Arts & Mysteries

Took my wife to the city for her birthday earlier this week. Spent the day in the art museum. Easy to be overwhelmed in the presence of such great works of art. Got to see a couple Vermeers which [...]

I’m reading the latest issue of PWW and enjoying the discussions of fine art therein. George Walker’s column is overtly artistic. I think this is another great move by The Schwarz. We [...]

This weekend is the Woodworking America Conference in Ohio. I highly recommend you go. Yes the sessions may be sold out. But having attended the last two, I can tell you there’s a lot going [...]

In my last blog I wrote about tools you don’t need. The point was that we don’t always get good information on what to buy. Our sources for tool recommendations aren’t always [...]

Over the years, I’ve turned to my brother Steve for practical advice on a range of subjects. Older brothers are good that way. Several gems of brotherly advice have included the phrase [...]

I think it’s very funny that folks reject the notion of ripping by hand saying it’s impractical and instead offer the only slightly less arcane table saw as the “modern” [...]

I had hoped not to sound negative or snarky in a recent ww forum post about thin plate dovetail saws. The responses I received were mostly excoriating. When the drama regarding my word choice, [...]

A couple years ago I wrote an article on hand sawing strategies. The punch line was the fastest way to saw by hand is not to saw at all. I still feel this is the best lesson you can learn …

I suspect anyone even tangentially involved in this industry has been through this issue before. My feeling is that this is a complicated issue, which has some fairly significant consequences and [...]

I invite readers to post comments to my blog. There are couple things that I want you to know. 1) There is no free speech on the internet. But I allow criticism on my little corner of the [...]

I just read another post about a fellow who hurt himself on his table saw. I think it takes guts to report an injury like this on a wood working forum and I applaud all who do. Unfortunately, [...]

Craftsmen in Colonial Williamsburg prefer NOT to use antique tools. When asked they say things like “they aren’t making any more of these”. Besides the irony of that statement [...]