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A Backer Board Prevents Chip-Out Chip-out is always an issue when you even up the stiles and rails of a door with a plane. If you plane all the way across the door, from one end to the other, [...]

A knife block is one of the most convenient—and safest—devices to store kitchen knives. Most knife blocks are large chunks of wood composed of a dozen or more pieces laminated together. [...]

When you learn how to make cabinet doors, you will have mastered one of the basic skills in woodworking. Doors come in many variations—some have molded edges, arched tops or raised solid-wood [...]

As a woodworker, what’s the first thing you notice when you open a cabinet’s drawer? The way it’s put together, of course. A drawer made with half-blind dovetails really stands [...]

Cutting dovetails by hand is supposed to be an orderly, precise process. But when you’re in the thick of it, it’s all too easy to end up with a bench littered with stray tools and [...]

“How does it come apart?” You’ll be asked this question each time you hand one of these cubes to a friend. You’ll answer, “Well, you just hold it like this, then [...]

Back in the Paleozoic era, when I was a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was playing with a Brio wooden train set. I spread the tracks all over the living room floor, much to the consternation of [...]

Whenever I make a right angle cut on my tablesaw, I use a sled. If I’m cutting large panels, I use a big crosscut sled. I pull out a smaller sled for rails and legs. To cut tenons with a …

Old wooden planes are usually coated with a layer of grime that obscures their true beauty. I clean them using a homemade solution that removes the dirt and grease without damaging the [...]

Carrying a cutting list with me to the saw is a habit I learned long ago. If I don’t, it’s way too easy to transpose measurements on the way from my bench to the saw. I used to carry a …

Initially lining up the edges of two boards for gluing up a jig is pretty easy. But when you add clamps or screws, one board often shifts out of place. If that alignment is critical, I [...]

Have you ever heard of a “faldstool?” You’ve probably seen one in a movie that’s set in Medieval or Renaissance times—it’s the distinctive portable chair that a [...]