Embry McKee

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Fleur-de-lis cross pagehead of embrymckee.com, highlighting embry mckee's carved, handmade, exotic hardwood Christian crosses, fish, and other symbols. Embry McKee
Fine Designs in Wood



Links


Woodworking Tool Merchants

All of these merchants provide excellent service and competitive prices,
and have earned good reputations in the woodworking community.

These are personal favorites:

The Best Things, where the connoisseur shops. The Best Things carries carving and woodworking tools (chisels, gouges, saws, gauges, etc.) by makers such as ashley isles, aurio, crown, henry taylor, robert sorby, marples, starett, hock, woodjoy, carter products, chester toolsworks, lee-nielsen, and e.c. emmerich.

Broad selection of woodworking tools, especially for carving (Ashley Iles, Auriou, Sorby, Crown, Henry Taylor).  Excellent prices - best you'll find on A. Iles and Auriou. 




Classic Hand Tools carries carving and woodworking tools by makers such as auriou, ashley iles, UK, hnt gordon, lie-nielsen, veritas, kunz (planes), hiraide oire nomi, brusso (hinges and latches), flexcut (chisels and gouges), tormek (sharpeners), and various waterstones.

Some overlap with Best Things, but with a better selection of Auriou (less A. Iles, though).  Also carries some harder-to-find tools.  Postage from England makes Mike a bit pricier, but less so than you'd think.  The Auriou selection really is fantastic (rifflers too).




Tools for Working Wood carries carving and woodworking tools from makers such as two cherries, iyoroi (chisels), auriou, ashley iles, norton, starret, liberon, and clifton.The Museum of Woodworking Tools - an exhibit of antique and interesting tools (with a special exhibit of woodworking tools from Vietnam).

Huge variety, and a great selection of the lines he carries.  Lots of Japanese tools as well as A. Iles, Sorby and Two Cherries.  Lots of stuff you didn't know you needed yet.  Several how-to pages.  Also has the museum linked above with info on antique and obscure woodworking tools.




The Japan Woodworker carries many traditional Japanese woodworking tools (dozuki, nomi, shoji chisels, bachi nomi, etc.), including those by makers such as takahashi, tasai, lie-nielsen, kunikei, festool, ichihiro (planes), ishido (planes), and yokosaka (planes).

Nomi, dozuki, the whole shebang, from inexpensive to painful.  They carry some nice Western-style tools, too.




Oldtools UK carries old and antique woodworking tools (chisels, gouges, planes, saws, gauges, etc.) by such makers as stanley, norris, marples, preston, miller falls, starrett, and record.

Old and antique tools at surprisingly reasonable prices.  Fun to browse around in - if you can't find it on eBay, check here.




Lie-Nielsen toolworks carries a variety of their own woodworking tools, including scrapers, spokeshaves, bench planes, butt mortise planes, scrub planes, bronze beading tools, chisels, gauges, and dovetail markers.

Pricey, but beautiful.  Many of their tools are modern re-makes of classic Stanley designs.  L-N tools are widely admired.




Dieter Schmidt Fine Tools carries woodworking tools from makers such as two cherries (including firmer, mortise, and swan-neck chisels), japanese tools by daitai, koshimitsu, suminagashi, and hikoza. They also have chisels in high-speed steel (h.s.s.), kataba saws, crown, chinese ball, estwing, and warrington hammers.Dieter Schmidt Fine Tools

Even with postage from Germany Dieter has great prices on Two Cherries.  Lots of great Japanese tools too.




Dan's Whetstones specializes in sharpening gears such as arkansas stones (novaculite), slipstones, flint knapping, bench stones, jeweler's stones, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, and other bonded abrasives.

Good service and excellent prices on Arkansas stones and other sharpening gear.




Houston Hardwoods carries bartley gel stains, antique pine, aromatic cedar, ash, basswood, birch, bloodwood, bocote, bubinga, cherry, cocobolo, cypress, ebony, hickory, ipe, jatoba, lacewood, african mahogany, honduran mahogany, bird's eye maple, curly maple, hard maple, soft maple, mesquite, honduras rosewood, red oak, white oak, quartersawn oak, osage orange, padauk, pecan, poplar, purpleheart, redwood, spanish cedar, quartersawn sycamore, teak, virola, american walnut, peruvian walnut, wenge, zebra, granadillo, guyabillo, machiche, marrimba, red palm, parota, pink nova, pink ivory, verawood, alder, yellow cypress, plywood, MDF, melamine, aquatek, hydrotek, holly, bruce hardwood floors, and specialty mouldings.

Pretty much the only game in town where I live.  I can't vouch for their mail order, but they have an excellent selection and seem to be very well organized and run.  They have dimensioned and rough lumber in common and exotic species, plywood in exotic hardwoods, MDF, melamine, Bartley stain gels, and Bruce hardwood floors.  This place is huge.




Clark's Lumber carries a variety of common wood working and wood finishing products from known brands such as Minwax, Gorilla glue, Watco, Titebond, and others, as well as harder to find items such as Resorcinol, Hot Stuff Instant Glue, Famowood wood filler, Good Stuff Finish, and a small selection of Japanese woodworking tools (chisels, planes, etc.). Clark's Lumber also carries and immense selection of hard and soft woods, including (but not limited to): antique pine, aromatic cedar, ash, basswood, birch, bloodwood, bocote, bubinga, cherry, cocobolo, cypress, ebony, hickory, ipe, jatoba, lacewood, african mahogany, honduran mahogany, bird's eye maple, curly maple, hard maple, soft maple, mesquite, honduras rosewood, red oak, white oak, quartersawn oak, osage orange, padauk, pecan, poplar, purpleheart, redwood, spanish cedar, quartersawn sycamore, teak, virola, american walnut, peruvian walnut, wenge, zebra, granadillo, guyabillo, machiche, marrimba, red palm, parota, pink nova, pink ivory, verawood, alder, yellow cypress, plywood, MDF, and melamine.

The photo on the homepage makes Clark's Lumber look like it operates out of a tiny quonset hut, but in fact they have 5 separate warehouses, carefully organized, well-selected, and well laid-out.  Their focus is more on contractors and users of large pieces - they don't have much of a selection of small pieces and remnants.  Still, if you can't find it elsewhere, look here.  They also have a small selection of common glues and finishing products, Japanese woodworking tools, and harder-to-find products from brands like Hot Stuff, Resorcinol, Famowood, Good Stuff, & others.




Recommended Products

Tried and true.


waterlox link, tung oil and resin original sealer/finish, marine sealer, marine finish, polyurethane, bloxygen, voc regulations

There are several oil and resin wipe-on varnishes on the market, but I've only worked extensively with Waterlox.  It can be applied by almost any method, and can give wood anything from an open-pore, natural, hand-rubbed finish to a thick, lacquered, glossy look.  It's very protective and water-resistant - even for things like floors and wood countertops.  Good stuff.




Auriou - maker of carving tools, riffler rasps, and stone lettering tools from France.

Auriou carving tools are about as close as you can get to the old hand-drawn, hand-forged tools.  They have a wonderful feel to them and take a fine edge.  Their rifflers are considered the best anywhere.  Lee at The Best Things (see above) says that they may soon be making a small line of woodworking chisels for him.




Ashley Iles, maker of carving tools, gouges, and chisels, from England.

Also using older craftsman-intensive methods of production, A. Iles produces the largest line of carving tools I know of - the full London Pattern catalogue, along with all sorts of specialty tools, like Chris Pye's 2 1/2 gouges, the Ray Gonzales tool, the Zoe Gertner tools, etc., and woodworking and woodturning tools of excellent quality.  A.I. carving tools tend to be a little beefier, in the English tradition.  My A. I. butt chisels (with bubinga handles!) are a joy to use.




knight toolworks, planes, steve knight, fluffy shavings

I've got two of Mr. Knight's planes, from back when they were clunky-looking.  He makes them sleeker now, but I'll bet they work just as well.  Hock irons come standard on his planes, with Japanese irons available as an (expensive) upgrade.




Wayne Barton's site for info and products for chip carving. One can purchase many things, including the Barton designed knives and his book Chip Carving Techniques and Patterns.

Chip carving isn't a big part of what I do, but the techniques come in handy from time to time (see the "CP" carving on the crest on the Legacy Crests homepage).  Wayne Barton seems to be the chip carving guru.  The chip carving knives that Mr. Barton designed fit the hand well and hold an edge, and his books are the best I've seen on the subject.

Woodworking and Woodcarving

These sites offer information or instruction.


Chris Pye's carving site, with e-books, galleries, and tool recommendations, plus links to buy his books: Woodcarving Tools, Materials, and Equipment, Volumes I & II; Lettercarving in Wood, a Practical Introduction; Relief Carving - a Practical Course; Elements of Woodcarving.

I own several of Chris Pye's books and refer to them frequently.  His site contains several e-books, galleries, how-to pages, tool recommendations, and a newsletter you can subscribe to. 



Bob's Bench Pages

I found Bob Key's site years ago, looking for ideas for a workbench, and made "Bob and Dave's Good, Fast, and Cheap Bench" from their plans (here's mine).  The above link is to an archived copy of his site.  Bob offers lots of information on handtools, workshops, and workbenches in a chatty, informal tone.  I'd wager that a thousand woodworkers have gotten a start here.




workbench design, shop design, other woodworking themes

Great links to sites with detailed plans for workbenches and other shop themes, along with the author's own design and advice.  Some of these benches are really fine furniture.





General Merchants

These are all big operations with solid reputations.


Highland Hardware - seller of woodworking tools.



Rockler - woodworking tools, power and hand.



Hartville Tool -vendor of woodworking and shop tools, including MHG chisels.



Traditional Woodworker - vendor of woodworking and shop tools.




Woodcraft - seller of woodworking tools.



Craftsman Studio - seller of woodworking tools and books.



Lee Valley and Veritas - woodworking tools and equipment.





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Copyright 2006 by Embry
McKee.  All rights reserved.