10 Reasons NOT to Use Liquid Hide Glue for Furniture
A personal list. Your reasons may vary. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. If you rub your glue-y hands on your pants they will smell like a horse’s bum that has been boiled and then left …
Mission Blanket Chest
Mission Blanket Chest If you love Mission-style furniture, here’s the perfect complement to your bedroom. By Tom Caspar Store blankets, bedding and memories inside this huge chest. Three [...]
Spacing Dovetails with Dividers – a Little History
I’ve always been intrigued about the history of the way some English-trained woodworkers set out their dovetail joints using dividers. I first learned to use this method – which I love – from Rob [...]
Campaign Pulls from Londonderry Brasses
My credit card is groaning a bit thanks to all the hardware samples I’ve been ordering to find a selection of quality brasses for some Campaign-style pieces I’m building. Today I received a chest [...]
Tabletop stool part 2
Two days after I emailed out the drawings I called my client to decide on his favorite design. The one he liked best was the "Arts & Crafts" option. We decided on [...]
Wmsburg Conference Wrap up
My coverage of the conference was hampered by CW’s policy of photography for “Personal Use Only.” I understand why they are doing this. They don’t want the presenters, who [...]
Tabletop stool part 1: My most unique commission to date
Building a commissioned piece is one of the most exciting aspects of being a designer/maker. Early this fall in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, I gave a workshop on [...]
A New Bookmark: Hardware City Tools for Totes
When you buy vintage Stanley planes in the wild, one of the most common problems is the tote – and sometimes the knob – are trashed. My first No. 5 had a crude replacement tote that was so poorly [...]
Modern Master Reproduces a Period Master
Readers in the New York area shouldn’t miss the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit “Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York,” which is slated to run through May 6, [...]
Starting Block for the Router Table
Router bits that are guided by ball bearings make it possible to add a profile to a curved edge. If the entire piece is curved, it makes sense to do this shaping on the router table. The tricky [...]
Shop-made Leather Drawer Pulls
A couple months back I stumbled onto a bundle of harness leather scraps at a flea market and snapped it up. I was working on a new six-drawer sideboard and it gave me a chance to try out an idea [...]
The Case for Hidden Joinery
When I took my first woodworking class in 1993 I was gung-ho to learn two things: through-tenons and through-dovetails. At the time I was intoxicated by Arts & Crafts furniture and exposed [...]
