Reading and Working with the Grain, a Simple Tip
Perhaps the most important characteristic of wood is its grain. And grain orientation is undoubtedly the most critical consideration for charting a plan for cutting, milling and shaping wood. [...]
Design Brief No. 3: The Danish Campaign Chest
A lot of Danish Modern dressers are taller than your typical campaign chest because the designers added a drawer or two. But some of them look like the pieces shown...
Design Brief No. 2: The Danish Campaign Chest
So after looking at the 25 campaign chests in the previous post, did you spot any patterns? What I see with these chests is that most of them are a...
Design Brief No. 1: The Danish Campaign Chest
While there are a dozen good ways to design a piece of furniture, I can write intelligently only about my own methods. I designed my first piece of furniture in...
On Seeking Perfection
Who hasn’t found themselves fussing over a project – running a plane over it just one more time or fretting over whether or not it needs another sanding? As with...
‘Woodwork by the Book’
Below is my “Out on a Limb” (the editor’s note) from the April 2016 issue, because I’ve had a couple folks ask me on social media recently what books I...
Spray Booth for a Small Shop
In the December, 2001 issue of Popular Woodworking (issue # 125) I wrote about how to construct a simple but safe home spray booth. This article was reproduced in my...
Squaring Up Cabinets – Don’t Forget the Back
When gluing up a frameless cabinet, we all know that we have to square up the carcase before the glue cures – otherwise the doors and drawers will never fit...
Making a Workbench – Part 2
As I worked through my recent workbench project, I got a comment on one of the build videos about how the build might not be suitable for the inexperienced woodworker....
Update on Sherwin-Williams buying Valspar
In my March 22 posting I passed on the report that Sherwin-Williams is buying Valspar for $11 billion creating one huge supplier of many brands of finishing products we use....
James Krenov in the 1990s
When James Krenov died in late 2009 (wow, has it been that long?) I wondered at great length what would happen to his reputation. For some undefinable reason, when some...
Ask Us Anything May 23
On Monday, May 23 at 1PM EST, we (Megan Fitzpatrick and I) will be doing an AMA (ask me(us) anything) on the subreddit r/woodworking on Reddit to talk about Woodworking in America...
