How To Make A Leather Strop - For Honing Your Cutting Edge

In this video I demonstrate how I made my leather strop and make six new ones using leather and hardwood ply offcuts

For sharpening I use the following items:

Restoring Two Old Spokeshaves

I donned a pair of gloves for this as it was about to get messy.
I'd start the cleaning process with some 80 grit abrasive paper and some 220 grit wet and dry paper stuck to a melamine board with some sticky back tape.
I started cleaning up the top of the cap iron, and eventually revealed that it was made by Record, which was a pleasant surprise. 
So here I'm just removing the rust, I'm not trying to make it look new like it just came out of the factory, I actually like my tools to look like they've had some use.
Next I worked o

Making A Small Air Filtration Unit (FAIL)

In this video I'm going to be making a small air filtration unit for my workshop.

Making A Large Beam Compass

I looked through my scrap pile and found a piece of what I think is ash, which measured 600mm in length and 27mm square.
I'd start by drilling a hole for the pencil, and using calipers I measured the width of a pencil at 7mm.  I drilled a 7mm hole, but that was a bit tight so I came back with an 8mm bit, and then the pencil could slide in. 
 
I raised the blade on my tablesaw and then moved the fence so that the workpiece was centred to the blade, and made a cut through the hole, and a bit further.  I rotated the workpiece making cuts

My New Dust Extraction System - Installation & Demonstration

Welcome to part 2 of 2 videos about upgrading my workshop dust extraction system.
In part 1 I talked about my reasons for making the changes, and in this is part 2 I'll show you what I did and how I did it.
 
Here are links to all the products mentioned in the video.  As an Amazon Associate I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases:
Numatic NVD750 (Axminster) - https://bit.ly/NVD750

Why I'm Upgrading Dust Extraction

In this video I'm going to talk about why I'm upgrading the dust collection system in my workshop.  This will be the first of two parts - in this video I'm covering why I'm upgrading, and in the second part I'll show what I'm upgrading to and how I upgraded it.
This is going to be predominantly a talking video so if that's not your thing, you probably won't be interested in this one.
 
MY CURRENT SYSTEM
 
Currently I have 2x 30l shop vacs for dust extraction.

Building The Workshop Shed Extension (part 2 of 2)

I cut some more spruce at the tablesaw to make some columns that would later support the doors for the extension.  These were glued and screwed on to the frame. I could then add cladding to the front panels.
 
I wanted one single piece of cladding to run the length of the front of the extension right at the top.
 
I measured and cut to length one of the cladding pieces.
 
 I could then offer it up  mark up the position of the doors on to it.

Building The Workshop Shed Extension (part 1 of 2)

In this video I'm going to be adding an extension to my workshop.
 
The extension will hold be cantilevered from one of the walls of my workshop, to make it as unobstructive as possible in my garden.
 
And it will be mounted to the uprights of the workshop wall.  It's a bit of an experiment, as I'm not entirely certain that the wall will be able to take the weight - but we'll find out!
 
And the plan is to use the extra space to install a new dust collection system with a cyclone.
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Testing Biscuit Joint Strength - Do Biscuits Add Strength To A Woodworking Glue Joint?

In this video I test the strength of various materials like melamine, plywood, MDF and solid wood with biscuits and without biscuits to see if biscuits add any strength.

I've heard people say that biscuits are purely for alignment, but others say that they add strength.

The results were very surprising to me!

Restoring A Hand Plane - vintage Stanley No. 4

In this video I restore a vintage Stanley Number 4 hand plane which I purchased on eBay.

This handplane dates from 1948-1961 which is a really old model.  I used this website to check the age of the plane.

There was some rust to deal with, a loose handle, and the plane needed a set up as the frog was set too far forward.  The blade was also in need of a thorough sharpening.

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