Tuning chisels, planes and saws and learning how to use them properly can make your woodworking a hands-on pleasure. These tools can bring a refinement to your work that machines alone cannot produce. In this DVD youll learn how to:

• Sharpen a chisel within minutes
• Rehabilitate flea market tools
• Flatten the bottom of a plane
• Set and sharpen a handsaw
• Stand and hold a plane
• Pare accurately with a chisel
• Saw straight and smoothly

Frank Klausz apprenticed and trained in Europe and has been a professional cabinetmaker for over three decades. He operates Franks Cabinet Shop in Pluckemin, New Jersey, writes about woodworking and teaches classes and workshops.

Customer Reviews from Amazon

This is the second video I have watched from Frank Klausz (Mortise -Tenon Joints was the first) and I am again impressed with information relayed through out the program. Frank's passion and pride in his work is evident in all of his mannerisms. If you are a thrifty woodworker and can pick up old used hand tools at yard sales, auctions, etc., this video will show you how to rehabilitate them into excellent tools for your own use. Another great resource and inspirational tool!

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.

Terrific video for a beginner woodworkers. Frank Klausz has a true knack for teaching, without going over your head. Thats the true sign of a master, he has nothing to prove, just teach.

We're luck that the Tauton Press people didn't go the route some publishers do and overcharge their material... $20 is real bargain for what you are getting.

The section on how to tune up old tools, and the demonstration on how new tools are not as sharp as you would assume it is, were very interesting (at least for a novice). I also appreciated the practise routines he added at the end.

I'll admit that I'm a bit biased about Frank Klausz because I admire his abilities so much. From him (his DVDs), I've learned to hand cut dovetails, make pefectly fitting drawers without a tape measure and now with this CD, I have learned a great deal about hand tools.

I wasn't really a hand tool guy because I couldn't really get or keep them sharp. In Frank's direct method that doesn't mince words, he shows and explains how to do it. As a result, I've used his method and can now get chisels and handplanes sharp enough to push the hair off my arm without spending a great deal of time to do it. I also really liked his method of saw sharpening and so I bought a cheap one to try it out so that I wouldn't be out anything if I messed it up. I was able to turn an $18.00 dovetail saw into one that cuts as thinly and effortlessly as my friends saw that cost almost 10 times as much.

In short - he teaches you no-nonsense sharpening of chisels, hand planes and saws. Then, he gives you easy to understand practice methods of how to effectively use those tools. I got more out of this CD than I hoped and for less than $20, I picked up some great lifetime skills that have enhanced my woodworking.

Edit as of 11/29/09: I have a Veritas dovetail saw and I discovered it takes a few more strokes to get through the wood lately. I finally built the nerve and did Franks sharpening technique on it. In trying it out, I quickly discovered that if you are cutting 5/8 pine, I need to be careful or it will get away from you and go way past the marking line. I'm no longer afraid to sharpen any dovetail saw. Thanks Frank!

Of all the topics in woodworking, caring for hand tools is the one (at least for me) which is the harder to get by only reading books.
Sharpening in particular is a topic where everybody has its own method which gets very confusing.
Through this video, Frank Klausz will show you how to prepare chisels, planes and saw with no fuss.
I think the video would have benefit from having a little more closeup as well as maybe covering some extra tools such as card scrappers.

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