Inside Your Grandfather's Shed Quiz

Answer: Saw horses

Most commonly used for resting timber on while cutting it, a pair of saw horses can be easily transformed into a workbench by clamping a sheet of plywood, or similar material, to their tops. You can buy a fancy pair from the hardware store that are foldable, collapsible or even height adjustable.

But if you'd prefer to make your own you can do so with just five pieces of wood for each horse. Cut four legs of equal length with one end of each leg cut on a 60-70 degree angle. Nail or screw the angled end of the legs onto a fifth piece of wood which forms the top board which your work rests on.

Answer: Tenon saw

Tenon saws belong to a family of saws known as back saws which are characterised by the strip of metal that runs the length of the top edge of the blade. This provides the blade with extra rigidity whilst cutting, preventing it from curving or bending, thus ensuring a more accurate cut.

Many people might use a standard crosscut handsaw for cutting wood, but as these types of saw don't have the reinforcing metal strip, they can bend whilst cutting and leave an inaccurate edge. Hacksaws are primarily used for cutting metals and plastics while a coping saw is a small tool with a detachable blade and is used for more intricate cutting of materials.

Answer: Mitre box

The two most common cuts made with a mitre box are the straight cut, (90 degrees), and the mitre cut, (45 degrees). The mitre cut is widely used for when two pieces of wood are joined together on a right angle such as door and window frames. The simplest of mitre boxes are made from timber with cutting slots for both of these angles. The more fancy mitre boxes are made of plastic or metal and can have more slots for other cutting angles, particularly 30 and 60 degrees.

You can easily make your own mitre box with three pieces of scrap wood. Make sure all pieces are cut to the same length, about twelve inches is ample, and simply nail two pieces of wood onto the third so that looking at it from side on it resembles a capital H. Using a combination square mark out the lines on the two vertical pieces that will provide a straight 90 degree cut and the two 45 degree cuts on each side of this. Using the same saw that you intend to use with the mitre box, carefully cut slots into where you have marked all the way down to the horizontal piece of timber.

Answer: Plane

The plane family consists of many tools of various sizes and functions. The largest of these can exceed two feet in length while the smallest can fit on your finger and are used for small, delicate pieces such as toys and decorative items. They all follow the same basic principle of design however, that is, the body of the plane, (made from wood, metal or a combination of both), with an adjustable sharp metal blade that protrudes from the underside of the plane.

A smoother finish is achieved when the plane is run down the piece of wood in the same direction as the grain.

Answer: Awl

There are many trades and crafts that use awls specifically designed for their respective functions. The particular awl used in woodworking is also known as a bradawl and is simple in its design. It resembles a screwdriver in appearance but the tip of the shaft is bevelled to a sharp point so that a hollowing can be made in the wood by exerting pressure on the awl while twisting it. This causes the wood fibres to split gradually, reducing the risk of large splits in the timber while nailing or screwing. A nail punch is used to tap down nails so that their head sits just below the surface of the timber.

A simple yet effective awl can be made by snipping the head off of a nail and then clamping it in a vice, pointy end down, halfway down the shaft. Take an eight inch piece of thick dowel, (you can cut this from a broom handle), and gently tap it onto the nail shaft so that half is embedded in the dowel and the other half protrudes.

Answer: Dowels

The biscuit joiner was invented by Swiss carpenter Herman Steiner in the 1950s. It is a power tool that cuts slots into pieces of wood by way of a blade, similar to that of a circular saw, but much smaller. Two pieces of wood are joined together using an oval shaped wooden disc, (biscuit), positioned in the slots with a liberal amount of woodworking glue. Once the two pieces are joined they should be clamped together and left on a flat surface until the glue has set.

Dowel joints are weaker than those made by a biscuit joiner as they cover a smaller area of the pieces that are being joined. Holes are drilled into each piece of timber for the dowels to be glued into, usually two pieces per joint. Of course the old fashioned method would not have used a power drill but a manually operated hand drill instead.

Answer: Fret saw

This is a really weird looking tool. It consists of a large frame, up to half a metre in height, with a detachable blade that is tiny in comparison. The beauty of this design is that with such a large frame, the blade is able to penetrate deep into the piece being worked. Best results are achieved if your piece is lying flat rather than standing upright so clamping it to a pair of saw horses would be ideal.

Like the fret saw, a bow saw also has a detachable blade but these are primarily used for lopping tree limbs, you could consider it a manual version of the chainsaw.

Answer: True

Unlike modern electric wood lathes, the Egyptian version required two people to operate it. One person used a rope to turn the piece of wood that was being worked while the other carved and shaped it. It was not until the Middle Ages, with the development of a foot pedal to turn the wood, that only one person was required for such work.

This in turn lead to steam powered lathes and finally the electric lathe during the Industrial Revolution.

Answer: Cork

The simple things really are the best so I can't understand why the humble cork sanding block has to be meddled with. I have seen plastic sanding blocks that have snap locks on them to hold your sandpaper in place. Why? My preference for the sanding block over the electric sander is simply that I get a better feel for what I'm doing and the pressure I am exerting and it also allows for reaching into the tight nooks and crannies that the bulkier electric sander can't.

Answer: Hamster

Woodstains are available in a wide variety of tints and hues and can be oil based or water based. Also available are stains already containing laquer or varnish to bring out a shiny gloss to your piece. Personally I find these to be sticky when applying and prefer to rub in beeswax after the staining process is complete.