Better than New: Restored Eggbeater Drills
The best hand drills ever made came out of the Millers Falls factory in the first half of the 20th century. While many people used these drills for boring holes in metal, the tools proved [...]
Bevel-out or Bevel-in? Good Question
If you haven’t surmised it yet, one of the themes running through the Spring 2008 issue is the fact that accurate sawing has a lot more to do with accurate chisel work than anything else. [...]
In the Hands of the Postal Service (and a Gift)
I’ve never fully understood how the U.S. Postal Service works , beyond the fact that you put an envelope in a slot here and it arrives somewhere else. This week, I don’t expect any [...]
My First Pair of Pantyhose
I’m always looking for little tricks to improve dovetailing, especially the part I dislike: transferring the tails’ locations to the pin board. Sawmaker Mike Wenzloff stumbled across [...]
A Nest of Saws
When it comes to saws, aspiring sawyers have two basic questions: What saws should I own to build furniture? And where can I get them? During the last couple years I’ve been teaching a few [...]
Wenzloff & Sons Large Tenon Saw from Lee Valley Tools
Tenon saws are one of the three essential backsaws for building furniture (the other two are the carcase saw and the dovetail saw), but until recently your choices were limited to: 1. A vintage [...]
The 12-Cut Program
When you buy a handplane (even a Veritas or a Lie-Nielsen), it’s not going to work well out of the box. You really need to hone the iron to do decent work. However, with saws, it’s [...]
AW Extra 4/26/12 – Circle Center
Circle Center By George Vondriska Quickly find and approximate the center of a narrow board by using your fingers like a marking gauge. Set a pencil in your fingers, allowing one finger to run [...]
Sharpen a Fore Plane
The fore plane is a traditional English tool used to get rough boards fairly flat so that you can then make them really flat with a jointer plane and ready to finish with a smoothing plane, [...]
AW Extra 4/19/12 – Bandsawing Inside Curves
Bandsawing Inside Curves This is a useful trick when bandsawing inside curves. It requires no marking and no special jig. First I cut a shallow slot in a piece of scrap and attach it to the [...]
AW Extra 4/12/12 – Large Sheet Crosscutting
Large Sheet Crosscutting Crosscutting large sheets of plywood on the tablesaw can be difficult, and I usually end up binding the blade, burning the wood, or worse. To get around this, I clamp a [...]
DVD Review: “Traditional Molding Techniques: The Basics”
“After many vain attempts at ornamentation …?on my own’ I learned that choice classic designs had been well thought out and established before my birth. It was for me to study them, [...]
