Archives

An accurate combination square is the cornerstone of every layout work. It allows us to measure and mark joinery, and check for flatness and squareness of workpieces, setups and tools. I have a [...]

Here’s a situation you may have experienced if you do much French polishing. A woodworker friend emailed me with this problem. He had been French polishing a tabletop, and no matter what he did, [...]

Digital woodworking is a bit different than traditional and hybrid woodworking even if the ultimate results are often the same. For one thing, the tools are different. CAD software takes some [...]

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 woodworker friend emailed me with a problem. He had turned a face-grained bowl from what he described as “grainy” walnut. To finish it he was using Watco Danish Oil, and his problem was that [...]

I recently was struck by a thought while spending some time in Andrew’s workshop: this is genuinely fun. It wasn’t until I was driving home a few hours later that the significance of [...]

Tool: Bench Dog Tools No. 5 Jack Plane Manufacturer: Bench Dog Tools Price: $169.99 I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the No.5 plane from Bench Dog straight out of the box. After [...]

Read part 1 here and read part 2 here. As the design and construction of the rack was completed (see part one of the story) and after I  added the utility magnets and tried to hang the rack using [...]

Earlier this week, Lee Valley rolled out their new website, and it’s a beauty. They’ve always been a go-to for me for hand tools and hardware. While the previous version of the site [...]

Tool: InKleind Twin Turbo Vise Manufacturer: InKleind Price: $270 There’s a new twin-screw vise on the block designed by Andy Klein that I’ve had the opportunity to test in a pre-production form. [...]

You may have noticed that acetone is becoming more widely available. This is primarily because it’s the only commonly available solvent that is classified as an exempt VOC solvent. VOC is the [...]

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. [...]