saw, jigs, whatnot, I realized that my < 4 m² space was more suited to a few hand tools and quiet atmosphere... So that's where I was around October '24. I've spent most of the woodworking time trying to wrap my head around things like marking, sawing sorta straight, how straight... Planing and so on.
As byproducts, I created a first dovetailed box (following more or less Paul Seller's video instructions):
1760534630071.png

A stool (based on the first project in "The Essential Woodworker" by R. Wearing:
1760534742620.png

A kerfing plane
1760534807628.png

A frame saw:
1760534929936.png

... And another box, just hot off the press - but maybe I'll to a specific thread on that one :)

My focus for the upcoming year will really be on the basics:

* sawing/marking as precisely as possible (or needed, for instance for tenons/mortices)
* sizing & squaring stock from the raw timber - no fuss and no frustration... Will it be good enough?
* stretch goal: super-nice 45 deg miters --> stretch-stretch goal: exagons/octagons :love:

Looking forward to learning from you guys!

cheers,
Michele
 
Last edited:
Hi Michele

Welcome aboard, and many apologies for kicking you out initially!

You've already satisfied rule one of TWH2, pictures! We love pictures! Some really nice stuff there, I look forward to seeing more of your work.
 
Well done you! those items look really excellent. Paul Sellers is pretty good to follow being a proper time served Joiner with excellent hand skill technique.
 
MikeAnblips said:
* stretch goal: super-nice 45 deg miters --> stretch-stretch goal: exagons/octagons
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, a shooting board is a wonderful thing for making precise and consistent angles: it makes mitres relatively straightforward.

I recently did some compound-angle (which makes it even more difficult!) mitres (with hand tools only and while I was away on holiday with my travel toolchest): https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/yet-another-box-wip.11033/

I did some octagons for my garden table, although I cheated a bit and used a bandsaw to rough out the angles (before hand-planing them to finish).
 
Dr.Al said:
For what it's worth, a shooting board is a wonderful thing for making precise and consistent angles: it makes mitres relatively straightforward.

I recently did some compound-angle (which makes it even more difficult!) mitres (with hand tools only and while I was away on holiday with my travel toolchest): https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/threads/yet-another-box-wip.11033/

I did some octagons for my garden table, although I cheated a bit and used a bandsaw to rough out the angles (before hand-planing them to finish).
Click to expand...

Well... I'm speechless 😱

This is basically as if I was looking into my ideal future me 🤩
I concocted some sort of shooting board add-on, to cut the 45 miters for my last (2nd) box - you could have seen it in the other Forum, I'll post a thread here too.
But your shooting board is just gorgeus, and those splined miters are what I *dream* about, when nobody is looking.

I'll first give a good read to your content, both on that specific thread and on your site, then probably come bothering you with silly questions 🥳
 
Welcome from another one who likes to work slowly and quietly in a small space.
This forum has some of the most helpful people you could hope to meet, so don't hesitate to show your progress and questions at any stage.
It looks like you've made a great start.
 
Welcome Michele,
Curious on what source of timbers you'll be planning on using,
since a kerfing plane's quite a specialized tool to have made, right off the bat!...
and especially so, with your wish list not mentioning much apart from the sizing and squaring raw timber bit.
Seems like you might have a good supply. :)

All the best
Tom
 
TomTrees said:
Welcome Michele,
Curious on what source of timbers you'll be planning on using,
since a kerfing plane's quite a specialized tool to have made, right off the bat!...
and especially so, with your wish list not mentioning much apart from the sizing and squaring raw timber bit.
Seems like you might have a good supply. :)

All the best
Tom
Click to expand...
Hi Tom,
I'm not sure I understand what you mean with "source of timbers" and how that relates to the kerfing plane or my basic plan?
There's a nice timber supplier just out of Linz, keplinger.at. I bought the pine (a 3 m slab I had cross cut in two, to fit in the car) I made those projects above from, I'll see what to buy next but if I decide to go "small" I can ask a local professional who would be happy to sell me some offcuts...
The kerfing plane couples with the frame saw 😇 - I at some point attempted resawing that 4cm pine slab with my ryoba and, being the slab as wide as the blade (~25cm), the result was catastrophic 😭
I then got stubborn on being able to resaw pieces like that, and went on repurposing that wrecked slab into the nice frame saw above 😎
The plane is made from smaller pieces I got from the joyner mentioned above.
As for the plan...For one, I'm a "basics" guy in general, I like to get the fundamentals of anything I'm involved with, before venturing into the advanced stuff. On the other hand, in this first year and few projects I often felt "anxious" about whether or not that piece will come out flat or square enough, as thick as the other, and so on...I would like to gain enough skill not to be doubtful about any basic rectangular shape whatsoever and how to achieve it.
 
Last edited:
Well done or persevering with resawing. It is difficult (although I agree that a kerfing saw helps a lot). I did quite a lot of it when I was getting started (all the timber I could easily buy was at least 20 mm thick, which was much too thick for making boxes). I must admit that in the end I wimped out and bought a bandsaw!

Oh, by the way: you mentioned that you like the idea of basics and doing things with minimal tools (I might be mixing two conversations up here, but I prefer this forum!). If you want to see how you can, perhaps, go too far with such things, I did a "minimal tool challenge" a couple of years ago (trying to make a wooden box from rough-sawn timber with as few tools as possible). It's not something I'd recommend but it was an interesting exercise. On my website or (with the addition of all the interesting replies from folks on here) on the thread on this forum.

Oh, and continuing the conversation from the other place regarding getting hold of an inexpensive plough plane in Austria, have you considered making a fixed offset, width & depth one? If you're making grooves for box bases/lids, then the offset, width and depth aren't that critical, so if you made a plane with (say) a 4 mm blade thickness, 4 mm offset and 4 mm depth and you sized your box bases to be 4 mm thick and the box sides to be at least 7 mm thick, then the fixed set-up plough plane would do the job fine. That sort of thing is fairly easy to make.
 
Thanks for the idea Al,
yes, that's definitely an option I'm going to explore. I was just looking around and learning the ropes between plough and its extended version the combination plane - checking a few sites and prices... It's always the same (sad) thing with tools coming from across the Channel (burdened by high shipping costs, compared to the item price), but I could find some simpler wooden alternatives "in my area" (Germany mainly, there isn't much on local Austrian marketplace. I have to try registering back into FB though, maybe that's where the action is nowadays :D).

I'll surely check your suggestion for the minimalist challenge, however my position is not that of a ultra-minimalist or anything like that, at least not at the minute :ROFLMAO: - It is more the result of a mix between my "first principles" nature, environmental constraints like space availability, and a bit of explorative attitude, you know: how would I do that, if I didn't have a CNC machine in my basement? How did people make beautiful furniture 2-300 years back? This kind of questions really entice me.
 
MikeAnblips said:
Well... I'm speechless 😱

This is basically as if I was looking into my ideal future me 🤩
I concocted some sort of shooting board add-on, to cut the 45 miters for my last (2nd) box - you could have seen it in the other Forum, I'll post a thread here too.
But your shooting board is just gorgeus, and those splined miters are what I *dream* about, when nobody is looking.

I'll first give a good read to your content, both on that specific thread and on your site, then probably come bothering you with silly questions 🥳
Click to expand...
Welcome from Salisbury as well. I'd reiterate what Dr.Al has said about shooting boards; I've used many different types over the decades and without a doubt, in my very 'umble opinion, it's THE most useful jig in the workshop, particularly so if you do a lot of work at the bench. It's so useful that for my sort of work, I've dispensed with the need for a table saw as it just isn't needed any more. There are dozens of different designs and I've tried quite a few of them but this one is several light years ahead of anything else. I've used it so much that it probably could do with a bit of refurbishment! - Rob
 
Thanks @Woodbloke!
Something is wrong in the link you suggested - it brings me briefly to a google search but then right after, onto a blank page. I'd be curious about your suggestion!
 
MikeAnblips said:
Thanks @Woodbloke!
Something is wrong in the link you suggested - it brings me briefly to a google search but then right after, onto a blank page. I'd be curious about your suggestion!
Click to expand...
I think the one Rob likes is this one:

It's worth playing around and trying a few different things for yourself. Everyone is different: I tried Rob's preferred type and didn't get on with it. I'd certainly advocate trying it, but try other sorts as well.
 
Oh yeah I know that one! I love the fence idea with that double height trick. I had a look at it when I was building mine,
which is a rather simple approach and only successively I implemented the rudimentary donkey ear in the pic.
What put me off about that design is that I don't trust myself implementing the "dado" or dovetailed recess and all the rest with any degree of the needed precision ;-)
I'll write up a small thread for my second box, for which I used this jig. I don't think it's an horrible result, but ya know... I'm looking for perfection here 8-)
 

Attachments

  • 2025-10-16 15_10_07-WhatsApp — Mozilla Firefox.png
    2025-10-16 15_10_07-WhatsApp — Mozilla Firefox.png
    774.9 KB · Views: 2
Last edited:
Dr.Al said:
I think the one Rob likes is this one:

It's worth playing around and trying a few different things for yourself. Everyone is different: I tried Rob's preferred type and didn't get on with it. I'd certainly advocate trying it, but try other sorts as well.
Click to expand...
Agreed Dr. Al; everyone's different and needs to try stuff out for themselves. Tim Rousseau's shooter is the one I use but with a subtle addition:

CE21EFC6-9D74-4B73-BC93-BD3F72A77F3B 2.jpg

I've added an additional thin mdf base and stuck on a bit of proper 'old skool' Formica to act as a runway for the LN51. The board has been so well used that the original pattern has all but worn off! On Tim's shooting board, his plane runs on the bench top which I thought wasn't ideal; hence the additional runway. In all other respects it's identical; dimensions given as my pal Andy Pickard is at this very momentum making one of these shooters - Rob
 
Despite liking different shooting boards, Rob & I clearly share similar tastes in steel rules: those Axminster Precision ones are great!
 
Hello, I'm probably not making sense, and was merely poking asking the why/where/who,
as I've not came across many articles which include such a tool for preparing stock.
I've seen differing style frame saws for resawing, take David on the other forums for example,
but not many else who's looking to do things, with half as much emphasis on least physical effort spent.
(and produce articles on such)
I suggest you seek that out, if not on the other groupbuilder site, then could be found on the Auzzie, woodworking forums site.
A heavier duty affair compared to the Scandi style saw you've made, of which Klausz or Frid demonstrated.
(for cutting joints, that is)

That said, there's other takes on doing things the hard way, with least amount of effort spent,
notably Peter Follansbee for one.
Not many folks riving timbers about, Adam's posts on the other place might be worth looking at,
should you wish to delve into a European insight on such.

It's no secret that the bandsaw is such a popular tool with furniture/box makers,
hence the above questioning on such a plane.
Space concerns must be a big priority for you I guess, and partly why I mentioned some names above,
they might have insight worth reading up on.

Regarding being anxious about ones efforts, that likely won't ever go away,
as most folks tend to buy stock somewhat close to thickness already for a given project.
Such threads concerning thinner stock, cupping or warping and so on, will likely involve bandsaws,
should you seek to find more info on that, you will find plenty, perhaps also using a key word, "short fence".

Hope that might explain my strange post.
All the best
Tom
 
Last edited:
Thanks @TomTrees - I must say I have to read your reply a couple of times, for some reason I find it difficult to follow.
So if I understood you correctly, your point/surprise is because I decided to resawn by hand, right?
I think I can understand that, it's a chore. But, as a person, I tend to like to make experiences and explore "boundaries" of things, so once I got in the middle of this, I persevered until I saw the other side - I judged that the two related projects, the saw and the plane, couldn't but be a good exercise no matter what :)

*If* I continue with woodworking, and *if* I find a possibility to expand beyond the total 4m² I have now (including bench and shelves), I'll definitely look into a band saw as a first power tool. And possibly there's interesting stuff like routers and router tables, for instance. Right now it's about exploring hand work and what it can do, what it requires and offers.

I'll look carefuly into your suggestions (I imagine "the other Forum" to be the workshop one?), thanks for sharing!

BTW, I'm not constraining myself to build boxes only: it's just that they are nice objects to learn the ropes with, in my opinion.
 
Hello again Michele
More curious about the kerfing plane, and those who use one, and I suppose especially so
regarding the chore element, as the heavier duty frame saw looks a more reasonable proposition,
for those without space or historical interest.

In my mind, the latter doing such for historical reasons, could be for divided into two groups,
Those doing such for a reason, like Follansbee who produces accurate period representations of such,
and those, seemingly like yourself who wish to explore the boundaries, regarding physical effort,
hence my curiosity regarding the plane you've made.

That may be worth noting, should the wood prep be considered drudgery, it may be that some of the folks above
have a better answer.

Spot on you are, the Panama workshop site used to be a UK one, can be a good resource,
I just don't trust those owners who've bought up lots of forums, seemingly destroyed some,
and reckon they'd stick up a paywall if they had a reasonable chance of that working out for them.

Boxes certainly make a good entry into the craft, though most folk who wish to do things as easily as possible,
generally have access to a bandsaw for that!

All the best
Tom
 
Tom!
I don't have huge experience with that kerfing plane, which is just that: a "sure" way to dig a trench into your soon-to-be resawn board, avoiding blade wandering during the cut, which is going to destroy it.
At some point, after my modest success with the stool (2nd project, mortice and tenon), I decided I wanted to take on a larger project... A table!!
To that extent, I had my nice pine board to use: but, to create the strips for the large top, I needed to make two slabs out of a 4 cm one.
I had, and have, no access to a bandsaw whatsoever, although in the mean time I managed to have access, if I so need, to a table saw and a jointer/thicknesser. So... Off I went, trying to resaw by hand. I already had a bit of success with a far shorter and somewhat narrower piece, which I resawn to create my first box (the dovetail one). So, I set out to it. Boy was I wrong!!

The first board piece wasn't too wide, i.e. less than the ryoba blade I was using: it came out decent, but it cupped dramatically right after :-/
(It was also a lot of energy...)

The second and third ones were a complete disaster: those slab pieces were wider than the saw, and the resulting slabs were anything from a horror movie to something you just don't want to deal with.

That's where I got a mystical crisis and decided I could not leave those menomated slabs to their dumpster destiny. I carefully laminated two arms and the horizontal piece of the frame saw, and slowly slowly built one.

But! The frame saw itself is difficult to tame, when resawing, if you don't have proper "markings", or kerfs, to follow. Somewhere I found this "kerfing plane" thing (Tom Fidgen?) and I decided to give it a try - it was a nice project!

After building it, I've used it only once - for testing purposes. The result of the resawing is 1000x better than my others; Right now I have another box I want to make, it will be my third and is again a few things I want to try out (but still 45 splined mitres). Then, we'll see how the resawing needs go :)

(I'll attach some pics so that you can make sense of the differences... I have to look the pics up :))
Reasonable resawn:
whatsapp_image_2025_05_24_at_3_09_15_am.jpg

Disastrous resawn (too wide):
thumb_whatsapp_image_2025_05_25_at_6_55_58_pm.jpg

Final test of the kerfing + frame saw is in a short video:

Cheers!
Michele
 
Last edited:
Hi Michele and welcome from Northumberland around 20 miles north of Newcastle.

My mother was Austrian and I have a number of relatives around the Klagenfurt area in the province of Carinthia
 
Dr.Al said:
Lovely part of the world. I stopped there on a motorbike ride down to Slovenia & Croatia a few years ago. Long way from Linz though!
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's closer to my mother Country than to my current place :-D
 
Dr.Al said:
Lovely part of the world. I stopped there on a motorbike ride down to Slovenia & Croatia a few years ago. Long way from Linz though!
Click to expand...
Did you take the alpine route through Austria over the Grossglockner Al? I loved it but my wife was white knucled the whole way as she hates hieghts and I was driving my own car so wrong side of the road. She is a bit of a worrier.
 
Lons said:
Did you take the alpine route through Austria over the Grossglockner Al? I loved it but my wife was white knuckled the whole way as she hates heights and I was driving my own car so wrong side of the road. She is a bit of a worrier.
Click to expand...

I went over Grossglockner but not as a through route. I rode over quite a few alpine passes on the way down but Grossglockner was one that made more sense to ride over and then immediately ride back over to get back to where I started!

Carolyn flew down to Croatia and met me there so I got to do all the alpine passes without a pillion. We did then ride two-up to Slovenia and rode around the Julian Alps together but Carolyn's less of a worrier (at least in terms of mountain passes) than your wife by the sounds of it.
 
It's a long time ago Al but we stayed in Innsbruck for a week before travelling on to Klagenfurt, I hadn't told her I'd chosen the alpine route. ;)

I had what was in those days a fast Cavalier 130 SRI and on the way down the German Autobahns as far as the Black Forest, my wife fell asleep which gave me the chance to put my foot down. She would have have palpitations if awake. :ROFLMAO: We stayed with relatives for another week then made the mistake of driving from there to Belgium in one go to see another relative before catching the ferry a couple of days later. I was OK but my wiffe and kids were exhausted by that journey.

A great trip though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top