Quartersawn Animation
Quartersawn white oak is one of my favorite woods, and we’re fortunate in Cincinnati that the largest source for this wood in North America is just a couple hours away. Frank Miller Lumber [...]
Match Mortise Size Without Measuring
Whenever I teach a class, at least one student will say to me “you really don’t like measuring, do you?” I don’t dislike measuring, but I try to avoid it whenever I can. [...]
April Comes Between Thanksgiving and New Years
Working on a magazine has some elements of science fiction, particularly in relation to the space/time continuum. Even though it’s late November, I’ve been working on a project for [...]
Why You Should Never Throw Anything Away
Most of the time when I build a project for the magazine I’m alone in the shop, but for the past couple weeks Christopher Schwarz has been making yet another workbench so I have some [...]
Making a Jig for Through Mortises
A jig is, by definition, a problem-solving device. As such, it shouldn’t take more time to make the jig than it would to perform the operation without it. If the purpose of the jig is to [...]
Reinforcing the Indestructible
Pegging through-mortise-and-tenon joints is an excellent way to reinforce the already strong joint. Good dowels can be hard (if not impossible) to find, so when I need the right size and the [...]
When Arts and Crafts Joinery Becomes Decoration
A large part of the appeal of Arts and Crafts style furniture is the apparent lack of decoration. This project, a reproduction of a Gustav Stickley No. 70 music cabinet and a detail I’ve [...]
Why This Detail Was Abandoned
In early Gustav Stickley pieces, doors with divided lights were joined with mitered mullions. It’s an intriguing look, but was used only for a few years. My next project for the magazine [...]
Janitorial Strength Alternative for a Fumed Oak Finish
In my elementary school, the janitor was a shadowy character who mostly stayed in the basement, in his private area next to the boiler room. Yet he was powerful enough to make everyone (even [...]
Going Around and Coming Around
One of my favorite movies is “Little Big Man”. The characters spiral in ironic orbits that periodically intersect each other. Each intersection finds them more tattered as they age, [...]
Greene & Greene Make a Rare Appearance in the Midwest
I always used to make fun of my late brother, Jim, when he would tell me about getting up in the middle of the night to drive hundreds of miles to go bass fishing. He never was interested in [...]
Stickley Drawers-A Close Look at Details
Below is an upper drawer on a Gustav Stickley #814 sideboard. I took some heat for not including drawer details in my two books of Craftsman furniture drawings. My reasoning was two-fold – [...]
