Product: Hand Tools: Tuning and Using Chisels, Planes and Saws (2006)
Rating: 5.0
Excellent intro and review of sharpening and using basic tools
In this 72 minute video, Frank Klausz walks the beginning woodworker through setting up his likely first three new tools. He sharpens, sets, and tunes an inexpensive backsaw, a newly purchased chisel, and a flea market smoother plane. In the style of his other videos, the complicated and intimidating suddenly becomes straightforwardly simple.The most important tool for the woodworker is a sharp edge. You'll learn to hollow grind a bevel; waterstone the back flat; and quickly hone an edge that shaves hair. The dull, store bought saw becomes his scalpel after quickly filing a rip profile on the teeth and adjusting the set. A beaten up old saw becomes a new jewel after jointing and filing the teeth, and adjusting the set with a small screwdriver. If you haven't set a saw this way, there might be a thing or two for you learn here. Last, the dusty, crusty, rusty plane becomes a tool again after a good cleanup, flattening on wet/dry paper, and then properly setup for work.As in his other videos, the work is shown in its entirety, in 72 minutes. Aside from some common tools you might already have on hand, you'll also need a slow speed grinder, a good set of honing stones, and some wet/dry paper. A flat plate and wet/dry paper can substitute for the stones. I use waterstones for the tool edges, but just stick abrasive sheets to a granite plate with a film of water for everything else.Keeping the edges sharp used to seem an arduous task, but now feels no more complicated than a draftsman putting a point on his pencil. There is a danger, once you start sharpening, of running around the house looking for other things to sharpen. I'm done sharpening for now, and even found time to cut some wood.This video is very highly recommended for both sharpening, and basic use of the most important woodworking hand tools -- the backsaw, chisel, and smoothing plane.