As you can see, I did get into the shop this week to begin on my workbench storage boxes. The thing I most like about building my own design – after 15 plus years building 18th- and early 19th-Century designs for customers – is that I can change the design clear up until I can’t. … Read more
This week, I swear I’m getting started on my workbench. To heck with my computer, I need to make dust or something. It’s time to get into the shop. Trouble is, I don’t have, as of yet, any tools at the Popular Woodworking Magazine shop. I need a place to store my tools when I … Read more
My trip to Winterthur greatly impacted my knowledge of Hannah’s Inlaid Chest (what others may know as the Darlington Chest) I built for the June 2013 issue (#204). I posted a few things that would tilt the chest toward being a closer reproduction. I also promised I would point out which drawer was the imposter … Read more
On Hannah’s Inlaid Chest from our June 2013 magazine (issue #204), I scratched most of the string inlay by hand using tools from both Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and Lee Valley/Veritas. Of the string inlay tools used on the chest, the most import is the radius cutter. For that job, I selected the tool from Lie-Nielsen (item … Read more
This week I’m at Acanthus Workshop LLC teaching a class in which we are building the cover project from the June issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, the Hannah Darlington Chest. Tuesday morning started out great: Breakfast at Annamarie’s; pancakes to die for. Then it was off to the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Winterthur, … Read more
I spend hours looking at photos of furniture. If I don’t have my nose buried in books, I gaze upon photos sent to me by other woodworkers. In a flickr set sent to me by Mark Firley (thanks, Mark), I stopped on a bow-front chest photo. (I think Mark was on a dovetail expedition that … Read more
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
