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Unless I'm setting up a machine, I rarely go to numerical dimensions to set up cutlines. Instead, I either hold the stock directly to the required "magnitude" as the Greeks called a certain amount of distance or use a small story stick (or sometimes dividers) to transfer the information.

It's all about geometry!

You don't need a tape measure (i.e. numerical dimensions) to size a workbench. You just need you!

and not only that, but George Walker and I have just launched our joint website: www.byhandandeye.com. Lots of info on using artisan geometry tricks to speed design and layout.

When you don't have a bandsaw, you learn to use a hatchet or getting waste out of the way fast! Interesting that when making a layout tool that will be accurate to a couple thousandth of an inch (because it will be tried and true with a try plane truly enough) you start by removing chunks with a freehand wedge!

Upcoming course at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. Sitting is the new smoking you know!

A stop motion animation about how artisans carried out design from antiquity to the dawn of the industrial age (when, in a nutshell, arithmetic trumped the simple geometric relationships of natural (i.e. rational (able to ratio) numbers). The hardcover book I wrote with George Walker, "By Hand and Eye", tells the story and teaches the methodologies and is available through lostartpress.com/. I ...

How I determine good-enough sharpness of a plane blade.

a semi-definitive guide on how to best take care of your handplanes My books in print: www.jimtolpin.com/books

Othie, the ever-mischievous dog steals the sash mullion! My books in print: www.jimtolpin.com/books

making a window mullion for my shop. The window that this will be part of will have 24 panes of glass. My books in print: www.jimtolpin.com/books

Tea for two trays

mullion joint

Truncate a Quadrant

Trisect an angle

Oval from Circles alternative

Octagon Generation

Octagon from a square

Harmonic Expansion from a Square

Hexagon Generation

Geometric Expansion from a Rectangle

Generation of an Arc

Generate Segment from a Chord

Generate Oval from Circles

Generate Lancet Arc

Generate Gothic Arch

Erection of a Pentagon

Generate Elliptical Curve molding

Generate Ellipse