Archives

Charles Hayward, the dean of woodworking writers, once wrote a column about the continued industrialization of the woodworking craft. All hand work was being set aside and forgotten. People who [...]

WARNING: The Society for Reverence and Decency in Woodworking Writing has ruled that this particular entry violates several of the organization’s rules. You are warned that this video refers to [...]

For me, the highlight of 2010’s Woodworking in America conference was The Feast of André Roubo, a dinner held high above the city of Cincinnati. And I was not alone. One attendee stopped me as I [...]

The first time I taught at Roy Underhill’s school in Pittsboro, N.C., Roy made sure that I met Peter Ross, a blacksmith who worked at Colonial Williamsburg for 25 years. We all ate dinner at gas [...]

The first time I saw Ron Herman sharpen a handsaw, I learned more about sharpening the tool in 20 minutes than I had learned in all the years I’d been a woodworker. I had been sharpening my saws [...]

Aside from Bender, Zapp Brannigan and Hypnotoad, my favorite character on the show “Futurama” is Nibbler – a cute little alien that can swallow an entire elephant in one bite and then poop [...]

I’ve been using rabbet planes for years and I have made my peace with them. However, there are thousands of woodworkers out there who are driven to distraction by these simple and essential [...]

When I teach a class on sawing and making a sawbench, it is usually a one- or two-day event. One of the nice things about teaching at The Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, N.C., is that it’s a [...]

This is my third time teaching at Roy Underhill’s school in Pittsboro, N.C. And I can definitely feel the rhythm of the school, the community and the man sinking into my bones with every passing [...]

Roy Underhill looks over the rim of his beer at the City Tap – the bar behind his woodworking school – and asks me the following left-field-what-are-you-doing-inside-my-skull question. “You built [...]

After my gruesome dovetails of the day before (no, I don’t have any photos), I hoped I was done with disasters for the week in the class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. Then my wife [...]

Today my worst nightmare as a teacher came true during a dovetail demonstration. As I knocked together the components of the joint under the watchful eyes of 18 students and two video cameras at [...]