It never fails… you get to the end of that tough project, and you begin to scrape, sand and plane the wood to get ready for finishing.

That’s when you notice it.  That little gap in that joint that you were sure you had closed during the glue up.  Now what?

A lot of woodworkers turn to wood fillers to bring their work to perfection.  Whether you buy a commercial product, mix sawdust and glue or use a wax stick after the finish is applied, there are lots  of options that can help bring your piece to looking more perfect.

Heck, I think that some of my earlier projects were more wood filler than wood!

Wood fillers, however, do have a certain stigma attached to them.  I mean, if your work was perfect, you wouldn’t need them, would you?

So, this week, let us know what your thoughts are on wood fillers. Are they useful in your shop, or do you turn your nose up at the mere mention of them?

[poll id=”51″]

Now that we are in to holiday season, I’m sure visions of giving – and receiving – gifts are dancing in your head.

While we would love to believe that those special people in our lives know exactly what they should give us, there are plenty of spouses, siblings, parents and other loving people who don’t have the smallest clue of what to get us… even though we could walk into a Woodcraft store and drop a small fortune on tools.

While many of us would love the opportunity to stroll into a woodworking store and go nuts, others have other interests that help us balance out our lives.

So, without going into gory detail, how does your holiday wish list break out?  Are you looking for all woodworking, or are there other interests appearing on your wish list?

[poll id=”50″]

Let’s face it, getting out into the shop is fun.  As woodworkers, we take the money other folks would spend on golf clubs, fishing tackle or bowling balls and blow it on miter saws, hand planes and cabinet scrapers.  We could spend hours standing in the same place in our shop using a belt sander to flatten a poorly glued end-grain cutting board (don’t ask, that’s what I was doing all day yesterday) and actually enjoy it.

But, as is often the case, we never get all the time we want doing what we love.  All of those little obligations that we agreed to – or were agreed to tackle by others – tend to soak up the time we would otherwise spend creating masterpieces in the shop.

So, this week, I’m trying to see what the greatest obstacle is to you getting more shop time.  Is it family?  Work?  Something else….

[poll id=”49″]

Christmas.  Hanukkah.  Kwanzaa.

If you haven’t checked your calendar recently, you’ll notice that we are in the middle of November.  These and many other holidays are coming quickly.

And, when those holidays roll around, woodworkers everywhere head to their shops to crank out gifts – both large and small – for friends, relatives and co-workers.  Cutting boards, clocks, small boxes… the number of gifts crafted in shops is pretty staggering.

However, a lot of us like to procrastinate (I was considering giving up procrastination, but I’ll get to it tomorrow) and wait until the last minute.  Remember, it takes time to get materials, cut and craft the pieces, let finish dry – and then many of them need to be shipped!

So, this week’s poll deals with building gifts for the holiday season.  Are you already done with your projects or do you need more time?

Just to provide you a little more motivation, here’s a little countdown clock until Santa pays us a visit…

Christmas Countdowns

[poll id=”48″]

This one came from Duan Packard in Kerrville, Texas – and it’s a good one.  Thanks, Duan!

When you buy a tool, you know how it comes in one of those fancy blow-molded plastic cases, right?  It gives the tool manufacturer someplace to slap their logo, the product’s specs and the standard warnings about tool safety.

Inside, you’ll find each of the accessories for the tools placed into its own little custom-formed recess, almost like a modern version of a Studley Tool Chest.

After you unpack the tool and – ahem – read the directions, what do you do with the fancy blow-molded plastic case?

[poll id=”47″]

There was this TV commercial once that proclaimed a certain brand of potato chips was so good, you couldn’t eat just one…

When it comes to woodworking tools, there are some that are just like those potato chips.  One tool that springs to mind is the block plane.  Small, easy to tune, relatively inexpensive (when compared with their bigger bench plane cousins) and handy as all get out, these tools are frequently the go-to tools when you just need to get that final tuning fit for a joint.

Back in the day, Stanley, Record and other companies pumped these babies out in huge quantities, and some woodworkers have inherited quite a selection.

So, are block planes just like those potato chips where you can’t just  stop with one, or are they something you have never thought about owning…

Just how many block planes do you own?

[poll id=”46″]