For drafting work, the 0.5mm 2H pencil lead is perfect. HB lead tends to smear on the drafting paper, making a less neat drawing and more difficult erasure. 

I use the wooden pencils, also 2H, infrequently because the point easily enlarges in contact diameter. That interferes with the precision of the drawing, especially in small places. Note that they come without erasers. 

Sometimes I will use the small eraser on the top of the mechanical pencil, especially in tiny areas to erase. For most erasing, I use the white polymer/vinyl rectangle. It erases more easily than the grey kneaded eraser but it does make particle dust. That needs to brushed away with the soft, light brush. You can blow away the dust but it is a pain in the neck to get rid of it all. The same goes for just brushing it away with your hand. 

The thin aluminum eraser shield is a must. You cannot get close enough to the retaining line without it. 

The ultra-fine 0.4mm gel rolling pens (Pilot) are for those occasional times where you want to go directly over the main pencil lines to finalize a drawing. (Of course, there is no going back!) This will make it easier to see the main components as it is hanging on the board in front of the workbench.

Well, these three posts cover just about all of the drawing tools you need for the shop. They are all well worth having readily available. 

But do I draw every piece? No. A few easier ones do not get a formal drawing. Dangerous as it can be, I sometimes use only crude hand-drawn sketches. For some pieces, there are no sketches at all. The main example for that is small boxes.

By the way, with only one exception, I have never made the same piece more than once! Why? I guess I like new ideas, new designs, and new challenges

I should also add: I have use two and three dimensional programs on the computer to try designs. Despite some obvious advantages, I just have not adapted to it. It may be ahead, though for now I am quite comfortable with the pencils.

Now let’s go through some less commonly used writers – not actually pencils – that can help in the shop. 

First is the one with the thick lead in the wooden handle. This is the CretaColor 5.6mm white chalk lead. Plain white chalk is a decent alternative. The black charcoal lead is less useful but can help on a light surface. 

This is handy for marking wood stock with a rough size, placement, or whatever purpose – a quick way to get organized. A simple pencil marking is slower to make prominent and is not seen as well. 

The yellow Dixon “lumber crayon” (to the right in the photo) is used for the same purpose. I find it less easy and fast to put out the markings, though it is sturdier. 

At the top of the photo are some pens – go old Sharpies – and a regular thin writing pen. Only occasionally do I use these on wood. They are sometimes useful for better visibility on wood without a smoothed surface that later will be planned or sanded. Where they are very helpful for is labeling things in the shop – machines, tools, parts, etc. Easy to write and easy to see the words and numbers.

So that covers it for wood and the shop. On the next post, I will go through the set for drafting, which uses a different set of writing tools.

Pencils are tools. Nearly every project in the shop involves using them, and using the right ones for you really helps. I will explain my preferences. Of course, yours may differ but hopefully the lists in these posts will be of value. 

The list starts with a good-old #2 (neutral HB lead) hexagonal wooden pencil with an eraser. (Dixon Ticonderoga is my long-time favorite.) This type of pencil looses sharpness quickly with woodworking but is faster and easier to sharpen with a little battery machine. I use it for basic layout, marking the correct sides, edges, and directions, etc. It helps to have red and white ones handy for certain woods, and to distinguish different marking tasks. Neither color writes as well as the #2 HB. 

You may like and prefer the carpenter’s flat pencil. (We are called woodworkers, not carpenters. This is with all respect to both.) The edge holds up better and follows a wood edge well. I have found more precision and instinct with the #2, but give them a try for your own preference. 

Separate erasers? No need if you do not make mistakes. (That was a joke. Laugh.) The pencil eraser fades quickly, so I like the white polymer/vinyl rectangles (at the left in the photo row). The gray art drawing kneaded eraser does not work very well on wood. (It will come up in the future post regarding drawing design.) The dark yellow piece of crepe rubber (at the right in the photo) is very occasionally used for erasing a coarse line in rough-surface wood. 

Now let’s look at more detailed marking. The mechanical pencils work very well with consistent, precise lead. The 0.5mm HB lead does the job most often. If I want even finer lines, the 0.3mm HB lead works with care, but it does break very easily. This can be avoided by pushing out just a short length. The pencils come with lots of extra leads, as well as erasers for the pencil and separate hand-held erasers.

Coming next, we will go through some non-lead writing tools that can play useful roles in the shop and at the hunt for new wood. 

Here is the shop-made fence that I have been using since well before the current manufactured versions became available. It works very well for planing a board to a straight, 90° edge. Here is how to make it.

Start with settled dry wood. I used quarter-sawn walnut with a straight, even grain. It is 11” long, 1 3/4” wide, and 3/4” thick. 

This 3/4” thickness of the guide will center the plane blade of a 2 3/8” wide (14” long) jack plane on a workpiece 7/8” thick. For a 2 3/4” wide (22” long) jointer, the blade is centered on a 1 1/4” workpiece. A better compromised wood thickness for the guide would be about 7/8”. That would center the blade on 5/8” work with the jack, and 1” work with the jointer.

However, the guide wood thickness does not need to be precise. Here is what is important: The jack or jointer blade edge should be correctly exposed in its width. The edge of these blades should be sharpened to extend very slightly more in the center than at the sides. Thus, set up the blade exposure so the cutting edge is very slightly more at the center of the workpiece width, and less at the sides of the workpiece width.

Ok, back to making the guide. See the photos. I used a piece of flat, high-quality, 11-layer, 1/2” thick plywood to attach to the guide wood with four screws. It is 3 3/4” wide, angled at the top edge. There are three 1” wide, 3/16” deep holes at the top to accommodate steel washers, glued in. Corresponding #10-24 1/2” thumb screws pass through the holes and screw into 10-24 drilled and taped holes in the plane wall. 

It takes careful but not difficult work to set up this attachment system. It does no damage to the plane wall if set up properly. 

There are a couple of very shallow, 1/8” wide slots in the top of the guide wood to accommodate the exposed cutting edge in the jack and jointer. 

Additional note: With the new fence screwed onto the plane, check for square between the fence and the bottom of the plane. Carefully plane/scrape the outer face of the guide wood to get it perfectly square to the plane bottom.

To make accurate plane cuts with the guide, it is all about using your hands, shoulders, and body weight. (Assuming you sharpened the blade nicely!) The right hand pushes the plane with the index finger usually extended. The left hand lays over the side of the guide with the thumb at the top and the four other fingers and palm heel keeping it snug against the wood work. 

At the start of the cut, the left hand thumb and palm heel can apply some pressure to the front of the plane. Then, in the long middle range of the cut, both hands keep light pressure over the whole plane. Finally, the heal of the right hand presses down at the curved lower part of the plane handle at the last part of the cut.  

Well, I made this guide tool years before there were factory-made metal guide fences available. If you prefer, check out the several different plane fences made by Veritas: Jointer Fence, Bevel-up Jointer Fence, Technical Fence, Universal Variable Angle Plane Fence, Variable Angle Fence for Veritas Bench Planes, and Variable Angle Fence for Veritas Rabbit Planes. That is certainly more versatility than the basic guide that I show you here, but I still use mine after 40 years for 95% of my edge planing. 

Now you have options. I do suggest to avoid doing the precise planing task without a guide. 

Enjoy the work!

I have had these small sayings posted in the shop for a long time. I look at them often for their help.

The one from the late Sam Maloof, above, is on the door of my drafting setup. I really need that advice!

In the photo below, it is from the late James Krenov. It is pinned to the top of the tack board just above the workbench where I mostly attach the design drawings for the current project. It is simple, clear, and certainly should not be forgotten.

Shown below, on the other side of the tack board, is a sentence from The Book of  Wisdom in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is a simple way of lifting the significance of wood. Yes, good old wood!

So, there are some ideas you may wish to use. Of course, you surely have your own sayings or bits of advice that would help you in your shop. If you have not already, I suggest posting some.

I also have a few other postings in my shop which I will share in time. They all help keep my mind and hands going strongly: woodworking!

Here is one more thing to add to a manufactured device for sharpening. The previous post explains the issue: for sharpening plane irons that have a slightly curved edge, which is most of them, a subtle curve needs to be added to the roller. (This does not apply to nearly all chisels.)

I have two Woodcraft rollers. One is used as is – for sharpening straight edges. (Photo is below.) The other roller is very slightly curved across its width. (Carefully note the photo above.) It was not manufactured that way but was easily done in the shop.

The roller itself is 1/2” wide. Working out the math and using it in practice, reveals that the roller needs to be ground just about .003” on each 1/4” half of the wheel. In other words, from zero at the center point to a maximum curve of .003” shorter at each far side edge. 

An electric motor-rotating wheel can do this. Be careful and keep fingers away from the wheel! (The safety decision is solely up to you.)

Note that you are making a curved angle on each side, not a straight-edge angle. It is easy to do.

This adds a comfortably controllable ability for angling the plane edge on the flat stone. This is far better than trying to alternately angle onto just the outside corners of a regular flat wheel guide. 

This subtly angled wheel will work for almost all of the plane blades. As I have mentioned in the previous post: nearly all manufacturers neglect this important factor. They could simply supply two replaceable wheels or two frame-wheel combinations. (Again, Lee Valley/Veritas is the only manufacturer that I know of that builds in the curvature in one of their wheels. I do not care for their expensive system but I do suggest taking a look online for your choice.)

With all of this said now, I will still say that I do the vast majority of sharpening by the total hand-holding method discussed three posts ago. But now you have options!

Sharpening is a must for good woodworking but not hard to do with the right equipment and skills!

Perhaps you use, or have at least tried, the sharpening method by hand discussed in the previous two posts. In any case, here is another approach that involves a straightforward angle holder. 

The woodworking tool (plane iron, chisel, etc.) is inserted into the holding guide. The pair is placed onto the angle gage, the tool is slid to match the angle number line or face, say 32°, and the holding bolt is tightened. Position the holder’s wheel on the sharpening stone and, back and forth, off you go sharpening. Easy overall. 

Notice my own lines for 27.5° and 32.5°.

There are several different designs for the holding guide. The one I use is from Woodcraft. It has a single, central, 1/2” wide wheel and can accommodate tools from 1/8” to 2 3/4” wide. Simple as can be.

Play with Amazon and you can find many varieties. Some are like Woodcraft’s. One has a wheel more than 3” wide. Some use pairs of wheels, and some include two pairs of different widths. Some use a single pair of wheels which can be set on the inside or outside width of the tool griper. Woodpecker’s model is like this. Lie-Nielsen and Lee Valley make varieties that include sharpening angled blades. There is quite a creative selection. 

For chisels, these work well for their straight edges. However, for most plane blades, the edge is importantly, slightly curved. This is most of our sharpening work. I easily manage this with the practical system described in the previous two posts.

Can managing the slightly curved edges be done with the tool systems described here? With a 1/2” single, central wheel as on the Woodcraft model, you can very slightly tilt and role on the right corner (then left) to varying degrees. With subtle, variable tilting and rolling, you can produce a decent curve. Not my choice, but it can be done.

It would be helpful if manufacturers simply made an extra, replaceable wheel with a subtle curve built into it. Even better: two extra wheels with slightly different curves.

Credit to Lee Valley/Veritas for the curved edge roller in their system, though I do not prefer it in some other respects, mostly based on complication.

Well, I hope this and the previous two articles help with your direction on hand sharpening. And you know that you cannot do excellent woodworking without really sharp tools!

Here are the angle gauges that I use for the method discussed in the previous post. 

The size for all is about 4 1/2” long, 1 1/2” wide, and 1/2” thick  and made from cherry or African mahogany. They about 10 to 20 years old. 

The sharpening angle goes back about 1” for all the angle gauge sizes. Therefore, its height varies based on the angle. Height is about 1/2” for the 25° gauge but 1 3/32” for the 48° gauge. 

Overall, these give working consistency except for the angle itself.

These are easiest to make with the table saw using straight, square, level wood. Please work cautiously! You make the method but work from long pieces so your hands are nowhere near the blade and pushing path. Make no chance of slipping on the angle holding setup. 

I have a spaced holder for them to stay neat and handy. As mentioned in the previous post, I do not suggest going by my nerdy 1/2° amounts for 27 1/2 and 32 1/2. It does not matter. 27° and 32° would be just fine, or whatever else you might prefer. 

Looking at the photo carefully, you can note that I measured the actual angle in each gauge. It is off a bit. That does not matter. I am using the same gauges each time sharpening. 

They will last a very long time.

Next post: to discuss an angle holding gauge which I do use, though as I mentioned in the previous post, just a minority of the time.