Making a marking knife from an old planer blade – part 1
A marking knife is one of the most useful tools in my toolbox. I use it to score lines in preparation for sawing or chiseling. I own several knives but the one I use most is the new slim …
A gallery for contemporary furniture you should know of
Culture + Commerce Project in Hudson New York is one of my favorite furniture galleries. I stumbled upon it two years ago while attending a weekend wedding in the charming town of Hudson. It [...]
12 Things About Working Teak
1. Your house will smell like Pier 1 2. Because of teak’s waxiness, your machines will be able to take only about one-fourth of their usual cut. Teak bogs everything down. 3. When handplaning it, [...]
A Wee App-etizer
Every week or so, I get a handful of questions along these lines: “Why don’t you have a mobile app for the magazine?” My answer has long been along this line: “Well, we [...]
Friday’s Tip for September 27th
Temporary Zero-Clearance Insert My small tablesaw and accessories follow me to jobsites every day. One morning I needed to rip thin slats from a 2 x 4 and wouldn't you know it, I forgot my [...]
3 Ways to Grow as a Woodworker, from 3 People Who Have Done it
When you think about it, everything we do here at Popular Woodworking is about growth and development. We are in the business of helping to make people better woodworkers, plain and simple. I [...]
A Better Woodworking Push Block
Say the name GRR-Ripper and most woodworkers who own a table saw know the product. It’s a great tool to use for ripping, especially when cutting thin strips or on odd configurations – I use [...]
A Cure for ‘Idleshopalitis’
Chuck Bender, senior editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine, gives you a compelling reason to come to Woodworking in America 2013. Warning: the following video may expose some deeply concealed [...]
Designing Furniture From Scratch In SketchUpPart 3
Last week we completed the dimension budgets for the Cherry Bedside Table in 2D. This week we are going to create the 3D model of the table’s legs. At left is the Isometric view of the [...]
Getting Bit by the Toothed Planing Stop
I know there are people who use edge tools straight out of the box, but I can’t. I always sharpen them. So why should workbench accessories be any different? For many years I’ve been indifferent [...]
A Jack Plane with a Rounded Sole
When preparing stock by hand, the most useful plane is probably the jack plane (sometimes called the fore plane among joiners). Its curved iron allows you to remove a remarkable amount of [...]
Limbert Magazine Stand in the Spirit of “I Can Do That”
The magazine stand is one of the signature pieces of the American Arts and Crafts movement, and Charles Limbert’s No. 346 is an especially distinctive take on the form. Two details mark the No. [...]