Prodigal Ponderings — cleaning tip RSS

It’s pretty clear that we woodworkers love our wood and for me in particular I get the most satisfaction out of making  end grain cutting boards. They are beautiful, functional, durable, forgiving to your knife edges and, perhaps more importantly, they are far more bacteria resistant than the more common (and less expensive) plastic cutting boards. Of course there are other surfaces that you can use to cut on, however materials like glass or stainless steel are completely unforgiving to your knife edges. If you value your knives, you will choose wood; if you value your health, you will certainly choose wood! **We’ve attached some research articles to back up our claims so don’t just go off my opinion, however...

I’m not the greatest at keeping my shop immaculate as my workday progresses but I do take the time to clean up at the end of the day so I get a fresh start the next day.  One area that I’m pretty faithful in, however, is in keeping my tool blades clean.  Even without having the blades sharpened (professionally or DIY) you can improve the quality of your cuts by keeping your sharp edges free of residue buildup. If you read my previous blogs you know I don’t have the biggest shop so a lot of my equipment is either smaller or of the “benchtop” variety.  That said, I still produce fine quality products using a variety of hardwoods by investing a little...