Windsor Institute, Day 3

Do you like the look of the strapping doctor in the plaid shirt above? That’s my dad. Today he learned about the power of a blog, and he just asked me if I could use it to find him an …

Windsor Institute, Day 2

Chair making is an equal-opportunity agonizer. After the first day of dealing with spindles and steam-bending, we came back to our beach-town bungalow (price: $300 for the week!) and collapsed on [...]

Windsor Institute, Day 1

Green wood is a wacky thing. Yes, it can be easy to work. But don’t fall for its easy-going nature. It’s like a Type-A hippie chick. Sometimes you can do anything (go against the [...]

Video: Bowsaw Ergonomics with Mike Dunbar

Most American woodworkers struggle with bowsaws. Now before you think that bowsaws are tools for beret-wearing, Gitano-smoking woodworkers who eat espresso and croissants when on a break, think [...]

A Week at The Windsor Institute

This week I’ll be taking a sack back Windsor chair class with maestro Michael Dunbar at The Windsor Institute, his school in Hampton, New Hampshire (a state my daughter has re-named [...]

Joseph Moxon’s Bench Screw

I’m starting to think that a bench crochet pierced by a screw is likely the great-grandpappy of the venerable shoulder vise , the favorite face vise of dovetailing demon Frank Klausz. The [...]

A Visit From the Ghost of Joseph Moxon

Sometimes I am so dense that it’s a wonder that my parents ever allowed me to stop attending a Saturday school program for slow kids (true story). Sometimes when I encounter a new or [...]

Take a Look: A Roubo for 2010

Here’s the nearly completed shot of the handmade Roubo workbench that will be on the cover of the August 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. The only thing missing is me showing off [...]

Something for the Wee Vixens

I finished up work on the base configuration of this old-style Roubo workbench last night for a photo shoot today. But before I tore apart the shop and moved all of our workbenches around for the [...]