Techniques

Add a new dimension to your work with a few basic skills and an inexpensive machine. Woodworkers are joining the welding renaissance that’s happening among makers. Understanding the fundamentals of...

This workbench form is uncommon today, but it is still a sound bench because it allows you to perform all of the critical workbench operations with relative ease. Benches are...

One jig opens up a whole world of useful shapes If you’ve ever wanted to venture beyond the world of squares and circles, consider incorporating elliptical shapes into your next...

Affordable line lasers and a simple setup make for perfect angled drilling. I’m a 21st-century Windsor chairmaker. I build chairs using mostly hand tools: froes, drawknives, spokeshaves, [...]

Why liquid hide glue should be your first choice as an adhesive. Since the beginnings of civilization up until World War II, most pieces of furniture were assembled using animal-based...

This much-maligned fastener has a place in the finest furniture. Here’s why. Among furniture makers, the reputation of the simple nail is somewhere south of expired glue and tacos made...

Learn to make your own and you’ll never have to compromise your design. Bandings and stringing are a dramatic and exciting way to dress up your period furniture. I see...

A few shop-made appliances allow you to add stunning face-grain inlay to your work. Geometric bandings and inlay patterns, or parquetry, are widely used, from Japan to Egypt to Spain....

Once you understand ‘resultant’ angles, sawbenches (and chairs) are easy. Most first-time chairmakers are intimidated by the compound joinery used to fasten all the legs, stretchers, spindles and [...]

A rotary tool, hammer and a few shop-made tools are all it takes. I recently had the opportunity to explore a concept that has been rattling around the dark recesses...

An 18th-century chairmaker’s saw makes 21st-century work easier The graveyard of obscure and forgotten tools is large, densely packed and many layers deep. Many of these tools richly deserve their...

Without a doubt, yellow woodworking glue has adhered its place in the Woodworker’s Hall of Fame. But for complex joinery, veneer work and bent laminations, there is a better choice....