Here are four things you need to know. Finishing is not hard to understand. As I’ve pointed out in previous articles, it’s made confusing by manufacturers who don’t understand their own products, so they make up names and claims they think will help sell their wares. The manufacturers who are most guilty of this are…

Outdoor projects encounter a variety of conditions. The project is only going to last as long as its finish does. Here’s my approach for finishing this set of exterior doors. The mahogany that these doors are made of has a beautiful grain. However, variation in boards lead to different colored parts. To mask this, I…

Subtract color to add life. There are four types of bleach that woodworkers commonly use: chlorine, two-part wood bleach, oxalic acid and peroxide. Two-part bleach changes the actual color of wood and the other three remove stains. Read on to find out what each one does and how to use them safely. Chlorine bleach Common…

Once you understand the anatomy of a handplane, you’ll be well on your way to using it with success. [View the full-size exploded view of a handplane here] Handplanes are the king of woodworking tools in that they are the most versatile tool in a shop. They do so many varied jobs, that the more…

  Most woodworking projects involve roughing, refining, and finishing steps, and using the right tool for each makes the work both precise and efficient. Too often we hear that hand tools are slow and power tools are fast. Even people who love hand tools talk about how they enjoy handwork because it forces them to…

Stop measuring and simply learn how to saw straight. The dovetail is an ancient joint widely used in cathedrals, barns and Egyptian furniture. It is the right joint for many items including fine furniture, carcases, drawers and jewelry boxes. They are all dovetailed together. I was only 27 years old when I came to this…

From butt joints to dovetails, every builder should know these essential woodworking joints —and when to use each one. The following is a small sample from the book The Complete Starter Guide to Making Wooden Boxes, written by Albert Kleine and published by Fox Chapel Publishing. A book on box-making essentials would be incomplete without…

Cutting rabbets by hand can quickly and easily be done with vintage and modern planes alike. Both just take a little know-how. I would consider a rabbet joint an essential woodworking joint to know how to cut. It’s as equally valuable building the case of a chest as it is building down and dirty drawers….

Not too big, not too small. This chest is a handy size for a basic set of tools. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. It’s the modern joiner’s dilemma. An old house over in the next county has missing mouldings on the mantel, a kicked-in panel…

When using my miter saw, I’ve found that the easiest way to sneak up on a line is to use a stack of sticky notes. First, set a stop block to cut your part slightly oversize (1/16″ is plenty). Attach a thin pile of sticky notes to the stop block, make a cut, and then…

I use a portable circular saw to break down plywood and other sheet goods into manageable pieces before bringing them to the table saw for final sizing. I prefer to do the job on sawhorses rather than crouching on the floor. Unfortunately, you normally need three or four horses to provide enough support to prevent…

The next time you use your jigsaw, forget about hauling out the sawhorses or cantilevering a hard-to-hold workpiece off your bench. Extruded polystyrene insulation board, the rigid pink sheets used in housing construction, makes sawing easy, whether you’re cutting a small piece of hardwood or a full sheet of plywood. During the cut, the workpiece…

Most furniture fractures can simply be glued back together. But some breaks are messy, leaving splintery fractures that won’t form a strong glue joint. You could replace the entire part, or you might be able to reinforce it from inside—usually without removing it. Begin by gluing the part back together as you normally would. Next,…

Hanging a wall cabinet is usually a two-person job—one to hold the cabinet level and one to screw it to the wall. I’m nearly always working alone, so I came up with this safe way to wall-mount a cabinet by myself. Screw a 2×4 to the wall to rest the cabinet to the wall. As…

My pneumatic nailer makes quick work of assembling cabinets, but if a nail blows out the side, it can be a real mess. Those power-driven nails often bend or break if you try to pound them back with a hammer or pull them through with pliers. Faced with this problem, I discovered a new use…

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.

Tool: Folding Saddle Square Shop Now  Manufacturer: Woodpeckers MSRP: $59.99+ Making accurate marks is one of the most fundamental tasks in a wood shop, yet it can be quite challenging to master. For instance, when laying out a layout line around a leg, if the line on one face is off, it can skew the…

Tool: Micro Squares Shop Now  Manufacturer: Blue Spruce Toolworks MSRP: $64.99-$109.99 Having one or two really nice squares is essential in the shop. Being able to check parts for square, and set up machines are some of the most frequent uses of mine. Blue Spruce recently released a pair of micro squares that are perfectly…