When building the Monticello Bookcases for the June 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, I used through-dovetails with a mitered shoulder to join the cases. This joint gives a nice finished look to the front edge of the boxes, yet it is easier to do than some other similar joints, including the secret mitered dovetail. … Read more
Sawing Techniques
Seven Questions with Andrew Lunn
With Andrew Lunn’s announcement that he’s leaving the sawmaking business, the No. 1 question on all our minds is: Who will have the guts to pull a prank on Jameel Abraham from Benchcrafted at the next woodworking show? Besides being an excellent sawmaker, Lunn is also a fan of the occasional practical joke. Ask Abraham … Read more
Andrew Lunn Exits the Sawmaking Business
Andrew Lunn, who made the finest backsaws I’ve ever used, has decided to stop making saws, though he is not hanging up his shop apron entirely. Lunn made the announcement to his customers today and has offered to transfer all open orders to Ed Paik, an excellent custom sawmaker at Medallion Toolworks. That’s the news. … Read more
Video: Sawing a Book – Safely
Say you want to scan one of your books so you can have it on your iPad or other tablet device. The easiest way to scan the book is to remove the binding and run it through a sheet feeder. This, of course, destroys the book. But it does make for nice scans. Recently lifehacker.com … Read more
Mike Wenzloff and the Remarkable No. 77 Backsaw
As we age, we tend to become more set in our ways. With saws, the opposite is true: The older I get, the less set I want. For those of you who didn’t get the (lame) joke in the previous sentence, “set” is the amount that a saw’s teeth are bent left and right during … Read more
Video: Level the Feet of a Chair or Sawbench
Getting the four feet of a sawbench, chair or stool all in the same plane is a challenge for some woodworkers. You can end up nibbling a bar stool into an ottoman if you take the wrong approach. I’m sure there is some way to do this with the power of math, triangles and unicorn … Read more
Ron Herman’s DVD on Saw Sharpening
One of my goals in this job has been to help produce a saw sharpening video that makes sense of all the dogma about this simple task. Should you set the teeth before or after you file them? Should you sharpen fleam from one side of the saw? Or turn the saw around to do … Read more