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Bench planes come in a wide range of lengths and widths. Do you need them all? Which ones are most useful? And if you only had to buy one....

Chris Schwarz shares a dovetailing method perfect for beginners. This method helps build good habits when sawing and helps you fix any mistakes.

Years ago when I was editor at Popular Woodworking, I was interviewed for a job at one of our competitors. During the interview, I experienced one of those fork-in-the-road moments where a single [...]

It’s the easiest question in the world: Who is your favorite woodworker? A fellow craftsman asked me this question earlier this month, and I still don’t have a good answer. I have one easy [...]

Even if you have a gold-plated fancy-pants laser-guided dovetail saw, you should also own the $15 Zona dovetail saw because it’s so dang cheap and so dang handy for small-scale work. I’ve written [...]

Handscrews don’t get enough credit in the shop. This ancient clamp is often neglected in favor of modern clamps. But the handscrew is often the simplest solution to a tricky workholding problem. [...]

It’s no secret that I love Benchcrafted products. I recommend their bench vises without any reservations and have them installed on almost all of our workbenches in our workshop. When [...]

When I emerged from my mother’s womb I had a small knife clipped to my baby fat at my waist. I immediately used the knife to cut the umbilical cord. Then I folded the knife (for safety) and [...]

Big fat granite surface plates are nice, but they are overkill for most woodworking shops. The granite surface plates are intended for machinists and other metalworkers who work to thousandths or [...]

Recommending chisels for beginners is difficult. Excellent chisels cost money – or a lot of time searching for nice vintage examples and setting them up. Most beginners just want to buy a tool [...]

If you build chairs, staked furniture or anything that uses round tenons, this entry is for you. One of the greatest joinery tricks I know of is to cut your tenons slightly oversized – .010” or a [...]

Last week I discussed the Zona Razor Saw and how it’s the ideal saw for beginning dovetailers. It’s just $12 to $15 and cuts extremely well. This saw got me thinking about what other inexpensive [...]