Archives for April 2008

Claw hammers have been in use since the era of the Roman empire and appears often in Medieval tapestries and paintings. Claw hammers, of course, are named for the curved, claw-like split peen at the rear of the head, used to extract nails from wood. A well made steel-head hammer can last for many, many years and prove to be a valuable member of your toolbox, provided you use it properly and take care of it.

Band saws are mostly used for industrial applications such as sawmills, cutting large stocks of lumber to size, especially where curved cuts are required. Versions made for home woodshop use are smaller but just as useful. These models will cut through wood thicknesses of up to 6 inches in either straight or curved cuts. Observe the proper safety guidelines, such as wearing safety goggles and suitable clothing.

A band saw blade consists of a toothed steel loop welded at the ends, moving on two encased wheels, which provide a continuous cutting edge. Home shop models have blades ranging from 1/8 inch to ¾ inch wide. Narrower blades are designed for cutting tight radius curves, while the wider blades are used for making more straight cuts. The teeth of the blades have a spacing of from 6 to 24 teeth per inch (called the pitch). Finer pitches are intended for cutting metals, and the larger pitches are good for cutting large sections of lumber.

Saw Tooth Shapes

Wood chisels are hand tools designed to trim wood and clear away the waste material from mortises and joints. They roots go all the way back to the late Stone Age, when crude rock and then flint was used for general purpose chiseling and cutting. Later, wooden handles were added.

Today’s chisel features a thin, beveled edge blade of alloy steel fixed to a smoothly curved handle made of hard plastic or boxwood. There are many kinds of wood chisels, including the firmer chisel, paring chisel, and mortise chisels.

Paring