Brief History of Furniture Brasses
A concise chronicle of furniture hardware styles to help you build it better. One question I am often asked is, “What hardware should I use?” And the answer is usually, “It depends.” What did you [...]
Queen Anne Strop Box
Sharpen your hand-tool skills with this useful project. I recently obtained a nice piece of leather about 1⁄4” thick that I wanted to use as a strop for plane irons and chisels. And, I was [...]
Period Hardware, Too
Significant changes in furniture came about as we moved from William & Mary (W&M) designs to those of the Queen Anne period. Generally we talk about cabriole legs and dovetail joinery [...]
Unexplained Discovery: Tapered-side Dovetailed Drawers
One of most fun aspects of furniture is not necessarily found in the shop. Yes, making wood dust and building furniture is a blast – that’s why we do it. But discovering something that is [...]
Sweating the Details
When I talk to woodworkers about drawers, particularly dovetail joinery, I mention the transition that occurs as we moved from one furniture period to the next. In general, dovetails became a [...]
2013 Woodworking Classes
The best way to learn more about woodworking, besides the arduous path of hard knocks of which lessons are not soon forgotten, is to take woodworking classes at a dedicated school. I’ve [...]