Woodworking tools are useless until you learn how to use them efficiently. Whether you prefer hand tools or power tools, the editors of Popular Woodworking Magazine have collected the very best information on choosing and using tools of all kinds. Here you’ll learn a range of essential information from how to tune up simple hand tools to safe and smart power tools practices and advanced techniques taught by the trusted experts in the field.
Sash saws are a bit of a mystery to the modern-day woodworker. These saws show up in early catalogs and inventories of cabinetmaker’s possessions, but that’s about all you get. [...]
My head is deep into preparing card scrapers these days. I’ve vowed to try to make sense out of all the conflicting information we read about sharpening them. And so I’ve been turning [...]
Editor’s note: This May, our company will be publishing a book that’s tentatively titled “Hand Tools for Power Woodworkers,” a 192-page hardback that will combine our best [...]
OK I’m sorry to be a bit of a tease about all this stuff with sharpening scrapers. It’s not that I’m trying to string you along, it’s just that I still have more questions [...]
Scrapers are one of the most misunderstood but useful tools in a woodshop. A scraper in its simplest form is simply a piece of hardened steel that has a small hook on its edge that was created by [...]
There’s one question that I’m asked almost every week that I cannot answer. And here it is: What brand handplane should I buy if I don’t want to fix up a vintage plane, I [...]
The traditional English sawbench looks a bit like an alligator with really long legs. This curious appearance has left some readers a bit curious themselves about some of the features of the [...]
I finished building a Roman-style handplane from a kit made by Ron Hock of Hock Tools. The kit is designed to be used to make a plane in the style popularized by James Krenov,� but I converted [...]
This week I’m building two wooden planes from a kit sold by Ron Hock of Hock Tools. The kit is designed to be used to make a wooden handplane muck like the ones popularized by James Krenov [...]
I recently bought your “Coarse, Medium, and Fine” DVD, from Lie-Nielsen. I wanted to thank you for it, I found it very informative and useful. I have two questions: 1. Would a [...]
While learning to saw with a handsaw on our farm in Arkansas, I had one fond wish: Please Santa Claus, bring me a Skil saw for Christmas. (He never did.) So it surprises even my fellow hand-tool [...]
My favorite part of woodworking is the anti-climax. This is the point where you do something risky, but you’re so prepared for it that the actual act is just a slight thing: brief and easy [...]