Bench Planes: The System of Three
We rethink the Western bench plane system. All you need to know is that there are three tools, three setups, three jobs and three surfaces. by Christopher Schwarz excerpted from the Winter 2009 [...]
Make Clean Through-Mortises
Woodworkers expect this joint to be tidy and tight, not ragged and gappy. We explore the best ways to make this sometimes-vexing hole. by Christopher Schwarz from the Winter 2008 issue of [...]
The Making of ‘Handplane Essentials, Revised Edition’
When Scott Francis at Popular Woodworking Books asked me to revise my 2009 book “Handplane Essentials,” I thought it would be a short job. The plan was to add a handful of articles I’d written on [...]
Compression Bits. CNC Tooling Basics for Woodworkers: Part Three
Part Three: More End Mill & Router Bit Details In my last post, the focus was on the cutting edges, or flutes, along the sides of an end mill. If you’ve missed the previous segments on [...]
CNC Tooling Basics, Part 2: End Mill & Router Bit Design
As I mentioned in my “CNC Tooling Basics for Woodworkers” post and the introduction, there are a lot of little details that go into the design of CNC end mills and router bits. Only a [...]
CNC Tooling Basics for Woodworkers
Part One: Questions & Answers about Mills & Bits Yes, the topic of CNC mills can be complicated. Because of the overwhelming minutiae of design detail and a bewildering number of choices, [...]
Cutting Tools for Digital Woodworking
When woodworkers talk about their favorite hand tools, they might mention a treasured handplane — perhaps a superb pre-WWII Stanley Bedrock smoother outfitted with a Ron Hock blade or a beautiful [...]
Digital Woodworking Tools in 2016
A Good Year for Digital Woodworking Tools Using a 3-axis CNC, the underside of a sofa table’s ovoid shaped top is being rough cut in 3D. The edge is a combination of a tapered angular bevel [...]
The Shaper Tools Origin is a Different Kind of CNC
The Shaper Tools Origin: A Hand-held CNC Designed for Woodworkers Last week I took a trip to California to check out the latest in digital woodworking tools: the Shaper Tools Origin. Essentially, [...]
Frame Miter Joints
These elegant joints are difficult to cut and clamp. These jigs can help. by Bill Hylton from the December 2003 issue The only frame joint that doesn’t leave a bit of end grain exposed is the [...]
Anarchist’s 2016 Gift Guide, Day 10: Blue Spruce Try Square
At the conclusion of every gift guide, I like to offer a tool that is a bit expensive but will change the way you work or – at the least – wildly exceed your expectations. This year, it’s the [...]
Where to Learn About Digital Woodworking
In my last post, I covered some of the big issues in learning to use CNCs. Woodworkers first starting to use CNCs in particular benefit from in-person learning because of all the idiosyncrasies [...]
