Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

When buying screwdriver bits for your cordless drill, you really need to think about ‘stocking’ two categories of bit, in order to cover most DIY tasks. Effectively, you need a small, but high quality selection of the most used bits, and a large, inexpensive, lower quality selection of every other bit. This guide will explain why this is the case, and what the best options are for buying screwdriver bits. read more »

The best tape measures on the market are manufactured by Stanley, but as is the case with most DIY tools, there is an enormous range to choose from, and so deciding what is the best option can be tricky. Therefore, below I’ve outlined the key features to look for when buying a tape measure, and why this is a case where I always find that two is better than one. read more »

Mythic Paint is a relatively new player in the UK market, and they offer a selection of water-based paints for both the interior and exterior of your home. Okay, nothing too exciting in that introduction, but where my interest certainly began to perk up was when I noticed that all their paints contains zero VOCs (nasty chemicals), zero carcinogens (very nasty chemicals), are completely non-toxic, and have literally no smell. Now, there are other ‘user-friendly’ paints around, but none that have stirred up this amount of interest in the ‘trade’ marketplace. read more »

Buying a handsaw for your DIY needs sounds simple, but the enormous array of options on the market, can make the whole process pretty confusing. Defining a handsaw in itself can be complicated as you could include any hand held saw in this category, but for the purpose of this guide I’m talking about the basic, general purpose saw, normally called a panel saw, with the easily recognisable shape shown below. read more »

Buying a chisel set should be a once in a lifetime event for most home improvement and DIY enthusiasts, because if you choose quality chisels, and look after them well, there is no reason why you should need another set in the future. There are carpenters across the land who own chisels that belonged to their grandads, quite simply because they are made from high quality steel, that can be sharpened over and over again. So high quality steel is key to any good chisel, but if you’re buying a chisel set today, there are a few other issues to consider. read more »