Shop Blog

Mr. Robinson saw the signs in 1967, and I lived it in the 70’s building restaurant fixtures and lots of furniture out of plastic laminates. Laminates were everywhere. Durable, colorful,...

Three-legged folding stools need a “tri-bolt” to allow the legs to fold in and out. Years ago, Tandy Leather offered an inexpensive tri-bolt, but it has been absent from the...

The instructions for applying oil and wiping-varnish finishes are usually to wipe or brush on a wet coat, wait a bit, then wipe off the excess and let what remains...

Most lubricants are associated with oil, wax and grease, substances that are hard to remove from wooden surfaces. When drilling wide or long holes in wood, especially when you later...

Finding a paying job as a woodworker is one of those tricky negotiations. Working in a woodworking business or owning your own business sound attractive, but we all know there...

This summer I spent a couple of weeks driving around the East Coast delivering furniture, giving talks related to English Arts & Crafts Furniture and Making Things Work, and photographing...

Laying out accurate angles on your work is critical. So it’s funny to me that we spend $100 on a Starrett square for 90°, then spend $1.59 on a plastic...

Back when I was a young woodworker (shortly after the exit of the dinosaurs) I had a general acceptance of the reality that the planks of wood I purchased came...

Some call it a Patternmaker’s vise, others name it a Gunstock Carving vise, and the luthiers among us, obviously, refer to it as Guitar Maker’s vise. Many names for the...

I’m a big fan of a soap finish for certain projects. It doesn’t provide a lot of protection to wooden objects, but it is completely safe, easy to apply and...

There are really only two things they (or you) can do with a finish that can’t be fixed fairly easily. One is to apply a stain to a blotch-prone wood,...

I’ll probably get in trouble for this one, but here goes. Don’t waste your money on the digital indicators that people strap to their planers, drum sanders, drill presses and...