Crucible Bench Square
The Crucible Bench Square is a handy, lightweight and accurate tool that's useful for many woodworking operations. Based on an 18th-century square in A.J. Roubo's masterpiece, "l'Art du menuisier", this version uses modern technology to ensure it is accurate and stays that way.
The Bench Square is great for checking a board's edge when planing joints for a panel glue-up....
Crucible Dividers - Type 2
The Crucible Dividers, Type 2, allow you to quickly adjust the tips with one hand and easily lock in an important setting with a common No. 8 screwdriver. Made from alloy steel in the United States, these dividers are designed especially for woodworking - chairs, dovetails, shelving and other furniture-scale tasks.
Why are they called Type 2 dividers? The first-generation dividers were excellent,...
Crucible Dovetail Template
The Crucible Dovetail Template marks out dovetail joints – both the tails and the pins – and allows you to easily and accurately lay out the angled and straight parts of the joint. This template marks out the two most common dovetail slopes, 1:6 and 1:8 (9.5° and 7.1° respectively).
This solid steel template is based on a discontinued version from Woodjoy Tools. We contacted...
Crucible Iron Holdfast
The Crucible holdfast. Made from ductile iron in an Illinois family foundry that’s been in business for more than a century. Based on a French design salvaged from a barn. The last holdfast you are likely to need.
Since Roman times, the iron holdfast has been an essential piece of workbench equipment for carpenters, joiners and cabinetmakers. Yet many of us struggle with holdfasts that work...
Crucible Lump Hammer
The Crucible lump hammer has a 2.2lb. hardened steel head and is ideal for assembly, mortising, setting holdfasts and dozens of other chores. Comfortable octagonal hickory handle with a waxed finish.
The late, great furniture maker Alan Peters often said that one of his favourite tools was his “lump hammer,” a British term for what Americans might call an engineer’s hammer or a small sledge....
Crucible Pinch Rods
Please Note: Wood is not included.
While there are many ways to determine if an assembled carcase is square, the easiest method is to use “pinch rods” to compare the corner-to-corner measurements.
Unlike using measurements to compare the diagonals, pinch rods do not depend on reading and remembering dimensions. So they are much less prone to error. Also, pinch rods allow you to bring...
Crucible Planing Stop
We have always loved blacksmith-made planing stops, which are embedded in the end of a block of wood that is about 3” x 3” x 12”. The block is friction-fit into a mortice in the benchtop and moves up and down with mallet taps.
In our experience, the planing stop is as important as the workbench’s face vice and has almost-endless uses.
The main problem with a blacksmith...
Crucible Sliding Bevel
For some woodworkers – particularly chairmakers – a small sliding bevel that locks tightly is an essential tool. Most inexpensive sliding bevels can be knocked off their settings with little effort, and the results can be a disaster. Because sliding bevels guide most of the joinery in a chair, being off by 1° or 2° can ruin a workpiece.
The Crucible Sliding Bevel is designed...
Lost Art Press - 5 Woodworking Pencils
Traditional school pencils aren't ideal for woodworking. The pencils and lead snap too easily in use. And the eraser is a joke (Lost Art Press have a recommendation below).
After Lost Art Press tested many different combinations of lead (called the “core”) and diameters, this pencil became their shop favourite. It is robust because of its diameter and the fact that it is round....
Workshop Waist Apron from Lost Art Press
Shop aprons that cover the torso are great in cold climes, but they are impractical during the summer or in heated shops. For years, we tried using tool belts for carpentry, but those are designed for a ridiculous amount of equipment and a 50’ tape measure.
The solution that we love is a waist apron. It is compact and won’t leave a giant sweat stain behind like some shop aprons. And...
Crucible Bevel Monkey
The Crucible Bevel Monkey is a bevel setting gauge for woodworkers, chairmakers, carpenters and joiners, in fact anyone who needs to quickly and accurately set a sliding bevel.
The tool is marked in 0.5 degree steps from 0 to 50 degrees. All angle markings are set out from the same origin, meaning the tool is well suited for chairmakers wishing to use the direct reading method for leg rake and splay...
Crucible Card Scraper
Card scrapers are usually sold as rectangles or squares. What has been lost to time is that the woodworker is supposed to shape the tool to his or her needs – much like the cutting edge of a jack plane or smoothing plane.
So woodworkers of the last 50 or 60 years have found ways to make a rectangular scraper work. Most of us bow the tool with our thumbs to present a curved cutting edge to...
Crucible Chairpanzee Analog Computer
Chairmaking is complex enough without having to worry about the trigonometry used to calculate the drilling and sighting angles for a chair’s legs and spindles.
The Chairpanzee does all the maths for you with its simple, no-maths-needed interface. Simply slide the tool’s interior card so the splay you desire appears in its top window. Choose the rake you wish in the window below. The...
Crucible Design Curves
While a compass and straightedge can design simple pieces of furniture, you also need curves that have a varying radius to draw smooth shapes that connect three or four points – the accelerating curves that give motion and life to furniture.
The tools for these important curves are commonly called French curves or Burmester curves. And they are the starting (and ending) point for any designer...