Techniques

I’m a mediocre guitar player. But because I’m a fair judge of craftsmanship, I have an immense respect for real-deal lutherie. Have you seen one of Jameel Abraham’s ouds in [...]

  The final sanding is made by hand, particularly the rounded edges, that I sand with 500 grit sandpaper.     You should feel the smoothness of the edges. This is very nice wear [...]

The coping saw is generally unloved, unheralded and under-appreciated. Yet as far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t enjoy woodworking as much without one. When I started woodworking about [...]

There is great debate among the Saw Nerds (I’m a card-carrying member) about when the backsaw came into this world, kicking and screaming and whipping its lamb’s tongue to and fro. [...]

The tabletop on our for the I Can Do That project in our February 2010 issue, appeared a bit blasé. So to pep up the look, I thought inlay. Knowing I didn’t have the time to create, or the [...]

My sister-in-law killed her college landlord with a voodoo doll, so don’t try tell me that curses don’t exist. The curse du jour is an innocent flat-panel door I’m building for [...]

After years of development, Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is planning on making a No. 51 chute-board plane that should be released in the first quarter of 2010, Thomas Lie-Nielsen says. Tool collectors [...]

  I install this shopmade support on my workbench to raise the face frames to be cut.     I use the jigsaw with a coarse blade to cut the curves on the lower part of the face [...]

    Here’s a chisel rack that protects those sharp edges and allows me to see the right chisel for the job at hand. The rack is easy to customize for any size chisels. Glue a [...]

Don’t let anyone tell you that saws are just a hunk of wood plus a sheet of steel. The more that I work with different saws, the less I know about the tools. Saws are a remarkable [...]

      With this shop-made bench dog I can put light right where I need it. The dog is just a square chunk of wood with two smaller pieces glued to the sides. The smaller pieces act [...]

        I bought my current house because of the big detached garage, which is perfect for my woodshop. However, when I started remodeling the house I got really tired of [...]