Techniques

When I teach people how to sharpen and set up a handplane, I can jabber endlessly to little effect. Sure, I’ll get in a few jokes about lemurs and frogs (and their forbidden love), but I [...]

Super-Smooth Poly Finish A defect-free finish, even with a brush By Eric Smith Polyurethane is a tough, high-quality finish, ideal for tabletops and other surfaces that take a lot of abuse. But [...]

        End grain burns easily on maple and cherry, and those burns are hard to remove. After sanding my fingers to the bone following one particularly unfortunate routing [...]

      I stack-laminate boards to create turning blanks. Each blank contains numerous laminations, so I have to work fast during assembly. To spread glue quickly and evenly, I use a [...]

Mobile Miter Saw Stand Get more from your miter saw with a stand that handles everything. By Richard Tendick This stand has everything you could want. With the wings up, it can handle 8-ft.-long [...]

  Tips for Mastering the Miter Saw 14 Ways to Make Safe, Accurate Cuts with No Tear-Out by Tom Caspar   At first glance, using a miter saw appears quite simple. But to get good [...]

Flattening Wide Boards You don’t need monster machinery to flatten monster boards. By Dave Munkittrik Big, wide boards make my heart race with anticipation. Panels and tabletops are so [...]

All of your tablesaw accessories close at hand by Eric Smith The last time I could find them all, I counted 18 accessories for my tablesaw. Dado set, push sticks, throat plates, extra blades, [...]

  To mill the profile on the edges of the top shelves, I installed a 3/8’’ radius round over bit in the router table. The bearing was not used, only the fence guided the [...]

The first time I ever met toolmaker Ray Iles, we got into a conversation about the planes made by Karl Holtey. I asked Ray: Have you ever used one of Holtey’s planes? How do they work? [...]

It’s little wonder that Stanley chose to bring its No. 62 low-angle jack plane back to life when the company decided last year to re-enter the premium handplane market. After all, the [...]

Dovetailed Tool Box Fill it, carry it, bang it around: These joints will last forever. By Seth Keller A lightweight, sturdy toolbox is perfect for odd jobs around the house. Carpenters used to [...]