Popular Woodworking 2006-12 № 159, страница 43

I've been attending tool shows to see new woodworking machinery and hand tools for 10 years now, but the 2006 vintage will be remembered as a very good one for years to come. In fact, we typically honor 12 tools every year, but this year we expanded it to 16 tools and we still had to fight to keep it from ballooning to 20 tools (or more).

Tool manufacturers have been a busy bunch. For proof of that, you need look no further than Steel City Tool Works. I could be wrong, but I doubt if I'll ever get to see another woodworking show where a new company launches an entire line of truly new machines all at once.

And while the machines are new, the people behind the company are not. Steel City was started by men and women who have worked in the woodworking machinery industry for decades. They have the contacts in the Far East to build the kind of machines they always wanted to sell. And it looks like they've succeeded.

The other pleasant surprise was the appearance of two table saws on the market that have riving knives (one from Powermatic and one from Grizzly). Saw-Stop's table saw already has a riving knife, and other manufacturers are testing the waters right now. As a woodworker who has worked on table saws with and without this safety feature, I can tell you this without hesitation: You want one. If you can get a saw with one, do it. You'll be glad you have it the first time that some case-hardened stock tries to pinch your saw blade.

And on the hand-tool side, things continue to blossom into a full-blown renaissance. There are so many good new hand tools out there now, I could almost write an entire separate story on the Best New Hand Tools of2006. But let me call your attention to one in particular. It's not obvious. The new Veritas plane irons are a big deal. They are so simple to set up and sharpen it could be the tool that launches many an adventure into the world of handplanes.

— Christopher Schwarz, editor

60 i Popular Woodworking December 2006