In the UK, Startrite’s bandsaws have long been seen as something of a benchmark: the old UK-built models seem to go on forever, and are still to be found in workshops up and down the country. Startrite’s bandsaws are now made in Italy, but they enjoy the same build quality, and the 401E is absolutely rock solid.

At 390mm, the Startrite’s throat capacity is the smallest on test, but its depth of cut is a huge 400mm, which is a…

This stunning limited-edition edge plane is cast in stainless steel using the lost-wax process. It shares the same long body, oversize grip and polished hand-contact areas as our bronze plane, but incorporates the advanced blade adjuster and stabilizing set screws from our iron edge plane.

It has a 14° bed angle and a 30° blade skew and comes with a 1/8" thick, 1-1/4" wide lapped A2 steel blade. The depth-adjustment mechanism is a…

If your workshop is anything like mine, the addition of this surface thicknessing jig will be a welcome one. It does exactly what it says on the tin, insofar as it allows you to surface a wide board using a thicknesser. The problem I encountered in my basement sized workshop was that I had enough room for a small six inch surface planer (on wheels) and a ‘portable’ thicknesser (also on a wheeled cabinet). The thicknesser can plane timber…

Woodworking is an activity that does generate a lot of mess. If you mainly use hand tools, the shavings and sawdust tend to build up at a fairly manageable rate, and a quick sweep up at the end of the day can keep the workshop tidy. However once you begin using machinery, you suddenly become capable of generating a large quantities of chippings and sawdust that will quickly overwhelm the workshop. This is the time when you realise that you will…