Build Furniture Without a Shop
A few tools can go a long way. When you get started in woodworking there are many paths to follow, forks in the road, dead-ends and shortcuts. It’s a journey that our forebears would make with [...]
What’s The Difference Between Drill Bits?
Discover a bit about clean, accurate boring. There are many tools in modern woodworking you can use to bore holes: powered drills (both corded and cordless), drill presses, hand-powered eggbeater [...]
Woodworking Basics: Common Cuts
A bevel is a bevel… except when it’s a miter, unless it’s a chamfer. Confused yet? You’re not alone. To the uninitiated, woodworking can be a tough nut to crack. Even the most basic of projects [...]
Working with Metals
Tools and techniques for general metalwork in the shop. While the woodshop may be where I’m most comfortable, I’ve been fascinated by metalwork for some time. I’m always watching for tips and [...]
How To Lay Out Compound Angle Dovetails
A system as elegant as the joint itself. Compound-angle dovetails are some of the most beguiling joints in all woodworking. But, as John Lennon once suggested, they can be as difficult to make as [...]
What is Sharp?
A Sharpening Handbook: What Every Woodworker Needs to Know About Sharpening If there’s one thing to be said about woodworkers, it’s that we’re old school and prefer to pick up a book (or a [...]
A Quick Guide to Hot Hide Glue
This traditional glue takes a little bit of preparation and planning, but is still a valuable asset in today’s shop. “Ought a turn you to glue.” It was a saying that I heard my great-grandfather [...]
The Best Oak Money Can’t Buy: Turn A Log into Lumber by Hand
The cost of this stock is physical exertion, but it’s fun and rewarding. The riven oak that I use for joinery work is the best stock available; but it comes at a cost – the labor invested to [...]
Shop Flooring
Giving a little bit of attention to the flooring in your shop can make your shop more inviting and more comfortable to work in. When’s the last time you took a good hard look at your shop floor? [...]
Replacing an old Hope Chest Lock – Part 3
After reducing the volume of the original half-mortise using two strips of wood and addressing the crack in the shallow recess of the catch plate (read part two of the story here), I decided to [...]
Hard-Line Dust Piping: Best Practices
Follow these best practices to get the most out of your dust collection system. I don’t think that there has been something that’s increased my enjoyment in the shop as much as getting a good [...]
Replacing an old Hope Chest Lock – Part 2
After fine-tuning the quirks with the new replacement lock and its brass catch plate, I turned my attention to the cedar hope chest’s half-mortise. I measured and compared the existing depth and [...]