A woodworker friend called me with a problem. He had just built a bookcase and was trying to match the approximate sheen of a factory-finished piece of furniture he had and couldn’t find a polyurethane that was flat enough. What should he do? He had tried rubbing it with coarse abrasives to match the sheen…

A lot of woodworkers avoid staining whenever possible because of the problems that can occur. Instead of staining, they use a beautiful wood that gives the color they want to begin with. Most think of blotching as uneven coloring in the wood caused by stain penetrating deeper in some areas than others. Most tight-grained woods…

Read part one of the story here. After most of the rough excavation was done (using an adze or a gouge – what ever works best for you) we need to clean out the vault and even out its surface. I held the hollowed branch in my Jawhorse Workbench and with some medium sweep gouges…

Years ago when I was editor at Popular Woodworking, I was interviewed for a job at one of our competitors. During the interview, I experienced one of those fork-in-the-road moments where a single decision will change everything you do for the rest of your life. To set the stage a bit, this happened about 2008….

It’s the easiest question in the world: Who is your favorite woodworker? A fellow craftsman asked me this question earlier this month, and I still don’t have a good answer. I have one easy answer: Dead woodworkers. Charles H. Hayward is my No. 1 hero. He was everything I have ever wanted to be: A…

Even if you have a gold-plated fancy-pants laser-guided dovetail saw, you should also own the $15 Zona dovetail saw because it’s so dang cheap and so dang handy for small-scale work. I’ve written a lot about this saw (check this entry for the background and copious links). Bottom line: It’s served me well for years…

Using digital tools, you can make this handy tool tote in less than an hour. Learn how to build and customize your own tote.

A few years ago, Dremel started developing a new line of digital tools with the DigitaLab series of products. Recently they introduced their first laser cutter: The Dremel LC40.

A thickness tester makes plywood joinery easy, accurate and predictable. Digital woodworker Tim Celeski shows you how to make your own.