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So you can’t afford (insert dream tool here). Boo hoo. Hit the flea markets then start making sawdust. Yeah, you heard me. Oh sure, I know exactly how it is. The new catalogs come piling into [...]

The best work is often built one piece at a time, so toss your cutlist. I have been in professional piano repair and tuning for more than 30 years. My father taught me how to tune by ear. That’s [...]

Find woodworking education, fellowship, and shop space at a woodworking guild near you.  I am an avid woodworker. Let me rephrase that. I am an avid woodworker with a chronic disease. I’m not an [...]

Most of us share this pathological habit that’s hard to break. I have a problem. A compulsion, really. It’s not as serious as, say, alcoholism, a food addiction, or an unhealthy fascination with [...]

Youthful energy sparks the experience, but careful work takes time. Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Recently, the [...]

Passing up gold for a treasure with more lasting value. The holidays are a time for visiting and catching up. While visiting my parents one Thanksgiving, my mother handed me an envelope. I could [...]

A nervous woodworker is aghast as his best projects arrive from storage. The message “Up”(with a directional arrow, no less) seems unambiguous. When displayed prominently on all four of what [...]

Kite frames to cabinets: A 50-year journey back to woodworking. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the February 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Before mom’s shop [...]

The amazing tool cabinet of piano-maker Henry O. Studley has fostered intense admiration and contemplation surrounding its origins and creator for nearly three decades. I’ve heard a lot of this [...]

Walk down Main Street in Anysmalltown, U.S.A., and people acknowledge your existence from their porch rockers. They don’t have to say anything, just use their body to move the chair in a [...]

Rebuilding a toy chest is a connection to the past and the future. I do not stem from woodworking lineage, at least not the kind you hear about. My dad wasn’t overly handy. While growing up, I [...]

A project with a bite. This article originally appeared in the February 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine How do three carpenters feed an abandoned baby squirrel? Glass dropper in hand, [...]