Gottshall Block Follow Up

At last weekend’s Woodworking in America conference, I talked with several readers about projects I’ve made for the magazine. As expected, I was asked about my workbench and furniture [...]

Coping With Curves

Time for a show of hands. Have you ever said, “I can’t cut curves because I don’t have a band saw, a jig saw or an oscillating spindle sander?” If...

And Now for the Chisel

Working on this little block has been an interesting experience, and I hope you’ll give it a try. Explaining it on the blog has made me think about a lot...

You Can Really Do That

One of the greatest moments in marketing history was the mass adoption of power tools following World War II. Before then, the standard thinking was that just about anyone could...

Better Than a Knife

When you work with power tools, machine set up is everything. The quality of your joinery, and your entire project is based on your level of accuracy at that stage....

Better Than a Pencil

One of the things that can overwhelm a beginning woodworker is the sheer number of choices to make about the simplest things. It doesn’t help that there is always someone...

Exercise in Layout and Marking

If you’ve taken the bait and are willing to make a Gottshall block, I suggest you ask yourself two questions before you start. What kind of woodworker do you want...

One Old Exercise for Growing Skills

Yesterday’s post on developing basic skills generated a lot of response. In addition to the comments, I received several e-mails. One that got my attention came from saw-maker [...]

What Makes the Good Woodworkers Good

As complicated as we sometimes try to make it, woodworking isn’t that difficult. Or is it? Great woodworkers don’t possess magic powers or some great gift; they have mastered some...