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An Exercise in Mastering the Skew Do you like a challenge? Want to develop your woodturning skills? Can you learn from mistakes? If your answer is “yes”, you’re ready to tackle the rolling cut [...]

Master this most basic turning tool. When I introduce someone to woodturning, I choose the spindle roughing gouge. When I work with kids, it’s the first tool I place in their hands. Why? [...]

Develop a delicate touch by creating graceful shapes. As an alternative to mass-produced items, Christmas ornaments rank high on the list. They easily become treasured keepsakes and the delicate [...]

Customize their fit for comfort and performance. Decades ago, woodturning tools came without handles, and turners would simply fashion their own. This makes perfect sense, because a handle that [...]

Heirloom Awl Metal and wood are the basic ingredients in most woodworking tools. As woodworkers, we’re familiar with working wood, but what about metal? Actually, the level of metalworking [...]

Turning the body is half the fun. When I picked up Silvio Calabi’s book Antique Fishing Tackle, my interests in fishing, antiques, and wood turning met head on: Now I’m hooked on [...]

Modify a skew chisel to bend a curl; then leave the shavings attached. These trees come all the way from the Erzgebirge (‘erts-gə-bir-gə). Actually, I made them in Wisconsin, but the unique [...]

Sharpen your end-grain hollowing skills. Drinking from a wooden Goblet is a unique experience, because its weight and feel is distinct from goblets made of other materials. But is it practical? [...]

A good lathe stand is just as important as a good lathe. Build a professional-quality lathe stand that’s stable, strong and heavy.

For many woodturning operations, a chuck performs the essential job of holding the work securely and safely. These operations often present unique requirements, so a dizzying array of [...]

A true American folk object, the game call gained enormous popularity in the late 19th century, when it became part and parcel of hunting, especially in the Mississippi flyway. (According to [...]

Perhaps woodturners should sell naming rights. The field has never standardized the names of woodturning tools (or measurements of their widths or how to describe their angles), so they often go [...]