Fellow Toolmakers

In the past couple years we've had the chance to befriend a number of fellow tookmakers. These relationships have not only enriched our respective endeavors, but our lives as well.

I'd like to mention a couple of them in this post. 

First off is Raney Nelson of the Daed Toolworks. Raney is not only a past customer (he built a great bench with Benchcrafted vises) but also a friend. Raney lives in New Jersey with his with wife and kids, and makes beautiful and functional infill planes. If you like miter planes, or strike box planes keep an eye on Raney's work. He's also making more familiar types like coffin smoothers and panels. But we're particularly keen on seeing some of his new miter planes that he has in the works (you can catch a sneek peek of some in the pics above and below).

The other toolmaker is Matt Bickford. Matt's a relatively new planemaker, specializing in wood moulding planes. Although we haven't met Matt in person, we had a chance to correspond a bit and throw a little business his way earlier this year (the funding for which came by way of an article I wrote for Popular Woodworking Magazine--but more on that later). I picked up a composite set of planes for use in my own personal shop. I've always wanted a set of hollows and rounds for producing "real" molding profiles. Plus, I'll do anything to keep my router shelved! Matt's work is beautiful. The planes are made of cherry and the irons are produced by Lie-Nielsen. So far I'm quite pleased with Matt's work. I'm fairly new to this type of plane, but it's always nice to get a tool that is literally ready to go out of the box. Matt's planes showed up perfectly honed. Matt's website is: M.S. Bickford.

Raney and Matt will be exhibiting their tools this fall at the Woodworking In America Conference in Cincinnati October 1-2. We'll be there too.