Required Reading

Years ago I was asked to judge a building contest put on by Bosch that pitted young technical students against one another for a big cash prize and a whole bunch of tools. For the contest, the [...]

I am pleased to announce that ShopWoodworking.com now sells “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” a book that took me two years to write. And the process of writing this book so changed my perspective on [...]

“Now,” said John, “we will put the work away for today.” “Why, I am not tired,” said Benny. “Neither am I,” said John; “but uncle Edward said, that, if we meant to make a good job of it, we must [...]

Here’s some tough love: Most good woodworkers are terrible finishers. I know this because I have seen hundreds – probably thousands – of pieces of furniture that have been entered in competitions [...]

In the June 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine we have a fun article that lists all of the woodworking books that the magazine’s staff consider to be “classics.” It’s a great list, but [...]

In 2006 a reader sent me a little spiral-bound black book that was filled with handwritten notecards. Graphs. Equations. Photos. It was a carefully assembled list of all my mistakes and misdeeds [...]

Note: This is a longer message than we usually post here on the blog and is in two parts. First, a message from Steve Shanesy, the publisher and leader of our woodworking community at F+W Media. [...]

This blather would not pass a sixth grade assignment to write a ‘theme’ on something. ‘Make me ill’ is hyperbolic and repulsive and means nothing, and ‘You owe it to [...]

The results of last week’s survey on the occupations of woodworkers are in, and the results have a few surprises. I need to stop making fun of mechanical engineers on this blog, for one. Also, I [...]

For the June 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine we asked readers: “If you could own only one woodworking book, what would it be?” We are still compiling the responses [...]

Among all the important historical woodworking books out there, Peter Nicholson’s “The Mechanic’s Companion” does not get enough notice. Perhaps that’s because it wasn’t the first [...]

In the fall of 1996 I was running my own struggling newspaper with a partner in Kentucky’s capitol city. I was sleeping under my desk. I was working every weekend. I was not paying myself much. [...]