Archives

During the last two years my woodworking has been consumed with furniture in the campaign style from Great Britain. One of the many cool aspects of this style of furniture...

I was going to write about these books when they were first republished, but by the time I got around to it, ShopWoodworking.com had sold out. “The Practical Woodworker” edited...

  Before Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises,” there was André Félibien. Félibien (1619-1695), was an early and important art critic and published a book in 1676 on the tools and processes...

1. Your house will smell like Pier 1 2. Because of teak’s waxiness, your machines will be able to take only about one-fourth of their usual cut. Teak bogs everything...

I know there are people who use edge tools straight out of the box, but I can’t. I always sharpen them. So why should workbench accessories be any different? For...

When preparing stock by hand, the most useful plane is probably the jack plane (sometimes called the fore plane among joiners). Its curved iron allows you to remove a remarkable...

This week I’m in England doing research for my next book, “Campaign Furniture,” and spent today geeking out with Sean and Simon Clarke of Christopher Clarke Antiques – the world’s...

In the November issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, you’ll find my 6-Board Chest article. The opening photo (shown below) shows three chests – mine (the blue one), Tim Henricksen’s (the...

When I teach woodworking, most of my job is diagnosing defective dovetails. Tail walls that are not 90°. Floors of pin and tail boards that have lumps aplenty. My diagnosis...

If you think there are hard-and-fast rules about designing dovetails, don’t read any further. You’ll get an ulcer. North Carolina woodworker Mark Firley has collected a set of 472 photos...

Traversing boards without a tail vise can be tricky. For the last eight years, I’ve used a setup that requires two holdfasts and a batten between them. It works fine,...

While my kids (and wife) are fans of the IKEA, I remain non-committed to the Swedish meatball and presswood furniture empire. But today a little part of me died. I...