Arts & Mysteries

With the exciting new publication of Nicholson’s 1850 text, I fully expect we will be hearing a great deal more about Nicholson, and very likely a great deal less about Roubo.  This is as [...]

Chris reported 2 days ago that a reprint of Peter Nicholson’s book (known by many titles including) "The Mechanic’s Companion" has gone on sale here.   This hit me like a [...]

Beware “through dovetail centrism”! I’ve tried to steer away from 2 contentious subjects, sharpening and dovetails, because I have felt too much has been said about both. [...]

There have been a couple interesting threads on the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM) forum I’d like to make you aware of in case you missed them: On drawer construction: [...]

Just a test to see if I’ve figured out my new blog page. But maybe this is a good opportunity to thank PW for giving me this space to jot down my thoughts. Megan asked for a list of books [...]

I have a reader in Cleveland who snapped the quirk off a 1/4″ side bead iron. He was looking for a sharpening service I could recommend. I certainly don’t know any service that could [...]

I have a question for you all. A few years back I built a Roubo-esque frame saw in an attempt to conquer hand tool resawing. Frankly, I’ve not had great success with it. It’s 4′ [...]

The news of a blog from Colonial Williamsburg’s Hay Cabinetshop has already been received with a smirk about “irony”. I knew it was only a matter of time. When will these sorts [...]

For those of you who live in holes (which may be a fair percentage of all 5 of my readers), I thought I’d mention that the guys in the Hay shop in Colonial Williamsburg have started a blog. [...]

“In painting” is a term museum conservators use for touching up “losses”, areas now missing, from antique paintings or other objects. As far as I know, it isn’t [...]

The holidays are always a busy time for me. I especially love spending time in my shop when the house is bustling with friends and family. I rarely get to work on projects just for me, but these [...]

A small plumbing crisis (that’s redundant) brought me to the Depot today. I stopped by the magazine rack to see what was new in FWW magazine. My subscription has lapsed and I’ve been [...]