Since Bob Lang and I returned from our scouting trip for potential book projects at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, I have had the opportunity to build a few southern projects. A couple or projects came from our book “Furniture in the Southern Style” and the project on which I’m working now was … Read more
Woodworking is not a difficult endeavor. It’s not, really. It is woodworkers that make it difficult. Over-thinking and sweating the small stuff causes us to pause, or even stop. It’s better to get out in the shop and make something – anything – happen. Just recently, in a comment posted to my personal blog site, … Read more
Over on the Chris Schwarz blog, some of the people commenting on his review of Furniture in the Southern Style mentioned one of the photos in the introduction, and the reference to it being a misrepresentation of a ball and claw foot. I thought it would be a good idea to post the photo in … Read more
As a lifelong Southerner, I can attest that things are done a little differently below the Mason-Dixon line. Things might seem a little backward or slow to newcomers. The manners, the way you do business and even the pace of life is out of sync with the other regions of the United States – a … Read more
When I build a reproduction, I try to remain as faithful as I can to the construction of the original – even if my modern brain says it’s not ideal. The original builder of this early 18th-century table used several techniques that wouldn’t fly in a modern shop. For one: The bottom of the drawer is … Read more
