There are many types of knives around. Here you will find the most popular and the most useful.

Boning knives as it names implies is used for removing the bones from joints of meat. The typical blade on a boning knife is approximately 15 cm in length the blade. The blade tends to be narrow and quite rigid.

Butter knives are quite small and have a blunt edge as they do not need to be sharp. The blade also tends to be quite flat. These are used for spreading butter, jam and marmalade.

Cheese knives are used for cutting hard and soft cheese. The blade is usually quite narrow and flat with a curve at the end which has a forked tip.

Chefs knives are the most common knife in the kitchen and if you own no other knives this is the one you should have. Its main use is chopping, slicing and dicing. They come in various sizes the smallest being 15cm ranging up to 30cm for the more experienced cook.

A cleaver is a very broad knife with a blade of about 15cm in length. It is generally used for cutting meat, it also ideal for pounding due to its broad edge.

Filet knives have a thin flexible blade, which is about 30cm in length. This type of knife is ideal for filleting fish and removing its skin.

Mincing knives can be either single or double bladed. They are specifically designed for chopping food into very small pieces. They are a curved blade with a straight handle attaching to both ends of the blade.

Paring knives are also an essential knife to own after the chefs knife. Paring knives are quite small with a thin narrow blade, which tapers to a point. It is very versatile and can be used for peeling, chopping and coring. This is the best knife for use with small foods such as herbs.

Sandwich knives as the name implies are specially designed for cutting through bread because of their serrated blade. Not just for slicing through sandwiches, these knives can also be used for cutting pies and soft fruits.

Slicing or carving knives can vary enormously in shape and size but the most common being a rigid blade about 20m in length. The blade has a pointed tip and is specially designed for carving meat away from the bone. Often carving knives come with carving forks which are made to compliment the knife.

Electric knives can be useful too for the less experienced knife user. These work on the principle of two blades moving back and forth independently of each other. They cut through a multitude of foods from fruit, bread and meat.

Utility knives are similar to a paring knife only with a longer blade. It is used for items which are too large for a paring knife and too small for a chef’s knife.

There are many types of knives around. Here you will find the most popular and the most useful.

Boning knives as it names implies is used for removing the bones from joints of meat. The typical blade on a boning knife is approximately 15 cm in length the blade. The blade tends to be narrow and quite rigid.

Butter knives are quite small and have a blunt edge as they do not need to be sharp. The blade also tends to be quite flat. These are used for spreading butter, jam and marmalade.

Cheese knives are used for cutting hard and soft cheese. The blade is usually quite narrow and flat with a curve at the end which has a forked tip.

Chefs knives are the most common knife in the kitchen and if you own no other knives this is the one you should have. Its main use is chopping, slicing and dicing. They come in various sizes the smallest being 15cm ranging up to 30cm for the more experienced cook.

A cleaver is a very broad knife with a blade of about 15cm in length. It is generally used for cutting meat, it also ideal for pounding due to its broad edge.

Filet knives have a thin flexible blade, which is about 30cm in length. This type of knife is ideal for filleting fish and removing its skin.

Mincing knives can be either single or double bladed. They are specifically designed for chopping food into very small pieces. They are a curved blade with a straight handle attaching to both ends of the blade.

Paring knives are also an essential knife to own after the chefs knife. Paring knives are quite small with a thin narrow blade, which tapers to a point. It is very versatile and can be used for peeling, chopping and coring. This is the best knife for use with small foods such as herbs.

Sandwich knives as the name implies are specially designed for cutting through bread because of their serrated blade. Not just for slicing through sandwiches, these knives can also be used for cutting pies and soft fruits.

Slicing or carving knives can vary enormously in shape and size but the most common being a rigid blade about 20m in length. The blade has a pointed tip and is specially designed for carving meat away from the bone. Often carving knives come with carving forks which are made to compliment the knife.

Electric knives can be useful too for the less experienced knife user. These work on the principle of two blades moving back and forth independently of each other. They cut through a multitude of foods from fruit, bread and meat.

Utility knives are similar to a paring knife only with a longer blade. It is used for items which are too large for a paring knife and too small for a chef’s knife.

While the jointer can be used as a planer for small pieces of lumber, the principal function of this woodworking machine is to put a straight, smooth, level edge or edges on a board in preparation for edge-to-edge glue-up. Rabbeting can be accomplished on some jointers but I prefer to use the table saw for this task. Chamfering, or making angled cuts, can be performed by tilting the fence.

Accurate jointing or chamfering this requires that the cutter head knives be adjusted precisely with reference to the out feed table. The edge of each cutter head knife must exactly at the level of the out feed table: not above or below it. In most cases, sharpening the cutter knives requires that they be removed completely from the cutter head and then replaced and adjusted after sharpening. This is why I recommend the use of solid carbide as opposed to high speed steel knives: Carbide knives last a lot longer and that means less time and effort has to go into removing, replacing and adjusting knives. Buy two sets. That way, you can continue to use your jointer while the dull set is out for sharpening and you will always have a sharp set waiting.

Always unplug your jointer from electrical current before attempting any knife adjustments. In my jointer, an 8″ Rockwell/Delta classic, the knives are removed and replaced by using a flat wrench that came with the jointer. This wrench is used to loosen and tighten the hex head machine screws that press against the knives and hold them in place in the cutter head. It is very easy to round over the hex heads, so I am very careful not to do so. I purchased a gadget that helps me align the knives with reference to the outfeed table. It magnetically attaches itself to the surface of the outfeed table and magnetically attracts the knives upwards and holds them in position, exactly level with the outfeed table, while I tighten the hex bolts. Each knife (there are 3 in my machine) must be in the extreme vertical position before it can be individually correctly adjusted and tightened. When all 3 knives have been set properly, they should just touch, but not lift, a flat piece of wood laid on the outfeed table, extending over the cutter head. They must do this across their entire length of each knife.

Jointer size is most commonly determined by the full width of the knives (knives). A 6″ jointer makes a maximum 6″-wide cut. An 8″ jointer makes a maximum 8″ cut and so on. It would be rare to use the entire width of even a 6″ knife set at once, so the real advantage of wide knives is that you can move the fence to use a sharper place on the knife when the knife becomes dull. The wider your knives, the more use you will get out of them before it is time to re-sharpen. I usually start with a sharp knife set and the fence all the way to the right end of the cutter head and move the fence, in increments, a bit wider than the maximum board thicknesses, to the left until the knives are all used up.

Sometimes, with curly or wavy grain structure, you will experience tear-out from the lumber edge even with sharp knives. Sometimes you can turn the board around and run it through again backwards with very shallow cuts until the edge is fully jointed and the tear-out is gone. At other times, you may have to settle for a sawn joint made on the table saw. Usually you can make fairly good glue joints this way, if you have to, but a jointed edge is always my first choice.

The depth of cut is determined by the height of the infeed table with reference to the outfeed table. The lower the in feed table, the more wood is removed with each pass over the jointer. It is not a good idea to take off too much wood with a single pass. The chances of tear-out increase with the depth of cut and you may end up removing more precious wood than you really needed to, to get your perfect joint. After all, the idea of jointing is always to remove just enough wood to create a straight, flat board edge. Removing any more than that is just a waste of wood.

Timber purchased from a sawmill will arrive in an non-smooth state. This is called “rough sawn.”

The first thing that happens is that the timber is planed. For very small pieces, and in the home workshop, this can be done with a hand plane. For larger quantities, an electrical planer-thicknesser is used. The lengths of timber are fed through at one side and the machine takes them up by using powered rollers. Electric knives cut into the surface and they are ejected at the opposite side smoother and somewhat thinner.

Planer-thicknessers are serious pieces of kit and should not be used by inexperienced and untrained people. In common with all powered machinery, all loose clothing should be secured and long hair tied back. An extractor/dust bag will help to keep the workshop air supply clean and healthy.

A metal guide piece that keeps the timber length in a straight line is called a “fence”.

It should be noted that when one buys square-section lengths of timber, the dimensions supplied are the ones prior to planing, so the timber will always be smaller than expected. The previously rough sawn timber is now referred to as PAR or Planed All Round.

Some large stores that sell ready-to-assemble furniture may describe some of their products as “unfinished”. This usually means that they have undergone the planing process but have had no surface finish applied, not that they are rough-sawn on the surface.

After planing, timber needs to be sanded. Mass-produced articles and timber bought from DIY shops will not have had this done. Glasspaper is the correct term for the abrasive paper used – sandpaper is used in the bottom of budgie cages! A cheaper version of glasspaper is sometimes called garnet paper. Sanding can be tough on the hands so it is usual to wrap a section of a sheet around a cork block. Wet and dry paper should be reserved for use on metals and polymers.

Abrasive papers come in various grit grades. The smaller numbers means that the glasspaper has a coarser surface. This will remove more material but will not leave a very smooth surface. The expression “working through the grades” means that one starts with (say) 80 grit and finishes by using 320 grit paper.

The final act is to remove all the dust ready to apply a finish.