1. Flattening oilstones.
With time we all end up with a sharpening stone that has a hollow in the middle. How to get it flat again? There are 2 ways to go about it. If you have more than one stone, both stones can be flattened by rubbing them against each other, using paraffin as a lubricating agent. Keep at it until the hollow in the middle is worked away. An alternative way is to work the stone on a flat piece of glass, using valve grinding compound as a cutting agent. Although I’ve never tried it myself, I believe 150 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper will also work. Either way, with a bit of sweat your stones will be nice and flat again. Got to keep those edges keen!

2. Sharpening stone lubricants.
While it is pretty obvious that Japanese water stones need water as a lubricant, what about the other so called oilstones? They need oil right? Well, yes and no. The man made stones like the cheaper grey ones you find in every hardware store certainly needs oil. A stone like the Norton Fine India also does well with oil. Those expensive Arkansas natural stones are another story. They are beautiful stones and I have used oil on them for years. Then, recently I discovered that water works a whole lot better on them. I confirmed this with technical support at Woodcraft in the States.
If you thin your oil with paraffin, the results will be much better. The harder the stone, the thinner the oil. On a stone like my Wichita, I use almost neat paraffin.

3. Stropping
To have a properly sharpened chisel, one needs to polish that carefully honed secondary bevel by stropping it. Make a strop by gluing some thick leather onto a piece of wood with contact adhesive. The wood needs to be around 75-100mm wide by at least 200mm long. If you want to be fancy, band saw a nicely shaped handle as well. Whilst all sorts of pricey polishing compounds are available, common rubbing compound as used in the auto industry, works just as well. If you want, turn it into a powder by letting some dry out in the sun. Apply some rubbing compound to your strop and give that edge a few polishing strokes. Any one for a shave?

Cleaning saw blades.

To easily clean the gummy buildup on saw blades, spray the blade with oven cleaner. I use the foaming type in a can.( Your wife should have some in the kitchen somewhere!) Let the sprayed blade rest a while until the resin buildup lifts, then rinse under a tap. You won’t believe the difference it makes. Feels like you fitted a new blade.

Sliding inside measuring sticks.

Next time you work with tongue-and-groove planks, rip off some sticks about 10mm thick from each side of the plank, with the joint profile on one side. Put the two sticks together so the tongue sits inside the groove. You now have a sliding measuring stick that can take inside measurements accurately. The measurement can be registered by marking across both stick with a pencil or by clamping the two sticks together with a small C-clamp. This measuring stick is especially useful for checking a door opening for consistent width from top to bottom.

Depth-stop for backsaw.

This adjustable depth-stop for a backsaw helps in cutting accurately to a specific depth, for instance half-lap joints. The idea is adapted from an antique saw. The stop is two lengths of 10 mm steel bar a little longer than the length of the saw blade. Holes are drilled through both bars at each end and fitted with bolts to tighten the stop on the blade at the desired setting. I think you could also make the two bars from wood if they were slightly crowned in the middle to clamp the entire blade length when tightened. If I have only a few half-laps or dados to cut, I nearly always use this saw. It’s easier and quicker than setting up the table saw.

Please feel free to add your own tricks !

Marking out.

Use H pencils instead of the standard HB grade. They “keep an edge” for much longer and you will spend a lot less time sharpening your pencil. I won’t go harder, otherwise you might score the wood.

Glue squeeze-out.

Since most standard wood glues dry almost colorless, any squeeze-out is hard to see until you apply the stain and see the telltale white spot. To solve this problem, tint your glue with ordinary food coloring. A few drops of red or green will make squeeze-out highly visible. I your taste in color is less radical, mix equal amounts of red and green to make a pleasant brown.

Scribing large circles.

If you don’t have trammel points, here’s an inexpensive and easy-to-make alternative. First cut a long hardwood beam to fit the hole in your marking gauge. This beam must be longer than the radius of your circle. Make a vertical saw cut in one end of the beam and drill a hole through the cut to hold a pencil. Now, drive a brad in the bottom of the gauge to serve as a compass point, install the beam in the gauge block and you’re ready to scribe a circle with a radius the length of the beam