Joinery
Roorkhee Chair: First Look
I like Morris chairs – Lord knows I’ve built enough of them to change my middle name to “Morrie.” But this evening I finished up work on a chair that is lighter in weight (less than 10 lbs.), just as masculine (leather!) and is (gasp) even more comfortable. It’s called a Roorkhee Chair, and it Continue reading»
Chair Joinery: Tapered Tenons & Tapered Mortises
Because chairs take abuse like a rented mule, the simple mortise-and-tenon joint is sometimes not enough. In traditional Windsor chair construction, the legs and spindles are attached to the plank seat using tenons that are cone-shaped along their lengths. So the mortises have to be the same shape. These tapered joints are clever. The more Continue reading»
Better Than Measuring
Knowing how to measure things is one of the keys to improving the accuracy of your work, but taking a measurement and using the result of that measurement to mark your work or set up a tool often leads us down the wrong path, leaving us farther away from making two pieces that fit together Continue reading»
Exploit the Weakness of the Tree
In hand-tool woodworking, brains almost always trump brawn. For example, when I need to remove a lot of material from a localized area, I need to think like a tree assassin and exploit its weaknesses. Think about it for a minute: Trees are much stronger in the vertical axis than they are in the horizontal. Continue reading»
Cut Rabbets by Hand
Even if I have an entire shop filled with power equipment, I like to cut my rabbets by hand. Why? It’s fast and fun. Once you master a rabbet plane or a moving fillister plane, your router table and table saw will get a lot less use. To push you along this path, I wrote Continue reading»
Cutting Tenons on a Table Saw
I’ve long been a fan of cutting tenons on the table saw. I’ve found it can be done quickly, with repeatable accuracy and safely. Recently, I discovered a new saw blade with a thick, 1/4″-wide tooth that’s ground flat on the top, and it’s perfect for this operation. This Infinity Tools thick-kerf, flat-top blade eliminates Continue reading»
Look Ma, No Clamps
A friend of mine used to claim that his favorite tool was his own spit. I’d never claim such a thing publicly, but I do admit to using some rather unorthodox tools at times: I’ve sharpened paint-can keys to scrape off glue squeeze-out, and ground threaded rod into various shapes for stamping wood. In this Continue reading»
