The basics of staining are easy – it’s when things don’t go as planned that staining becomes a difficult, frustrating task. Here are ten of the most common staining problems and how you can avoid them before they happen.

Three quick steps to a silky-smooth finish. Brushed-on finishes such as varnish provide superior protection, but they dry so slowly, airborne dust and renegade hairs are almost sure to settle on the damp surface. Fortunately, the process I use to remove these minor imperfections is both fast and simple—the table top shown here took less…

To make a quick and easy drying rack, or to raise a project off your bench while applying a finish, use blocks of rigid foam insulation and drywall screws. For stability, the screws should be no more than 1/2″ longer than the foam’s thickness. If you simply push the screws through, they’ll punch out a…

These once-standard tools still have a place in the modern shop. Here’s what you need to know about the use, care and keeping of drawknives and spokeshaves.

Bench planes come in a wide range of lengths and widths. Do you need them all? Which ones are most useful? And if you only had to buy one….

Three years ago while teaching a woodworking class at Peters Valley I met Blacksmith Eric Dennis, who was at the time the studio assistant in the iron shop. When I entered the noisy, coal-smoky, old building, Eric was in the middle of forging some impressive looking tool. Coincidentally, that very summer I was trying to…

b Tool: Beadlock Pro Manufacturer: Rockler MSRP: $149.99 I looked to the Beadlock Pro recently when I found myself needing four loose-tenon joints for a project – I wanted an economic but quick solution, and didn’t want to make a router jig. The Beadlock system, which cuts mortises up to 3 1⁄2” wide, uses a standard drill…

Conquer some fun joinery challenges with this geometric Baillie Scott build. As soon as I saw Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott’s 1901 occasional table on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I knew I had to make one. Baillie Scott (1865-1945) was an architect at the forefront of the Arts & Crafts…

Tool: Rectangular Mallet Manufacturer: Blue Spruce Toolworks MSRP: $85 For some woodworkers, building your own mallet is a rite of passage. After using dozens of student-made mallets, however, I wonder if many of us would be better off with a well-balanced, professionally made mallet. If you are a person who wants to buy a thing…

Strength, patience and a sharp saw turn scraps into treasure. The hardwoods I use are almost always riven or split from a log. When I need thinner pieces than usual, I split them again. But there are times when I have mill-sawn stock and the way to get that thinner is either plane it down…

When I was a kid, the first saw I bought was a Craftsman coping saw with a chrome frame and red-stained handle. For years I did everything with that saw – crosscuts, rips, curves and even joints. But I made none of those cuts particularly well. Part of the problem was that I was 11…

Chris Schwarz shares some handy, nearly-forgotten handsaw tricks to use in the shop.

Use a CNC service to make perfect patterns. Woodworkers who make things consisting of more than straight lines need patterns. Patterns open up the worlds of form, shape and detail. They make furniture production faster and consistent. A CNC-machined pattern has perfect shapes, curves and detail. Plus, they’re the ultimate story sticks – you’ll be…

Tool: Wood Carving Set Manufacturer: Morakniv MSRP: $59.99 If you’re looking to jump on the Slöyd bandwagon and start carving spoons and other wooden objects, this set of two knives is a great starting point. And they’re made in Sweden, where Slöyd is still a part of the school curriculum. First, you get a straight carving…

This kitchen workhorse presents a surprising and rewarding challenge. A wooden spoon – you can get one for a dollar in many places. It’s just a stick with a hollow shaped at one end. Why go to any bother over such a thing? Use them to stir sauces, dole out rice and beans, then forget…

Affordable line lasers and a simple setup make for perfect angled drilling. I’m a 21st-century Windsor chairmaker. I build chairs using mostly hand tools: froes, drawknives, spokeshaves, travishers, scorps, an adze and other tools that, even in the fast-paced computer age, still comprise the most efficient way to follow the inherent strength of fibers in…

For the cost of one large piece of machinery, you can set up a complete shop with hand tools. Here’s what you need to get started.

A few shop-made appliances allow you to add stunning face-grain inlay to your work. Geometric bandings and inlay patterns, or parquetry, are widely used, from Japan to Egypt to Spain. I developed a method of creating parquetry while learning to build ouds, a musical instrument that is the ancestor of the European lute and modern…

Shave-A-Shelf I devised a new way to fit a shelf into a dado. I use my router to make a tiny adjustment to the shelf’s thickness instead of fine-tuning my dado set with shims to match the plywood’s thickness. This may be standard practice for some woodworkers, but it’s new to me. For 1/4” deep…

Pattern-Cut Finials The traditional way to make a square finial on a bandsaw is to mark and cut the pattern on one side of the blank, then tape the offcut back on to the blank in order to guide the cuts on the adjacent side.  This is difficult to do with an intricate pattern because…

Staple Set Pneumatic staplers don’t always set 1/4” crown staples flush.  Driving them the rest of the way with a hammer causes the staples to kink,  so I designed this easy-to-make tool, which I call a “staple set.” To make the set, cut a 5” section of dowel at least 1” in diameter and drill…