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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 [...]

Sometimes “pretty good” furniture is good enough, even though you may wish you could spend all your precious time in the shop making fancier stuff. When my wife asked me to build a [...]

Extra-large finger joints add a distinctive touch to any project. Every woodworker is going to ask, “How did you do that?” Most finger joints are pretty small in scale and easy to cut [...]

Mark the End Grain When you’re jointing, mark each board’s grain direction by drawing a line on its end. The line means “Start here.” A mark on a board’s face or [...]

Remember the slide rule? I sure do. Back in high school chemistry, years ago, we all had to learn how to use a slide rule to quickly multiply and divide large numbers. Not everybody succeeded; [...]