Archives

Perhaps the most important instrument for the hand-tool oriented woodworker is a sturdy workbench. A reliable bench is fundamental for the success of sawing, chiseling, planing, grooving, [...]

I don’t think that there is a more reputable furniture artist, teacher and designer who is still actively producing masterpieces than Wendell Castle. Castle, who is now in his 80s,...

The school was packed with guests who climbed up and down our townhouse stairs visiting classroom after classroom which were converted into magical vignettes — from a medieval forest to a crystal [...]

My school is throwing its annual Fall Fair this Saturday (Nov. 21). It’s a one-day open-house extravaganza where we open our doors to all to show our students’ achievements both...

In my last post, I showed how I use adhesive-backed sandpaper as a sharpening medium in our school classroom. Although adhesive-backed sandpapers have become the gold standard in tool sharpening,...

In my last post, I showed how I made a dedicated slip form (a slipstone made of wood) for one of my gouges. This week, I’ll explain how to make...

Which tools are my favorites? Well, they are divided into a few categories. Sentimentality & fidelity: These are tools that I inherited from my dad or my grandfather, or that were...

Re-setting a tang into a loose handle is a challenge I take often, but in the case of my newly acquired W. Butcher gouge, I wanted to do the job...

For me, as well as for many other woodworkers (see Graham Haydon’s recent entry on his chisel), eBay is a great resource for good-quality tools. When an item is well...

Frank Lloyd Wright is possibly the most famous American architect of all time. On top of creating the most iconic buildings of the modern era, he is perhaps less known as an...

I’ll begin with the top-notch U.S.-made hammers that were introduced to the market in recent years.  Kings County Cabinetmaker’s  Hammer At the top of the list stands the Gramercy Tools...

After concluding my very subjective series on the best design for round-headed mallets, I decided to dedicate one (or two) entries to the cabinetmaker’s hammer. Traditionally, hammers are used for...