Thank you Frank Strazza and Fine Woodworking- Dovetail Square!

I met Frank Strazza (http://www.strazzafurniture.com) at Hand Works in 2015 where we were setup next to each other in the Amana Furniture Shop.   Frank makes exquisite woodworking benches and has featured Houndstooth dovetails on them for many years. Frank was one of our first customers at Handworks to purchase a Dovetail Square when they were first released back in 2015.

This month when my Fine Woodworking Magazine (October 2022 issue #298) arrived in the mail, the cover immediately caught my eye as Franks work.  Opening the cover of the magazine, I confirmed the article was indeed written by Frank. On Page 54 and 55 Frank explains how he cuts his tails and checks them for square before marking his pins with the Sterling Dovetail Square.  We are honored that such a craftsman who is known for his dovetailing work cite our tools in his writing.  

We posted recently about the 18+ months of challenges the pandemic and supply chain issues from the pandemic have impacted our business.  We are working on a new Dovetail square with newly sourced steel for the rulers and castings for the square heads. Should everything continue to go well, we expect to have stock of the DTSQ-2 available in our online store in late October. 

The castings are slightly larger with our DTSQ-2 units (over the DTSQ-1) but still have a great balance and heft in the hand.  We are very pleased to have found a new source and believe that you all will too! 

Thank you all again for your support! 

Chris

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Product Availability/Disruptions – Thank you to our customers

First, we want to thank all our loyal customers and fans.  It has been a long time since I have posted a blog update.  When the pandemic started we saw a huge surge in business since many people were enjoying more time at home with flexible work schedules providing more shop time.  We were very thankful for this surge, its timing was excellent as my day job was eliminated due to the sharp initial recession from the shutdown.  What we all didn’t know was how the pandemic would ripple (and ruin) the supply base for nearly every industry in the world.  

It’s been an EXTREMLY challenging time these last 18-20 months. Our business is VERY small and we don’t have the buying power to get the attention of casting and steel suppliers especially when much larger companies and industries needed their materials.  We had not been able to source the special steel for our rulers or castings for our squares for some time.  Additionally, stainless steel prices have maintained their increase at 2.5 times what we paid for our last run of Roubo Curves in November of 2019.  Unfortunately, we don’t believe that any of our fans and customers will invest approximately $250 for a set of our stainless steel curves.  Until prices abate we will not be able to offer these for sale.  NOTE: that we have a limited amount of Series II curves still in stock, but once these are gone they will also be out of stock until stainless steel prices abate. 

We continue to do our best, even in this punishing environment for our small business. 

I continue to work on alternatives for our Dovetail Squares and some recent developments in the last 2 weeks look promising.  Should everything continue to go well, I should be able to offer a new version of the Sterling Dovetail Square (the DTSQ-2) in Late October.  There is nobody more motivated than us to get this product back in stock!  

Thank you for your patience and understanding, without your continued support we would not be able to continue without you!  

Chris

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“Hammer Rona 2020” Small Business Saturday Special and New Commercial Space!

For our 2020 Small Business Saturday special we are “Hammering Rona” with a special price on our Plane Hammer, Limited Quantities! Its our special thanks to all our supporters and customers and to give back to all of you that are worn out from COVID19.

We are looking forward to 2021 with our new commercial space getting Electrical and Air Conditioning completed before Thanksgiving! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates!


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Roubo Curves® “Series II” Curves are here!

We are very excited to offer a new series of Stainless Steel French curves to our Roubo Curves® Product line!!!

We are offering these two new profiles as individual units, and are available for $40 each plus shipping.  Just like our original “Series I set” these curves are made from 304 Stainless Steel precision cut with a laser and then processed with a nice matte finish that is easy on the eyes for layout work – No Glare. The finish on the curves allows for marking with a pencil to reproduce curves on multiple items and then easily wipe away.

The “Detail curve” RC-2-2 is just over 12” long and has many intricate curves to detail your projects with.

The “G Curve” RC-2-1 is a gentle curve is a scaled version of a popular curve that provides a nice gentle use curve for gentle arcs. This curve is also just over 12” long.

Click the STORE tab above to purchase!

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The Dovetail Ruler 2 for 4 inch Starrett Squares!

Since May 2015 at Handworks 2015 where I introduced the Sterling Dovetail Square, I have been asked if the Dovetail Blade will fit in the Starrett 4inch Square.  For unknown reasons Starrett makes thier 4″ squares with blades that are .018″ thinner than virtually every other square maker.
I have been keeping a tally of how many people wanted Dovetail Rules for their Starrett squares and in April 2017 I completed a run of DTR-2 units specially designed for 4 inch Starrett Squares. Note that the DTR-2 will fit Starrett 4″ Double squares and 4″ Combination Squares.  The dimensions of the Sterling Dovetail Rule DTR-2 are: 4″ long, by .300″ tall on the taller end, .90″ on the smaller end and .064″ thick!

The DTR-2 along with your Starrett 4″ Double Square is an excellent alternative from purchasing a entire new square such as the 2.5″ Pattern Makers Square that costs $150-300 (The pattern makers squares are now called the Starrett 14D or Starrett 453E ) 

You can purchase the DTR-2 here.

Posted in Dovetailing Rule, Dovetailing Square, Dovetails, Handworks, New Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sterling Saddle-Tail® Dovetail Marker and Dovetail Square

Kieran Binnie a fantastic writer, luthier and Woodworker who blogs over at his blog: Over the Wireless showcasing his latest project Policeman’s boot bench. A couple of excerpts from the Blog are below, click here for the entire entry.  Gotta love his quote “Saddle Tail is the Rolls Royce of dovetail markers”

Kieran will be hanging out at my Table at Handworks in Amana this coming May 19-20.  I am super excited to meet Kieran, his wife Rachel and daughter Grace.  We have been friends online and through video conference for a few years now.  Be sure to stop by and say hello!

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Marking out the tails. I like a strong 1:4 slope for my tails, and the Sterling Tool Works Saddle Tail is the Rolls Royce of dovetail markers

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Checking for a flat and true baseline with the Sterling Tool Works Dovetail Square

Posted in Dovetailing Square, Dovetails, Handworks, Saddle-Tail | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Roubo Curves®- Stainless Steel French Curves

Highland Woodworking has posted a great review of Sterling Tool Works Roubo Curves, the large format Stainless steel french curves for artisans that want to bring curves to their work. A big thanks for the reviewer Jeffrey Fleisher for a great tutorial.  Check out Jeff’s site here.

Find the full review at the Highland website here. Here is an excerpt:

Now that we have cleared up what a french curve is, how does it work? If you have a sequence of points that you want to draw a smooth line through, you can use a french curve to draw a series of line segments that will flow through all of the points. As shown in the diagram below, you can select a section of the french curve that best fits the first three points and another segment that fits the next part of the curve. You walk your way along the curve in this manner. You are connecting the curve of one segment into the tangent of the next segment to provide a continuous smooth curve among all the points.

The large size of Sterling’s Roubo Curves lets you draw these smooth curves on full size drawings as well as directly onto your wood pieces. For example, if you were drawing the curves along the lower rail of a low boy, you could draw them in full size with these templates. The following picture shows an example of using Sterling’s Roubo Curves to transfer the shapes from this low boy to a board. You can mark the transition points and then use the various segments of the curves to draw a smooth curve as described earlier.

Again check out the entire review here. 

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Virtuoso Author Don Williams Blogs about the Sterling Dovetail Square

Don Williams Blogged recently on his website The Barn on White Run about some of his favorite woodworking Squares here.  Many of us tool aficionados know that Don is the author of Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Study from Lost Art Press.  Don is also an educator, scholar and previous conservator at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, simply put he knows his stuff! 

Don is a key contributor of the english translation of the Works of André-Jacob Roubo’s “l’Art du Menuisier” also available from Lost Art Press. Many tool makers (myself included  and woodworkers look up to Don for his knowledge and imprint on woodworking, I am humbled for his kind words on the Sterling Dovetail Square.  A snippet: “this tool has remained on my bench top ever since I got it.  I have yet to even put it away, it gets used so much!”

Yeah its that handy of a square, thank you for your kind words Don!

To read the whole blog entry click here.

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Sterling Protractor use on Windsor Chairs

Sterling Protractor Windsor

Last Month I had the fantastic experience of taking a Windsor Chair Class with Greg Pennington in Nashville TN.  What made it even more memorable was to take this course with my good friends and fellow Tool Makers Jeff Hamilton and Mark Hicks.  I shared this application of the Sterling Protractor with those that follow me on Instagram but wanted to share here on the Blog as well.

Measuring the stretcher angle of my Windsor legs. Rubber bands span the legs and a aluminum angle runs across the front 2 (or rear 2). Align the rule to the rubber band that is the angle to drill the holes in your stretchers. Do the same on the other side and average the two for your drill angle.  Here is a close up below.

Sterling Protractor 3

Below is a picture of my Windsor writing desk at the end of the course, along with a shot of Jeff, Mark and I with the fruits of our week long class.  We all highly recommend Greg as an instructor and we all can’t wait to go back next year for the Toolmakers retreat 2017! Check out Greg’s site Here.

Windsor Writing Desk Tool Makers Retreat 2016

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Sterling Tool Works Review at “The Daily Skep” Blog

I am sorry to all my followers for the lack of blogs here, I simply am overwhelmed with the day job, family and Sterling Tool Works.  I am not complaining, I am very thankful but I am looking forward to some down time over the next couple of weeks.  Heck I may even get to do some woodworking!

I wanted to share a recent blog post from a satisfied customer, James son of James.  He is also on Instagram with that same “handle” I enjoy following him.  James, thank you for your kind words, it makes all the effort and lack of sleep worth it!

Check out the Blog HERE.

 

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