Popular Woodworking Magazine » Raw Materials

Where to Buy Big Wood for Big Workbenches

Christopher Schwarz — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:03:08 +0000

During the last few years, I’ve been using giant 6×6 softwood timbers to build workbenches for classes and customers. These big hunks look old school and make the construction process quick and painless – the top has only three glue lines. Of course, the problem for most people is finding this wood. You can find … Read more »

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What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Robert W. Lang — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:31:26 +0000

Internet woodworking forums are great places. You can observe or enter into a debate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and you can follow that on a tangent about what’s the best type of pin for the angels to dance on, and someone will likely come along to sell … Read more »

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Too Much Lumber is Never a Bad Thing

Robert W. Lang — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:45:05 +0000

Whenever we convene a meeting of the “Should We or Should We Not Print Cutlists Debating Society”, we get tons of responses. In the latest instance an overwhelming number of poll participants voted yea, while most of the commenters said no, or gave a qualified yes – as long as we provide the lists online. … Read more »

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My Chisel Handles are Older Than Yours

Christopher Schwarz — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:45:11 +0000

Exotic woods don’t blow my skirt/kilt/skort up much. In small doses they can look beautiful, but for the most part I find them oily, difficult to work and far too wild looking for full-size furniture. I’ve always preferred hardwoods and softwoods from the Northern hemisphere. Quartersawn beech is exotic to me. Quartersawn sycamore is too … Read more »

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Compwood Unleashed and…

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:58:06 +0000

I must get off my hinder and start beavering on these two Welsh stick chairs I’m making for a friend. The arm bows are bent, the seats are glued up and…that’s all I got. Until this moment, the excuse for my lethargy was that I was waiting for the arm bows to dry while they … Read more »

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It’s Not Just for Bears Anymore

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:52:24 +0000

To transform a pile of 6″ x 6″ x 8′ yellow pine beams into 10 workbenches, the first step is a chainsaw. This morning I drove down to Berea, Ky., to help Kelly Mehler and his assistant, Ben, sort through 80 beams and crosscut them to length for the Roubo workbench class I’m teaching there … Read more »

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Bench Building in Berea with Big Wood

Christopher Schwarz — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:42:03 +0000

The biggest challenge in building a workbench isn’t the design. It isn’t the joinery. And it isn’t even the physical labor. It’s finding the right wood. This May I’m teaching a class in building an 18th-century workbench at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking, in Berea, Ky. The bench design uses massive timbers, similar to what … Read more »

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How to Make a Quick Kiln

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:14:37 +0000

When I released my Compwood arm bows from the clamps this morning, I saw a little bit of springback. It was less than I’d get with other bending techniques, but it was more than I expected. I had expected zero springback. When Chicago furniture maker Jeff Miller had introduced me to the material, he said … Read more »

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Video: Bending the Wiggle Wood, Solo

Christopher Schwarz — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:48:30 +0000

After not burning down the city with my lightbulb-in-a-box scheme, my first CompWood armbow dropped to 8 percent moisture content overnight. I removed it from its form and put one clamp on it across the ends – with a 2×4 between. Then I resolved to bend my second armbow by myself. So I modified the … Read more »

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Make the Arkansas Insty-Kiln

Christopher Schwarz — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:02:18 +0000

I was surprised by how much my CompWood arm bow dried out overnight. It went from 20 percent moisture content to 12 percent moisture content. But I’m not ready to take it out of the clamps yet, and Megan wouldn’t do it, either (she smelled a trap/workers’ comp claim). So I decided to do what … Read more »

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