My biggest fear when traveling to Australia wasn’t the 16-hour flight, the change of hemispheres or the spiders that would make my *deleted* fall off. It was the timber I’d have to work with. Australian woods have the reputation of being the nastiest, hardest, most interlocked and silica-choked timbers on the planet. One stroke on … Read more
I’ve been teaching classes on building “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” for two years now, and with every class I find some way of goosing the students a bit further along. Last year at The Woodwright’s School we actually got two of the 12 students completely over the finish line. This week, I hope to shatter … Read more
When it comes to poisonous things that bite you, Australia has more than its fair share. Within an hour of landing in Melbourne, I heard some lovely stories of spotted little spiders that make your flesh rot. I haven’t seen any spiders, but during my first day of teaching a tool chest class at the … Read more
Spend the last weekend of summer 2013 (and probably the first 1/2 hour or so of autumn, because we may not be done by 4:44 p.m.) with me at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Ind., to build a simple Shaker side table. (That would be Sept. 21-22, 2013, for those of you … Read more
If it weren’t for Highland Hardware in Atlanta (now called Highland Woodworking), my life would be a lot different. 1. That’s where I first met Roy Underhill. Well, “met” is not the right word. I was too shy to introduce myself. I just watched him for about an hour until it reached the point that … Read more
Our first west coast Woodworking in America Conference is off to a great start in Pasadena, Calif. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you can still join us for the event which runs through Sunday at the Pasadena Convention Center. The event consists of two parts: the Marketplace, where you will find an unmatched … Read more
The dovetailed skirt around the carcase of a tool chest (or blanket chest) is fussy to fit. The case has to be square and plumb. The skirting material has to be flat and square. And you have to get the joint’s baselines in just the right place. And even when you do all that, you … Read more
