← back These dynamic shavings were hand crafted by my talented colleague Peter Bingen. Peter uses a different grip on the block plane to me, the shavings hit his hand on their way out and make this delicious crinkle cut.

← back A new bass bar is shaped with a thumb plane, holding the plane at a diagonal makes the shavings roll off in springs.

← back Planing deeply figured maple ribs can be tricky; half of each stroke is cutting up into end grain and the wood tends to tear out. To get around this problem an early genius invented the toothed plane blade. The back edge of the blade has a series of parallel...

← back While hollowing plates with this scrub plane many of the shavings would wrap themselves around my wrist.

← back Sometimes shavings are not a waste product, these pear wood shavings will be used to make purfling, similar shavings are used to make "spiral bushings" for use in peg box repairs. To make a thick and uniform shaving can require considerable force and sometimes...

← back Beautiful bicolored shavings by violin maker Andrea Castañeda Flores, Mexico. What an artist! This is from planing the underside of a baroque fingerboard.