Wood Movement in Ancient Benches

To modern eyes, old-school workbenches look like they are going to self-destruct. The legs are tenoned into the benchtop (which moves with the seasons). And stretchers (that don’t move) are [...]

First Leg, First Fit

After a little tweaking of the mortise, the first leg went in. You can see a gap at the shoulder (it’s about 1/16″ now). That’s actually what’s left of the rough underside [...]

March 30 is John Henry Day

I started cutting the mortises and the dovetail sockets in the benchtop today and I can tell you a few things: 1. The dovetail socket takes about half the time and effort to make compared to the [...]

Roubo's Dovetail-Tenon is Twisted

Things I hate: Gouging my own eyes out with a spoon, and being pulled away from a project for more than a couple days. It’s been a week since I’ve been able to devote any time to the [...]

Cheater Video: Cutting Tenon Shoulders

A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry about using a flush-cut saw to slice tenon shoulders. I must have written it poorly because several readers requested a video of the process. So here you go. [...]

Dovetails in Real Time

I’m think I’m a decent dovetailer. My joints are tight and I get things done. Heck, I can even teach dovetailing to others when pressed. So why don’t I post a video of how [...]

Cheating at Tenon Shoulders

Perhaps I’m the oddball here, but I’ve always found cutting tenons by hand to be more challenging than any sort of dovetailing. Tenons require a lot of precision sawing if you want to [...]

Come to the Klausz Side

My next project is a close copy of a walnut side table from the White Water Shaker community. We’ll be publishing the plans in an upcoming issue and donating the finished project to the [...]

Eye Candy: Half-blind Dovetails in 6:51

Dovetail maestro Rob Cosman again makes us all feel inadequate with his latest video in which he cuts a half-blind dovetail joint in 6 minutes and 52 seconds. Cosman uses Northern white pine, [...]

A Bit of Voodoo for Cursed Doors

My sister-in-law killed her college landlord with a voodoo doll, so don’t try tell me that curses don’t exist. The curse du jour is an innocent flat-panel door I’m building for [...]