"There is seldom a need for another crappy piece of plastic to be used little and go into a landfill."

"Can you say landfill?  Why in the world would any designer design something so marginally useful, only to throw it in to a landfill in a short time."

"Hog wash! I agree with Daniel Moriarty. This is truly one of the most glaring misinformed wastes of poor information I have ever read and I am a woodworker. Use of the word exotic you use is paired right right in with endangered wood products. You do not reflect facts, science, logic, or experience. All it take s is a cursory examination of the facts (science) behind CITIES and the attempt to protect endangered species around the world that have been historically over harvested to the point nearing extinction for some specie.Buying "imported" woods is fine, as long as those woods are very healthy well distributed growing stocks. There is no magic to imported woods. I am a luthier by profession and am acutely aware of most wood structural characteristics related to Janka hardnesses, Modulas of Elasticity, etc. that relate to preferred wood building characteristics. There are about ten other non-threatened woods that will match the best endangered Brazilian Rosewood every day of the week for a fraction of the cost. There is also a multitude of beautiful exotic looking American woods than can match the look and workability of many imported woods.I know at least two long time exotic wood importers ,and both well know the dwindling condition of numerous species of popular exotic imported hardwoods.You are well marketed to, poorly informed, and spreading very misleading information."

"This may be a good method for the type of steaming shown, where very thick pieces of wood need to have their lignin activated (thickness of wood dictates length of time to saturate heat to depth of wood), but thinner woods would not fair as well due to teh heavy moisture saturation of the wood fibers leading to grain failure."

"Another well written article Rain. Thank you."

"Good observations. The technique of sharpening might be an observation. Most modern day sharpening is to get it as sharp as possible. You will always reach a point where the edge gets so sharp that with each alternating pass over a stone you have a micro thin filament of an edge that is moving away from the stone. This type of edge quickly breaks off with use, and you are left with a duller edge.A Japanese blacksmith / Japanese carpenter tool salesman, Frank Tashiro, I met 40 years ago knew more about using and sharpening hand tools than anyone I have ever met. Frank could easily plane of award of skin thin wood, and he always taught to sharpen to that over-sharpened edge, then stand the  blade (chisel or plane) up vertically (90 degrees) on the finest waterstone used, and make one drawing pass down the stone length. That left you with a microscopic flat tip you couldn't se with the human eye. This blade would last several times longer than the over sharpen blade and wouldn't skip."

"It is attractive, but that should never trump practicality.The existing spatulas exist because they do their job very efficiently as well as store easily. I doubt these would perform a better service in a working kitchen and certainly would take up much more space in storage and a dishwasher."

"Auriou does make very fine rasps. There are other brands of handmade rasps for a fraction of the cost such as Dragon rasps. I'll let you guess where they are made. The really big difference in a quality handmade rasp is having the individual rasp points being randomly placed, instead of spaced evenly on a line of any kind. A rasp made by anyone with orderly spaced rasp points will make the rasp move in the direction of the lines. A non-symetrial placement of the rasp points allows it to float any direction you move the rasp. I have used these kinds of rasps for many years as a luthier."

"This is a lot of retoric about nothing. The Moxon vise has never lost it usefulness, never been forgotten, and is very alive and well and used by many furniture builders around the world.Christopher Schwarz was just capitalizing on his being informed about it and selling a story. Just one Google search would prove how popular it has always been. I alway appreciate Rain Noe's writing, it's just the subject."

"Of all of the entries I appreciate this one the most.It hits on many levels, for its practical design for use, innovative use of recycled materials, ever changing organic yet colorful appearance, and removing debris from the environment. Good on you! "