In the previous issue I wrote about teak oils and how none have anything to do with teak wood. Reading the article, you may have asked yourself why companies would put out products that aren’t what they say they are and don’t do what they say they do. I used to think the people at…

Fire and wax together produce a rich black surface. Fire might not be the first finishing technique that most woodworkers gravitate toward; then again, I am not most woodworkers. As a blacksmith and toolmaker, I am around fire every day, and when I began burning my hammer handles, I found it to be a simple…

A combination of knowledge and experience. All sorts of damage can occur to a finish. I’ve written about the most common problems and how to fix them many times. Four of the articles I wrote for Popular Woodworking are included in my book, “Flexner on Finishing.” These articles deal with problems such as water rings,…

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…

By George R. Walker Meet Reid Schwartz: artist, interested human, maker of tools, worker of wood and restorer of old things. It’s hard to think of a craft that’s not tied to woodworking in some way. Wood is either the material of choice or it’s found in the tools used to shape other materials, such…

Try Squares While you can certainly use a typical machinist’s combination square for layout work, they aren’t particularly friendly to the hand, they are heavy and they can easily, if mishandled, ding the wood. In contrast, a wooden square feels soft, light and warm to the touch and is a thing of beauty to look…

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…

When you slide open a small drawer that fits nice and tight, it’s a pleasure to see well-crafted joints.  Small, handcut dovetails answer well, but sawing and chopping them requires a lot of skill and practice. Here’s a joint that’s far easier to make: a half-blind tongue and rabbet. It’s all done on the tablesaw….

Tips and techniques for beautiful bowties Furniture made from thick wood slabs, with gorgeous grain and natural edges, at once rustic and refined, has remained popular ever since George Nakashima first introduced it to U.S. woodworkers in the 1950s. Better yet, woodworkers of almost all skill levels can build something with a natural-edged slab. If…

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

Safely make shaper-quality molding on your tablesaw without fancy jigs. By Eric Smith and Richard Tendick This how-to story has a picture-perfect ending. In fact, you might want to round up some spectators for applause in the final steps. Richard Tendick has developed a safe, simple technique to help you make narrow, complex picture-frame stock…

My dovetails are always at their best if I warm up before sawing. But I’ll be honest – when I am pressed for time I have no patience to cut an entire joint, much less prep the wood for a practice set. So here are two things I do to get my sawing on track…

In earlier posts in this series, I explained how you can take simple computer drawings and make paper patterns. In my last post, I revealed the process I used for years for making MDF patterns. But, how do you do that if you don’t own a CNC?  Outsource it. Here are a few tips on finding and…

Dale Barnard has been building furniture professionally for decades. And during a recent video shoot, it was very comforting to see that I wasn’t the only one breaking the rules on sanding. Building a Greene & Greene furniture piece means changing transition levels in the wood frequently. And that leads to either rasping, filing or…

Ebony plugs are essential to the Greene & Greene style. In fact, it would be almost inconceivable to design a Greene & Greene piece without them. They are simple to make, but woodworkers often struggle with the process. Over many years of building and teaching in the Greene & Greene style, I have developed a…

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…

Tool: Trim Square Manufacturer: Milwaukee MSRP: $11 This gem of square has become a go-to for use around the shop. Taking its design cues from the common rafter square, the compact size is a much better fit for wood-working than its larger cousins. The aluminum square is laser etched (light colored readings on red) for high visibility….

Choosing and using this must-have measuring and layout tool. In 1878, Laroy S. Starrett designed and patented the combination square. His invention was a multi-purpose layout and measuring tool for machinists and it was rapidly adopted in the trade. Woodworking books of the period don’t mention this tool. After all, the try square and marking…

I have a meager collection of handplanes made up of mostly dog-meat users. I like using planes that have history because it’s fun to think about what each might have made during the last 100 years. None of my planes are particularly nice, but I do want to keep them from getting destroyed. For a…

On my most recent project I needed an elliptical arc. Although my arc conforms to the Golden Ratio (1:1.62), the method I use works for an ellipse of any proportion. Determine the overall size of the ellipse you need and cut a piece of pattern material large enough to encompass it. Next, draw vertical and…

Sawing tenons by hand is tricky business, requiring good eyes, a steady hand and lots of practice. Even so, the tenon’s cheeks are usually uneven after sawing and need to be trued. I’ve often used a rabbet plane to do this, but things can go bad in a hurry. You can easily end up with…