If you’ve done much woodworking, it’s very likely that you have experienced some dents and gouges. Both are flaws in the wood. But they are not the same thing, so they should be treated differently. Dents are compressed wood. The wood fibers are still intact, just pressed down or indented. They can usually be steamed…

A woodworker friend called me with a problem. He had just built a bookcase and was trying to match the approximate sheen of a factory-finished piece of furniture he had and couldn’t find a polyurethane that was flat enough. What should he do? He had tried rubbing it with coarse abrasives to match the sheen…

As I’ve said many times, one of the reasons finishing seems difficult to amateur woodworkers is that the manufacturers targeting these woodworkers provide bad directions that don’t produce good results. One reason for many of these bad directions is that these manufacturers believe amateur woodworkers want to be able to finish their projects in a…

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…

Research gives names to unknown artisans. By Tom Caspar David Rowley, Freegift Wells, Amos Stewart, Orren Haskens, Eli Kidder…ever hear of these guys? They were Shaker cabinetmakers, the names behind one of the most unified and influential movements in American furnituremaking. You might think that they would have been completely anonymous, like most woodworkers of…

Understanding Furniture Polishes There are only four categories, so it’s easy. We may receive commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations. There are probably more myths surrounding furniture polishes than any other single aspect of wood finishing. What makes this topic confusing are the often-silly claims of manufacturers….

Tool: Fisch Wave Cutter Forstner Bits Manufacturer: Fisch Tools Cost: $300 (16 piece set) My collection of Forstner bits was cobbled together over the years. I started with inexpensive multipacks. Then I bought a few specific sizes for projects and even sprung for some premium one-offs. And I’ve tried just about every style and brand…

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

Resawing on the bandsaw allows you to cut logs into lumber, make thin boards from thick and cut your own veneer. Here’s how.

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…

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…

In this series, I’ve covered tools for standardization, tools for measuring and tools for precision. Now, it’s time to bring it all together with a few recommendations for different kinds of woodworking. How much accuracy you need depends on the kind of woodworking that you do. Remember that for hundreds of years, woodworkers got away…

Over the last few weeks, I’ve made several posts about measuring tools in the series Precision Instruments for Woodworkers. The purpose of the series is to introduce the idea of precision through establishing standards for accuracy with a few high-quality instruments and to test all of your measuring tools against them. It’s a simple theory: If…

When people injure themselves in the shop, their first reaction is to grab the wound and refuse to look. Sadly, this is the same attitude many woodworkers take with the squareness of their components: They refuse to look and hope things will work out. While there are lots of areas of woodworking where squareness doesn’t…

When making repetitive cuts, I found that my stop block would shift. With a hardwood cutoff, a leftover piece of T-track, a 1/4–20 hex head bolt and a jig knob, I constructed a stop block that doesn’t move and is super easy to adjust. First, drill a hole in the saw’s fence, then groove the…

Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy effective solution: Make a little hook from a plastic lid. Cut the opener as shown below, with a raised tab that’s cut…

My father showed me this “bird’s mouth” jig almost 60 years ago. It securely clamps 1/4- to 3″thick boards on edge. It’s so useful that I’ve never bothered to add a vise to my workbench. I’ve been tempted to mount the jig permanently, but I prefer an uncluttered work surface. Besides, this jig is easy…