New “4R” Dovetail Square Set now available

4inch Double Square English4RMany customers have asked for an all english version of the popular 4″ Dovetail Square, so I am very pleased to say they are now available in the Store (click “store” above).

The 4 inch “4R” rule has 8th, 16th, 32nd and 64th graduations and is available three ways:

1) The entire Dovetail Square Kit pictured above, the Square, graduated rule, and Dovetail rule.

2) The Double Square Kit includes the Square and graduated rule, for customers that already own a dovetailing rule, this is your option.

3) The 4″ 4R graduated rule only, for those customers that want to add the all english 4″ rule to their existing kit.

Sterling 4inch Enlish rules

 

 

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Dovetailing Square review at Over the wireless blog – Available in UK at Classic Hand Tools!

Kieran Binnie, a repeat columnist for Furniture & Cabinet making as well as a great Luthier bought one of my Dovetailing Square sets when I announced them the day before Handworks 2015.  Kieran has posted a nice review of the Square here.

Thank you Kieran! The pressure is on for Tool #4!!!

For those in the UK, Classic Hand Tools now has these Squares in stock ready to ship. Check them out here.

Dovetail Blade in action

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Router Plane Wallets back in Stock! “Nut savers” coming soon!

We have dug out of most of the orders from the great Review that Chris Schwarz gave on the Sterling Dovetail Ruler aka the “Dovetail Blade”. My children worked “overtime” over the holiday weekend to help pack and ship a TON of orders. Thank you Kids!  I am still catching up on Saddle-Tail Dovetail markers and Plane Hammers as I sold out at Handworks 2015. I hope to be caught up 100% on shipments in the next two weeks. I thank everyone for their patience and support!

Router Plane Wallets
I have router plane wallets back in stock in the store (click “Store” above). These are a collaboration with my good friend Jason Thigpen at Texas Heritage Woodworks. He does amazing work and I am honored to have him collaborate on these as well as the Saddle-Slings. His tool rolls and aprons are without question the best available.

Coming soon to the “Artisan Toolchest” section in the Sterling Store will be the “Nut Saver” a very cleaver artisan made strap wrench so one does not defile their brass nuts on Veritas plow and rebate planes. Christopher Schwarz blogged about using pliers (read it here) on these otherwise great planes to ensure that the fences don’t move, defiling these brass nuts with ugly plier marks. As a tool lover I couldn’t bring myself to chew up those nuts. Enter Bern Billsberry from the UK who made this nifty tool that through a social media frenzy was quickly named the “Nut Saver”.   I hope to have a good batch of these available soon, more to come next week!

Check out the great tool review my friend Kieran Binnie did on the Nut Saver here for more information! Nice work Bern and Kieran!

Nut Saver 1

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Dovetail Doctor – The Sterling Dovetail Ruler receives high praise

Last week I introduced a new product, the Dovetail Rule or Dovetail Blade as some are calling it.  After great feedback from customers at Handworks in Amana Iowa over the weekend, I woke up Monday morning to several texts and my email starting to fill with orders.  I quickly found that unbenknownst to me, Christopher Schwarz had blogged (read it here) earlier that morning about the new Ruler and his following was taking note.  Note that I got home about 3am so I was trying to get some sleep.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone and I want to thank all the customers that visited and supported Sterling Tool Works this month at Handworks and with their orders this week!  Its this support and feedback that keeps me going!

Dovetail Blade Lost Art Press

 

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Sterling Tool Works “Dovetailing Square” has arrived!

Sterling Double Square3Sterling Tool Works Double Square

This precision square is supplied with one traditional graduated rule and a dovetailing rule providing a very versatile tool with many uses. The standard rule provides a wonderful compact square with excellent accuracy rivaling common machinist square accuracies of .001” per inch, per U.S. federal standard: GGG-S-656E. Available with either a 4″ or 6″ precision etched rule with chrome satin finish with blackened etches that is easy on your eyes for excellent contrast and improved accuracy.

The included Sterling “Dovetailing Blade” is incredibly handy for checking the squareness of your dovetails to ensure excellent fit and “gap less” joints after assembly. The reduced size of one end of the un-graduated rule allows precise checking of squareness in even some of the tightest “London style” dovetails. Regular size rules simply cannot reach into the spaces the Sterling Dovetailing Rule can. The Dovetailing Rule / Blade is hardened, precision ground and finished with the same satin Chrome finish as the standard rule.

Sterling Dovetailing Rule

Sterling Dovetailing Square

The powder coated square casting provides the accuracy required but avoids the stock-heavy feel of a solid machinist’s square, providing excellent balance and feel. Rules lock securely in any position from full left to full right with the tightening of the knurled thumbscrew.

The Sterling Double Square is available with these precision etched rules:

4” Length with English/Metric graduations = .5mm, 1mm, 32nds, 64ths

6” Length with English/Metric graduations = .5mm, 1mm, 32nds, 64ths

6” Length with 4R graduations = 8ths, 16ths, 32nds, 64ths

Superior quality – Made in USA.

The Sterling Dovetailing Blade is also available separately without the double square. I cannot guarantee that the Dovetailing Rule will fit ALL other makers squares but I have tried a handful of other makers 6” combination squares I had on hand such as Starrett, Goddell Pratt, Brown and Sharpe and the dovetailing rule clamped perfectly in both vintage and contemporary squares.

Dovetailing Rule with Starrett

 

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Limited edition Saddle-Tail Dovetail Markers available at Handworks 2015.

Saddle Tail Dovetail Marker

Its time to share another limited edition tool to commemorate Handworks 2015! I have about 30 of these Saddle-Tail units with socket head screws that I think are just lovely, bigger and bolder than the black oxide phillips head screws. Available Friday and Saturday at Handworks until they are gone. I have a limited quantity of each slope.

Saddle-Tails are both Dovetail Markers and Saddle-Squares in one tool, to read more about them click here.

 

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Handworks 2015 Commemorative “Woobie” Cloths!

Woobie Cloth Special Edition

To commemorate the very special event that Handworks 2015 is, I will be giving the first 25 customers that purchase Sterling Tool Works tools this special edition Tool woobie with the Sterling “Seal” logo.

The tool woobie is otherwise the same as the standard Sterling tool Woobies:  High quality micro-fiber cloths that are 16″ X 16″ in size (20-30% larger and and double the weight per square foot = more material and last longer) than the cloths found in retail stores like Walmart, Target etc.  The  Sterling logo is dyed into the fibers as opposed to a screened logo that would flake off after use and washing.  More info on Sterling Tool “woobies” can be found here.

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Come see Sterling Tool Works at the Frederick Maryland Lie-Nielsen Event!

IMG_4435

I will be at the Lie Nielsen hand tool event tomorrow May 1st at Exotic Lumber in Frederick Maryland. Unfortunately due to a family commitment I will not be attending on Saturday May 2nd. Come by for a great day with Lie-Nielsen and others Artisans Issac Smith of Blackburn tools, Mark Maleski of SAPFM, and Dan Schwank of Red Rose Reproductions!

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Dovetailing the Dutch Tool chest, with a Saddle-Tail

Dutch Chest Saddle Tail CroppedI would like to thank one of my Customers, Ryan @eartroots on Instagram for telling me that the newly released “Dutch Toolchest” DVD from Lie-Nielsen features Chris Schwarz gang marking his Dovetails with a Saddle-Tail2 dovetail marking gauge.  The picture above is taken at approximately 52 seconds into the preview.  I have wanted to make the Dutch Tool Chest for a couple of years now, so I ordered up the DVD today.

You can watch a 6 minute  preview of the DVD on YouTube here.

You can purchase the DVD for $40 from Lie-Nielsen here.

You can purchase the 1:4 Saddle-Tail2 here in the Sterling Tool Works Store.

 

 

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Spill Planes in the Artisan Tool Chest!

I met Daniel Schwank in October of 2014 at a Lie Nielsen hand tool event, we started talking about how I got started in making tools and he spoke of a spill plane that he had made a few of and after a quick trip to his car he produced one.  Dan is an accomplished artisan and the spill plane  he makes is top notch!  Dan has launched Red Rose Reproductions and I expect to see other tools from him soon.  I have offered these planes at shows that I attend as I use them for demoing and now I offer them for purchase here in the Artisan Toolchest.

Spill Plane

The spill plane was a unique 18th century tool that was not used to improve the surface of the wood, but rather to create a shaving with a tight stiff curl that could be used to transfer a flame from one place to another, such as from a fireplace to a candle or lantern.  Spills would have been made of pine or similar resinous wood.  The plane was used as any wooden plane would be, using straight grained scraps of wood about 12  inches long.  Each pass produces a spill, so named for the way the chip “spills” out of the escapement hole in the side of the plane.  The blade is sharply skewed, and the chip is forced into a tight curl by the contoured bottom of the wedge.  The edges of the spill overlap each other, which gives the spill a tapered shape.

While there are many types of spill planes, the ones that Dan has made are patterned from an 18th century original, and feature a two piece body, skewed blade, and escapement hole in the side through which the spill exits the plane.  The blade is adjusted using a small hammer; the Sterling Tool Works Plane Hammer is an excellent choice.  Dan has made planes from both hard maple and steamed European beech, both quarter sawn wood.  The plane body is actually two pieces, with one side ripped of  to make it easier to create the mortise and bed for the blade.  It is then reattached with brass screws. The blade is 1/8″ thick O-1 tool steel, hardened to Rc 60-62, and surface ground flat before honing the cutting edge.

This plane is a real crowd pleaser at shows, and its fun to use the spills to light candles and campfires.  $135 plus shipping here.

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