Every year around this time, I dive into making Christmas-related projects and presents. There’s just something fun about creating gifts from scratch—and this year, I’ve been putting my laser engraver to good use.

You know how young kids often like to know how old they are? And if they're anything like my son, just the number five or six is not good enough. He wants to know his precise age.

So we started thinking about how it would be neat to have a clock display that showed exactly how old he is all the time. And this clock would constantly be changing, because his age is never the same.

This is a blank leather journal that I’ve been making using our different bookbinding tools such as the book press, vise, plough and sewing frame. Let’s get into it! Making books in a classic way obviously takes a fair amount of time, however what you get in return is a custom book in every way: you get to pick the size, the type of paper, the cover etc…

In the course of making a book, there’s one tool you use many times throughout the process, and that is a book vise. It’s what you use to hold the paper properly while marking, cutting, rounding the spine, gluing, separating the cords and more. Now while the vise is a great tool all on its own, it also works in conjunction with another tool: the cutting plough. If you turn the vise around, there’s a groove which the plough fits into, and now you can use this tool to trim the sides of the paper nice and crisp.

The sewing frame is a really interesting tool you use in bookbinding when binding signatures (or booklets) of paper together. In many ways, it’s like a jig that enables you to hold cords or tape taught while sewing your thread around the cord and in and out of the paper. Quite the ingenious contraption! And now I have a building plan of this project: Sewing Frame Plan

Lately I’ve been getting back into bookbinding which is such a fun and interesting thing to do. I love making my own books! Now, as I was starting to work on some projects, I was happy to get back to using our awesome book binding tools we made a while back.

The book press in particular is a project I often get questions about whether or not we have a building plan. Well now we do: BOOK PRESS BUILDING PLAN

An outdoor sofa that’s good looking, affordable and easy to disassemble, that’s what we’ve here. This design features a modern style and measures 55” wide and 30” deep. It's a straightforward project resulting in a very useful couch to relax in outside. HHere is the building plan: Outdoor Sofa Plan (including step by step instructions, cutlist + scalable design files)

If I were to start fresh with an empty shop, what would be the first tool I would get? Well, while I'd be tempted to say tablesaw (is there a more practical tool?), I think I would actually get a laser engraver to start with. For the past year now we've been working quite a bit with laser engraving and cutting, and it's such a useful tool for making small and precise things. Especially boxes, gears, models not to mention marking out different things. It's fast, fun and opens up a new world of possibilities.

You push a button on a box in one location, and it activates a light and a buzzer in another. This is done over wifi, so you can place the boxes wherever you need them within that range. Where do you place them? One could be in your house, and the other in your workshop (so family members could contact you when needed), you can put them in different rooms of the house… there are lots of options.

It's time to start thinking of garden projects! A raised garden bed is a great one since it brings the planting up (you don’t have to sit on the ground), you can control the quality of the soil, and it also looks really nice and can work as a divider in your garden.

For this project, we're going to go cheap and basic and resaw some 2x4s. I'm going to be using pressure treated wood which I will paint because it's what I had on hand, however you could just as easily use framing lumber.

When we first moved into this house, the space where my current small workshop is located was originally a little garden shed. The previous owners left behind a bunch of stuff, most of which wasn't worth saving, howeover there was one thing which I kept: an old metal vise.

I figured it would come in handy and one day.... I would clean it up and restore it a bit. Ever since, it's been sitting on the counter, I've used it a few times, however it was quite grimy and dirty and could definitely use a good cleaning.

After last week’s exploration with wood hinges, a couple of people suggested to me that instead of using wood dowels or metal nails, bamboo skewers might make a good substitute when it came to the pin that moves the hinge. And why not! Bamboo skewers are pretty hard and durable and quite thin too.

I always thought that traditional wooden boxes with metal hinges and other hardware are practical, but a little boring. Boxes that you can make on the other hand where the design itself limits hinges, clasps etc... are a bit more interesting. I'm talking sliding dado lids, fitted lids that sit on top, or wedge designs like a Japanese toolbox. None of these boxes require any external hardware, everything you need to complete the project is within the wood.