Techniques

Preparing small tabletops or irregular-shaped tops for finishing can be difficult with handplanes. If the top has a lot of mass, you can usually count on friction to help hold...

The finest maker of handmade rasps and rifflers has closed its factory in Saint-Juery, France, after a protracted labor struggle with its workers, according to a release from Michel Auriou....

Sometimes your woodworking improves like a slow and steady climb up a mountain. Sometimes, however, you get to ride the elevator. When I first started woodworking, I used a carpenter’s...

I consider myself fortunate to share the Popular Woodworkingshop with two world-class woodworkers , Christopher Schwarz and Glen D. Huey. After many years of working mostly by myself, it’s [...]

Whenever I get into some serious handwork, I always try to boil down the processes so that I can 1) remember it myself and 2) occasionally explain it to others...

“But lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.”– Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), “Walden” When I started building furniture on my back porch after college, I [...]

I know it might be hard to believe, but some days I’m glad I’m not a pirate. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been discussing the role of your dominant...

I enjoy a good beating. Chopping dovetails or mortises is almost as pleasurable as sawing or planing. So, as you can imagine, I’m picky about my mallet. For years I...

Let’s talk about the historical and controversial scrub plane. First a little history, then the controversy. Whenever I talk about the fore plane, the handplane used to get boards to...

You have a dominant eye and a recessive eye (assuming you still have both eyes , and not three). And that fact can make your life as a sawyer a...

Most woodworkers I know aspire to cut their dovetails by hand. It is, for many of us, a self-imposed rite of passage to good craftsmanship. I’ve always tried not to...

        Walnut Bookcase  by Bill Groff, Metamora, IL "I spent this last winter (and Spring and part of the Summer!)building a larger version of the bookcase that...