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Fast Finishing of Heavy Doors

When faced with the task of refinishing a large, heavy oak door, I wanted to complete the job as quickly as possible by being able to work on both faces of the door without having to wait for one [...]

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Moxon Vise

This classic Moxon vise allows you to hold a wide board at a comfortable height. On most workbenches, you have various options to hold your material. Where most benches fail is holding stock, [...]

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Strain Your Varnish

Have you ever tried to use varnish from a skinned-over, half-used can? Even if you remove the skin carefully, lumps of dried finish get mixed in with the remaining varnish and eventually end up [...]

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Spoon Bit Spoiler

The Adventure of the Pilgrim’s Chair. Sometime in the haze of the 1970s, Armand LaMontagne, a wood sculptor from Rhode Island, sought revenge against the museum world. He had been rebuffed by [...]

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The Splinter Report: June 6th

Welcome to The Splinter Report, where I gather the assorted interesting and amusing things I’ve seen in the woodworking world. This week we’re looking at furniture from David Lynch, a [...]

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Double-duty Dynamos

Lasers can be both woodworking and metalworking tools. I got my laser engraver/cutters primarily to work wood and consider them woodworking tools first and foremost. But woodwork is supported by [...]

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Atlas/Craftsman Tablesaw

This beauty dates from 1939. The motor hangs off the back, like a contractor’s saw, but the trunnions are bolted to the body, like a cabinet saw. The body is all cast iron; I made the base below [...]

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Pennsylvania Spice Box

Behind a distinctive double-arched door are unknowns and secrets. While surfing the Internet for examples of spice boxes, I stumbled upon an antique box with a distinctive door. While I’m [...]

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Understand & Use a Bowsaw

These traditional tools are woefully misunderstood by modern craftsmen. Here’s a primer. In the 1970s when I was the young, innocent and naive chairmaker at Strawbery Banke, a museum in [...]

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