Archives

Portable, sturdy and easy to build, these were used for a variety of tasks. Many of the fantastic furniture forms of the Middle Ages have disappeared and have been replaced...

Tool: MakerX Ultimate Combo Kit Buy Now Manufacturer: Worx MSRP: $229.99 Battery technology comes to a few of the craftier tools in a woodworker’s kit. Worx has paired a 20-volt battery/power...

This traditional finish from Denmark is simple, safe and tactile. When I tell fellow woodworkers and customers that I use soap as a finish on some of my tables and...

Nothing makes a cabinet look worse than door panels with unattractive grain that runs at werid angles. It pays to be picky about grain direction, even it means wasting some...

Early modern records show guild regulations in London. Early 17th-century London tradesmen were protective about their work, carefully keeping an eye on any interlopers to their craft. A dispute [...]

Tool: PRO-Tek Chuck Buy Now Manufacturer: Nova MSRP: $140-$220 Nova’s new PRO-TEK line of chucks build on the company’s long history with the lathe. This new series of chucks feature [...]

An explanation of this most confusing of finishing treatments. In the late 1980s, I hosted a local call-in radio show dealing with finishing and restoration. I remember one caller explaining...

I enjoy making picture frames but always found it a pain to use tacks or staples to hold the picture in place. Plus tacks and staples are hard to remove...

Sharpen your hand-tool skills with this useful project. I recently obtained a nice piece of leather about 1⁄4” thick that I wanted to use as a strop for plane irons...

Tool: Planing Stop Buy Now Manufacturer: Benchcrafted MSRP: $29 Most woodworkers have the skill to engineer a makeshift planing stop from a block of wood and a bit of old saw...

I often need to find the center of a board for resawing (and other purposes). A quick way to do this is to use a cheap doweling jig and brad-point...

One of the most unusual names in the lumberjack’s catalog of tools is a peavey. Named after Joseph Peavey this tool is a hooked and spiked lever used for manipulating...