Wood Too Good to Burn

Look to your firewood pile for plenty of project inspiration. I’ve been cutting up my leftover bits of green wood for firewood to use in my new workshop. It’s not going well. I have a feeling [...]

The Right Way to Prepare Lumber

To true your wood with machines, the steps you follow are critical. This time-tested procedure is the best way we know of. I get to meet many woodworkers around the country at woodworking [...]

Logs to Lumber

In a search for wide boards, it pays to buy whole logs. Visitors to my shop often ask where I buy the wide, matched cherry and walnut boards I use for reproducing classic American furniture. [...]

Milling Your Own Lumber

Whether a hobby or a small business, it’s a woodworker’s dream job. As a craftsman, I’ve always enjoyed building stuff. But the pivotal point that led me into woodworking [...]

Lumberyard Prep

Arm yourself with a good plan (or two) and your buying trip will be a success. I have a 10″-wide piece of 8/4 purpleheart sitting on my lumber rack. I bought it eight years ago when I [...]

The Secrets of Spalted Maple

What makes this wood so special? Fungus. If there’s one wood that can really challenge your sense of design—and your woodworking skills—it’s spalted maple. Those inky black lines can both delight [...]

Simple Live-Edge Slab Table

Slab, or live-edge furniture is all the rage, and I like it! If you think wood is one of the most amazing things ever created, then how can you not like a piece of furniture that retains so much [...]

Support Your Local Mill

The last episode of our Milling Your Own Lumber series went live yesterday. In this seventh installment, Dan Cassens discusses how to calculate board feet, a high-level overview of grading [...]