This is, as far as I know, a first. This month M. Power Tools will introduce new chisels that have a replaceable high-speed-steel tip. According to the company's literature, you should be able to change from a dull tip to a sharp one in less than a minute using only a screwdriver.

And to make things even more interesting, M. Power is going to produce chisel tips in different profiles, including a standard bevel, a tip with a serrated edge and a most unusual three-sided cutter (the two edges and the bevel will be sharp).

The tips come completely sharp and are resharpenable. That means that you can replace the tip in the middle of a project (or while on a job) and then sharpen the dull tip at your leisure. Of course, some woodworkers will simply toss the dull tip – like some woodworkers toss dull chisels.

The mechanism that holds the tips uses screws that will stay attached to the chisel's blade, so you won't lose the screws on your shop floor.

The tips are titanium-plated high-speed steel (HSS) which has been hardened to Rockwell 63 on the "C" scale, which means they will be fairly tough. I've worked with Japanese high-speed steel chisels that were designed for carpentry. They can take a beating. M Power officials say the high-speed steel will last up to five times longer, though I didn't see that level of durability in the Japanese HSS chisels I tested a few years ago.

The company will offer two sorts of chisel handles. The MercPRO version has a blue acetate handle with a steel strike in the handle. The Fleetwood Innovator version has a beech handle with a brass ferrule and a steel strike as well.

Both version are made in England, according to the company.

These tools should be available in the United States by Sept. 17 and will be available through Eagle America and Garrett Wade.

The retail prices of the Innovator version of the chisel are as follows:
• 1/2" will be $47.85
• 3/4" will be $49.50
• 1" will be $52.50
• Cutter inserts will range from $7.49 to $9.95 each

When these tools become available we'll give you a full report.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Interesting Tools With Replaceable Inserts

• Heard of Rali planes? These interesting Swiss-made tools have been around for along time and use replaceable plane irons. Some woodworkers swear by them. Take a look at then at Advanced Machinery.

• Stanley had a line of handplanes with replaceable blades. Called "Ready-Edge Blades," these tools are quite similar to the M Power idea. You can read the original patent here.

• Or if you want to learn how to sharpen, I recommend our book "Handtool Essentials," which is a collection of our best writing on hand tools from all our contributors, from Lonnie Bird to David Charlesworth to Adam Cherubini. It's available in our store for just $15.

We've narrowed down the entries for our contest to pick a T-shirt slogan for our Woodworking in America event. The front side of the shirt will say: "Woodworking in America 2010." And the back will have a slogan.

Pick your favorite slogan using the poll below, but do it fast – we're choosing the winner on Wednesday, Sept. 8.

Now that there are so many sawmakers out there, it's no surprise that they are all trying to offer something a little different than the rock-solid Independence dovetail saw that kicked off this revolution in Western sawmaking.

In the last decade, toolmakers have again begun experimenting with different:

• Tooth filings, including changing the rake, pitch and fleam.
• Hang angles (how the grip is angled compared to the toothline)
• Different backs – traditional bent backs, slotted solid backs, backs that taper in width
• Different widths of sawplate, including those that get narrower at the toe.
• Different thicknesses of the sawplate.

All of these differences change how the saw cuts. And little things add up to significant changes. For example: relax the rake a tad, lower the hang angle a few degrees and add some fleam and you'll get a saw that is remarkably smooth-cutting but is fairly slow. The important point here is that I think saws are subtle and personal tools, much more so than handplanes.

So it's difficult for me to talk about one of these factors in isolation. But I'm going to try.

I get a lot of questions about sawplate thickness and if it's better to have a plate that is really thin (such as .015") or fairly thick (I have one on my desk that is .027"). The answer is, as Mike Dunbar at The Windsor Institute is wont to say: It depends.

Let's take a look at the Lie-Nielsen line of dovetail saws because the company has three saws, each with different characteristics. There is the company's standard line, which has 15 points per inch (ppi) and a plate that is .020" thick – fairly standard stuff among many sawmakers. The company makes a progressive-pitch dovetail saw with a .020" plate – the saw starts at 16 ppi at the toe and ends at 9 ppi at the heel. And the company offers a thin-plate dovetail saw with 15 ppi and a .015"-thick plate.

If you were in the showroom in Warren, Maine, and were trying to choose a saw, which tool should you buy? It depends on your work and your level of experience.

The standard dovetail saw is an excellent tool for all-around work. The plate is robust and hard to kink. The tooth configuration makes it a fine saw for dovetailing carcases and drawers.

The progressive-pitch saw is just as easy to start as the standard saw, but it is swifter, especially in thick stock. If most of your work is dovetailing carcases or you work in stock that is thicker than 3/4", this saw makes a lot of sense. The big teeth at the heel are a little big for dovetailing thin drawer sides. Sometimes the heel will catch in stock thinner than 1/2".

Then there is the thin-kerf saw. It is swift like the progressive-pitch saw (because it removes less wood). And its tooth configuration make it ideal for 3/4" carcases or 1/2" drawer sides. The trade-off is that the plate is more easily kinked.

When I teach sawing, I let students use all of my saws (except one) during a class. And in May, I had a student kink my Lie-Nielsen thin-kerf saw at the heel. I've been too embarrassed to send it back, though I guess I'll have to get over that.

But the experience taught me a good lesson: Thin plates are not for beginners.

So if you are a beginner, I recommend a saw with a more robust plate. Get the standard saw if you plan to do drawers and carcases. Get the progressive pitch if you tend to work in thicker stock or plan to do more carcases than drawers.

And get the thin kerf if you are an experienced sawyer.

Once you choose your saw, you might need to change another tool in your shop as well. If you remove the waste between your pins and tails with a saw (I do), then plate thickness comes into play.

A jeweler's saw equipped with scrollsaw blades will work with any dovetail saw. The downside to jeweler's saws is that the blades tend to break easily. Too easily in my book.

A coping saw has blades that almost never break, but they are thicker. My Olson sawblades (available from Tools for Working Wood) make a kerf about .024" in width. They fit fine in a kerf left by a standard .020" dovetail saw, but it's a squeeze for them to get into a kerf left by a thin plate. Note that home center coping saw blades are even thicker than the Olsons, and they are over-set. So they may not work at all.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Sawing Resources

• Lie-Nielsen has just released my DVD "Sawing Fundamentals" – it discusses how to choose the right saw for your work and how to use it with precision. All my proceeds from the DVD are donated to help restore the White Water Shaker Village.

• Need a saw education? One good place to get lost is the Disstonian Institute. disstonianinstitute.com.

At long last, Megan Fitzpatrick (shown actual size in the photo above) and I began work on a new workbench for Woodworking in America. We're building this one from Eastern white pine timber left over from a log cabin that was built 10 years ago.

These six hunks of pine were kiln-dried then sat in a covered shed, where they checked a bit, gathered a bunch of spiderwebs and became covered in dirt.

One of the world's biggest tool collectors is bringing his brand-new traveling tool museum to Northern Kentucky on Oct. 1-2 to show it off to the public at the Woodworking in America event at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center.

John Sindelar of Edwardsburg, Mich., has spent his entire adult life amassing some of the world's rarest, most expensive and beautiful tools. And this year Sindelar built a traveling tool museum that will travel the country to share some of the highlights of his collection at festivals and fairs.

Even if you got shut out of the classes at Woodworking in America this year, the Marketplace itself is well worth the trip (and it's only $7 for two days).

Sindelar's traveling collection includes more than 500 items (valued at $300,000) from all the trades, from woodworking to blacksmithing to household tools. Visitors can see one of the first axes ever made in the New World, according to archaeologists (it's copper!), specialized plow planes made entirely of ivory, antique levels from Asia and much more.

"You name it, we have it," Sindelar says. "From the beginning of time to the present day."

The traveling collection is housed in a custom-built trailer that Sindelar's woodworking business outfitted to look like the inside of a vintage luxury locomotive car. The interior is constructed entirely with antiqued frame-and-panel in cherry – and features a tool in the center of each panel.

The 30'-long, 220-square-foot traveling museum is Sindelar's effort to build support for a permanent tool museum for his enormous tool collection now housed in his shop in Michigan.

The traveling tool museum will be parked on the floor of the Marketplace at Woodworking in America at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. Admission to the Marketplace (just $7) gets you in to see the traveling tool museum, plus more than 70 woodworking vendors and demonstrators showing off all aspects of woodworking with both hand and power tools.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I'll have photos of the traveling tool museum later this week.

More Links to Obscenely Gorgeous Tools

• For more information on Sindelar's collection, visit his web site at: sindelartoolmuseum.com

• Read (for free) a story I wrote where I test-drove some of the world's most expensive planes.

• "Tools Rare and Ingenious" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy has some serious brass and steel.

• My book, "Handplane Essentials," has a lot of stories about modern makers, including Konrad Sauer, Ron Brese, Karl Holtey, Bill Carter, Wayne Anderson, D.L. Barrett & Sons and more. It's available from our bookstore.

• View a free slideshow of my trip to Sindelar's tool museum a few years ago.