See-through Furniture?
Gizmodo posted this morning about a new “transparent wood” that is ready for mass production, developed at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The post notes that it can be...
Pressed Paper Pulp to Protect Your Work and Tools
All of our vises at school have cast iron jaws that can damage work and tools. So, I am in the process of lining them with wood inserts to save...
Hand Tools: What is Most Common is Most Precious
At the beginning of a hand tool class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, one of the students stopped me as I was passing by his bench. “I have...
String Theory
I’m nearly done with my workbench project, I promise! I’ll break down the build soon with plenty of videos and explanations as to the whys and wherefores. I wanted to get...
Outdoor Projects
For me, nothing says summer like a porch swing. As a kid I would spend hours reading on my parents front porch swing, with my over-sized Labrador sitting next to...
Woodworking in America 2016: Registration Now Open
We’ve just launched the full website for Woodworking in America 2016, September 16-18 in Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, and registration is now open (early bird rates through June 10). This [...]
Smart Coatings
It seems like everything is becoming smart these days: smart phones, smart watches, smart cars, smart drugs. There are even smart coatings (paints and finishes). I’ve blogged about one already,...
The Myth of Wiping Wet Glue
The craft is clogged with so many counter-productive myths and practices that someone could make a career out of a “Mythbusters”-like approach to woodworking. If I could eliminate one myth...
Troubling Consolidations
As in so many other industries, the companies who supply us with paints and finishes are consolidating at a rapid rate. When I started in this field 40 years ago,...
A Hardware Store That Will Take You Back in Time
Dennis McEvoy and Bart Slutsky of Rogerson’s Hardware in Hudson NY are doing the herculean job of keeping a great old American hardware store alive, and they are doing it...
Five Lessons from Mid-Century Modern Furniture
As a material object, a piece of furniture reflects the taste of its designer, the skill of its maker and larger cultural influences. For example, Shaker furniture shows the...
When Rasps Aren’t Fine (or Small) Enough
For curved and sculptural work, nothing beats a good rasp. But there are many times that I need to do precise and fine work that most rasps aren’t capable of...
