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Research gives names to unknown artisans. David Rowley, Freegift Wells, Amos Stewart, Orren Haskens, Eli Kidder…ever hear of these guys? They were Shaker cabinetmakers, the names behind one [...]

Grab your torch and pitchfork; the hand-tool guy has a table saw. Editor’s note: this article appeared in the November 2016 issue of Popular Woodworking People react with shock and horror [...]

Exposure to great furniture hones the eyes for quality and proportion. Woodworking is, all at once, frustrating, elating, challenging and straightforward stupid simple. It combines the elements [...]

The hands are the tools that mean the most.

Thoughts on Adam Savage’s Every Tool’s a Hammer Buy the book here You may recognize the man on the cover of this book, Adam Savage, as one half of the duo from TV’s “Mythbusters.” The show ran [...]

A boring task turns into a history lesson. This article originally appeared in the April 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking One day in Williamsburg, a message reached me at the carpenter’s yard [...]

Christmas, 1956. I was a little fella, and my seeing the Tonka Hi-Way series display in the W.T. Grant store months earlier had captured my entire attention. In my letter to Santa, I asked for [...]

Lessons from a big box guide my approach to woodworking. I love Ikea. Yes, I said it. This store has provided me with an understanding of furniture design and with products I use on many of my [...]

A rescue and careful work reveal the spirit of land and sea. I have lusted for years after the wide, irregular planks used by the legendary George Nakashima to capture what he called “the soul of [...]

A gnarly old conifer finds new life on a recognized California estate. In 1908, architects Charles and Henry Greene built one of their most famous residences, the Robert R. Blacker House. In [...]

Just keep saying ‘micron.’ Woodworkers who use hand tools to lay the quality touch on their work know what can be accomplished with these wonderful inventions. Along with skill, [...]

A Backer Board Prevents Chip-Out Chip-out is always an issue when you even up the stiles and rails of a door with a plane. If you plane all the way across the door, from one end to the other, [...]