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!

We turn to little planes when the regular big ones, such as the #4 smoothing, #5 jack, and #7 jointer will not do the job or are awkward. These five little planes are worth having in my shop. 

Left to right in the photo above:

1. Veritas Bevel-up #1. The blade bed is at 15°. The mouth is adjustable. I sharpen the PM-V11 steel blade at 27.5°/32.5°. The plane is 5 13/16” long, 1 25/32” wide. The blade is 1 7/32” wide, 1/10” thick. 

2. Lie-Nielsen #60 1/2 block plane, 12° blade bed, adjustable mouth. I sharpen the W1 blade (an early model) at 27.5°/32.5°. Plane 6 1/4” long, 1 3/4” wide. Blade 1 3/8” wide, 1/8” thick.  

3. Lie-Nielsen #60 1/2 rabbet block plane, 12° blade bed. I sharpen the A2 blade at 27.5°/32.5°. Plane 6 1/2” long, 1 3/4” wide. Blade 1 3/4” wide, 1/8” thick. 

4. Veritas Cabinetmaker’s Trimming plane, 15° blade bed. I sharpen the O1 blade at 25°/30°. Plane 6 1/2” long, 1 3/4” wide. Blade 1 3/4”+ wide, 1/8” thick. 

5. Jorgensen mini block plane #70700, 20° blade bed. I sharpen O1 blade at 25°/30°. Plane 3 1/2” long, 1 1/4” wide. Blade 7/8” wide, 1/8” thick.  

The #1 plane functions just like the larger planes but it is handily smaller. For example, it handles very well for smoothing a narrow part of a cabinet frame, even a long one. The handles allow you to hold it and move it just as well as a #4 smoother. I think it is nearly a must. I keep it just as well sharpened as the #4.

The regular block plane works well with one hand pushing in any direction and angle. I use it for practical fitting, trimming, and sizing parts. I think just about everyone has a regular block plane. 

The rabbet block plane is the same idea but you can cut to the side edges. So it can fit in length or side joints where it can often out do a chisel. Not essential, but very handy.

The trimming plane can save the day where it is too hard to consistently and accurately use a chisel. For example, where you need to clean up the width and length of a joined corner section. I do not pick it up too often but it saves the day when I need it!

Sure, for #3 and #4, you can often substitute a shoulder plane, edge plane, or others, but these block plane variants have advantages in holding and pushing. There are alternatives, but these have important roles. 

The mini block plane: yes, have it and you will quickly use it for all sorts of little tasks. It is incredibly well made – flat, excellent steel blade, easy to adjust well – for $18! You might even keep it in a pocket. 

Ok, if you want only two: bevel-up #1 and mini plane. Three? Ok, add the regular block plane. All five?! Ok, skip an expensive restaurant group outing or two. Hey, you’re a woodworker! These are like fingers in the hands and connections in the brain.

These small pieces have been cut and labeled from readily available sheets. Having had them for many years, they get lots of use. They are a quick way to assess small measurements without having to stare and dwell over minute ruler values, or evaluate confusing visual input.

The product is TTC PSS5A 14 Piece Plastic Shim Stock Assortment – 5” x 20” Color Coded Sheets.

(Note that I also put a few thicker wooden examples in the upper photo.)

Some practical examples:

You can slide a shim under a straight edge or square to check how much a piece is flat or out of square. Then, you quickly translate the .004” gap to a few fine strokes with the plane.

Similarly, you can assess the sole of a new plane, or a worn wooden plane sole. 

How much gap of the tenon walls with the sides of the mortise? How far off square is a machine blade?

How much edge of a door frame do I need to plane away? (Or, how much did I goof up?)

Assess the amount of a sharpened curve (or accuracy of straightness) in a plane blade. Get the amount of the appearance. You can remember the appearance visually but also keep in mind the numerical amount for future sharpening.

Evaluate the flatness, or an appropriate curve, of a hand plane. Below: checking the desired inward curve of the sole of a Yoshihiro Yamamoto plane.

There are many other uses! The basic idea is numerically evaluating with the shim stock and relating it to the direct visual assessment. You are adding to your perceptive ability in your work.

Added: 

The fine reader points out (see comments) the less expensive stainless metal gauge sets available. I have long had similar ones (see photo below). Yes, they too are effective and handy, though I do not use them nearly as much. Somehow, I like the separate, colored, multiple in every size, and multi-reproducibility in every size for the plastic ones.

Still, you might like the $7 metal ones instead of the $45 plastic set for your purposes. Amazon, of course.

A humidity meter is something you really should have in your shop. The cost is trivial. A thermometer is combined with most of them, as shown above. This one can fit conveniently on the wall with a screw, or stand on its leg, or grip steel with its magnet. It is about 2 5/8″ x 2 1/4″.

As we all know, wood is always changing as the air humidity changes. We really want to be in-touch, especially with wide flatsawn boards. Fittings and alignments will size up differently in a winter day of 35% RH (relative humidity) in a shop up north compared with a summer day of 75% RH.

Simple and useful. Set up one or more.

These wooden dogs grip a work piece using the rectangular openings in your bench top. They are easy to make and better than anything you can buy. I only use the steel ones that came with my bench over 40 years ago for very tall pieces of wood.

For the frame, use moderately dense wood, 6″ long. The side width is just under 7/8″ to fit in the width of the 7/8″ hole in the bench top. The front-to-back width is 13/16″ which works well in my bench. The corresponding hole dimension in my bench is 15/16″ in its full linear width, and 7/32″ greater in the upper 1 1/4″ of hight.

Alter the dimensional figures for the dog construction to similarly conform to the criteria of your bench.

Now plane the bottom 2 1/2″ to taper to about 5/8″ at the bottom edge. To that now-angled surface, screw in a 1/8″ strip (see the photos just above and below) of fairly flexible wood that is 1/8″ thick and 5″ long.

Now glue a piece of fairly soft wood, such as pine, 1/4″ thick and 15/16″ long, to the top portion of the frame, as you see in the photos. This serves as the contact to the work piece. Also, the sideways hole in the dog frame allows you to hang it up near your workbench, if you want.

These dogs will stand securely up to about 1 3/4″ above the bench surface. This covers 95%+ of the needs.

Make a pair, finish them if you want, and you’re done! Eventually, you probably will need to replace the 1/4″ heads. Cut the original off, chisel the service clear, and glue on a new one.

The dimensions quoted herein are based on the dimensions of my workbench as described. If necessary, adjust your building dimensions using the same principles to make the dogs fit your bench.

Wood will not get dented by these dogs, and they grip securely. You can easily adjust the hight of the dogs to avoid bumping them with the plane of other tools.

These dogs work. 

Here are three tools worth having.

1.

Mortise Master is a cleverly designed way to use your plunge router to make loose tenon mortises. In other words, you simply make a mortise in both wood parts and then add a separate tenon to fit them together.

Does this mean that it will not be a strong joint? No. We well break down this issue in an upcoming post.

Mortise Master has a clever way to keep the mortises laterally centered on both pieces. Just as easy, they both can be set equally off center, or they can be unequally off sided.

The vertical positions are also readily set. The router’s guide bushing sets in the slide plate which is governed by the two metal runners and limited by the screw-held stops on each side.

Work moves quickly and reliably.

It does have a couple of shared limitations. Like most mortising, there is no dust collection. Routers tend to through lots of cutting waste. Also, you cannot, like most basic mortise setups, do angled mortises. That can be done with the Leigh FMT ($) mortice and tenon jig, which takes a lot more learning to use.

I really like this tool! You can get a Mortise Master now for $230 with free shipping. (I have no business/money connection.)

2.

The JessEm dowel joint tool is just great. I have the common 3/8” dowel version. (I will be discussing the grace of dowel joinery in a soon upcoming post.) This very well made tool is accurate, direct and easy to use. You can make small joints or stepwise reposition it to make longer joints.

It has a great precision line up mechanism.

I cannot find a JessEm discussion/demonstration about using the jig to make the dowel holes across the flat face of the board. However, it is straight-forward and I have done it very accurately. 

Well, I do not think I am going back to my years of using the wooden hole jigs to set out and drill dowel holes. 

3.

Leigh makes bench hold-down clamps that I like better than the longtime traditional curved metal holdfast clamps. I never found that even good quality holdfasts grip well without more than a quick bang to set it up.

The Leigh tool bench connection does not set up quite as fast as the old kind, but once it is set up, it quickly grips on and off the woodwork. You simply move the lever at the top. 

A useful help that I think Leigh should supply at the rather expensive cost of this tool: The “speed nut” that fits underneath the bench top can be awkward in some situations. It can also loosen and even drop off occasionally. I made a simple wood piece (about 3 1/2” long, 1″-square thick) with a full-length hole. A framed nut is screwed into the wood. It attaches to the tool’s long screw at the bottom. It holds fast and well.

I have no business/money connection in any of these tools. They are worth your try!

This is, hands down, the best hand-sanding block I have used. What I like best is that the substantial weight, the thoughtfully designed contours, and the 7 3/4″ x 2 3/4″ dimensions combine to give it a purchase in my hands that resembles a small wooden smoothing plane. This feel, plus the outright effectiveness of the tool, actually raise the dignity of sanding. 

It is also very practical. It is fast and easy to clamp strips of 2 3/4″-wide paper, which are produced by three tears across the width of standard 9″ x 11″ sheets. (Here’s how to make that easy.) The clamps grab a strip near its ends so there is minimal waste. You can install multiple sheets and tear them away in succession but I prefer the feel with a single layer of paper. Now is a good time to restate my opinion that 3M is the clear winner in sheets for hand sanding. 

Long accustomed to my cork blocks, I bought the Preppin’ Weapons on a whim, but for all but small-scale work, I now favor them over the corks. I suggest buy different color Preppin’ Weapons to code the installed sandpaper and make jobs move along faster. 

Now for an idea or perhaps a bit of insight into some of what happens at the sandpaper-wood interface. We know that a smoothing plane blade with a straight edge and square corners will promptly produce “gutter” marks on the wood surface, which are slight steps across the width of the board. To eliminate this problem, we sharpen the blade with a very slight curve (camber). This actually makes imperceptible waves that pretty much cancel each other with successive passes of the plane as the peaks of the waves are shaved away. Note that the depth of the blade camber is coordinated with the anticipated shaving thickness. The result is a surface that is, for all practical purposes, nice and flat.

Similarly, imagine a hard block of steel used as a sanding block, especially with substantial pressure. Of course, no one would use that. It would create tiny gutters or steps, and the process of erasing them would just produce new ones. 

The cushion, or resilience, of the bottom surface of a sanding block – cork, rubber, or foam – solves this. With variable hand pressure, we must be producing miniscule waves (probably variably oriented) that get evened out with successive strokes, leaving an essentially flat surface. We never see steps. We intuitively use a little more pressure with coarser paper, inducing more flex in the sanding pad, analogous to coarser plane shavings. Finer sandpaper and less pressure give more shallow waves and ultimately we end up with a nice flat surface.

Coordinated with the area of the contact surface, the flex of the 5/32″ foam pad on the base of the Preppin’ Weapon is just right for producing a smooth and true surface.

This tool gets everything right.