In “Hannah’s Inlaid Chest,” the cover story for the June 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, managing editor Glen D. Huey recreates the 1746 chest of Hannah Pyle, daughter of an accomplished Pennsylvania woodworker, which now resides at the Winterthur museum. Huey uses scratch inlay to create the beautiful line-and-berry patterns inlaid on the piece. Charles Bender visits the historic home of Wharton Esherick, the “Dean of American Craftsman,” at Valley Forge Mountain in Pennsylvania in “Wharton Esherick. Learn to build a tiny, portable and full-featured little workbench that will clamp to almost any solid surface with Christopher Schwarz in “The Milkman’s Workbench.” Bob Rozaieski builds a “Chimney Cupboard” – a classic piece of furniture that offers lots of storage space with a small footprint. The simple hand-tool build produces an impressive finished piece. Add a “Wall-mounted Server” to the dining room of your home using a trick Steve Shanesy teaches you that magically suspends this project against wall. In “Mortises by Router 3 Ways,” Gary Rogowski demonstrates three methods for effectively cutting mortises with a router.
In this month’s tool test, we take a look at the “Makita LXT Cordless Sander,” a “Monster Jointer Plane from Scott Meek Woodworks,” the “Veritas Handsaw File Holder” and the “Easy Chuck from Easy Wood Tools.”
In this month’s Woodworking Essentials, Robert W. Lang teaches you how to choose essential shaping tools in “Hand-stitched Rasps.” In “Modern Chest, Period Methods,” Adam Cherubini asks is period tools are right for post-industrial methods and materials in Arts & Mysteries. In Flexner on Finishing, Bob Flexner shows you “How to Choose a Finish” by simple process of elimination. And finally, Mike Hudson decides “It’s Time” to retire from his career as a chemical plant engineer and build grandfather clocks in End Grain.