Techniques

How we measure the world around us is a reflection of how our society interacts with the world. To wit: The metric system is, in my opinion, the most efficient way to gauge everything around us. [...]

Woodworkers have a reputation for taking matters into their own hands. When something doesn’t work the way you want it to, what do you do? You go to the shop and build something that will. [...]

Why do you work with wood? If you’re anything like me there are three reasons woodworking is part of your life. First for me is the thrill of construction. I simply like the process of buying [...]

The hardest part of designing kitchen cabinets is choosing and accommodating appliances. A typical kitchen has a fridge, range, dishwasher, microwave and coffee maker. Some kitchens have trash [...]

A smooth feel is critical when judging the quality of a finish. It’s natural for people to run their hand over a finish, feel dust nibs and say, “This is not a great finish.” The problem is, [...]

There’s more than one way to make backs for frameless cabinets. Here’s how to choose the method that’s right for your project. Think about how many materials you want to use for the cabinet [...]

While many people get warm and wet feelings about their smoothing planes, I have those emotions about my hand drill. Maybe it’s because I use a hand drill almost daily for nails and screws, [...]

To turn wood safely, you need to know the correct way to introduce a cutting tool to a spinning workpiece. There are different ways to start a cut, depending on the type of tool you use. Here’s a [...]

Making “stop shavings” – where the plane cuts only one part of the board – is one of the keys to better edge joints and lots of other handplane techniques. But few people in my hand-tool classes [...]

Much of the furniture found in the Gamble House living room has a cloud lift pattern detail on all four sides, along with a carved pattern matching this detail. The cloud lift shape can be [...]

Have you ever used flashcards or CDs to learn a foreign language? To learn a new word, you read it from a card or listen to a native speaker say it in the new language, then you get an English …

One of the great joys of woodworking is helping other woodworkers realize their fullest potential. With limited technical and artistic skills there is little I can do to help other woodworkers [...]