Reading Grain Direction
Reading Grain Direction “Going against the grain” is a familiar phrase. It means doing something the wrong way.When you’re talking about wood, you always want to go with the [...]
Have Chisels; Will Travel
I’ll be at the Lie-Nielsen open house in Warren, Maine this Friday and Saturday (July 11-12) from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. On Friday, I’ll be demonstrating “Five Quick Fixes for [...]
A Visit to the Famous Maine Tool Barn
The first rule of buying old tools: If you think you might buy it, grab it. You can always put it back. So today I did a dumb thing. I spent a couple hours at the Hulls Cove Tool Barn…
Congrats to Mike Russell, Our Shop Makeover Winner
Mike Russell, of Rochester, Minn., is the lucky winner of the 2014 “$8,000 Shop Makeover” sweepstakes. A plumber who took up woodworking eight years ago, Mike got involved in the [...]
Woodworking in America Speakers – Will Neptune
Will Neptune Another of the top-notch, first-time presenters at the 2014 edition of Woodworking in America (WIA) in Winston-Salem, N.C. in September is Will Neptune. While I have yet to meet Will [...]
Q & A: Bandsaws for Cutting Metal and Wood
Bandsaws for Cutting Metal and Wood Q: I plan to buy a bandsaw, and I’d like one that can cut metal as well as wood. I’ve seen some two-speed bandsaws advertised. How well do [...]
AW Extra 7/3/14 – Perfect Edge Joints
Perfect Edge Joints A 6-step tune-up sets your jointer straight. By Dave Munkittrick Jointers are simple machines with few moving parts, but the two beds, the fence and the cutterhead all [...]
Design in Practice: Rooms With a View
In researching my next topic for this blog series, I was cruising the Winterthur web site. One of the things I noticed, as I sought various examples of a specific furniture form, was some great [...]
Metal Planing Stops Not Obsolete
Because my workbench doesn’t have an end vise, I’ve become creative when it comes to planing my stock with only a simple planing stop, a holdfast and dogs. Mine is a primitive arrangement [...]
AW Extra 7/3/14 – Minimize Router Burns
Minimize Router Burns End grain burns easily on maple and cherry, and those burns are hard to remove. After sanding my fingers to the bone following one particularly unfortunate routing pass, I [...]
Period Mouldings Compared
Whether applied or integral, recessed or relieved, mouldings bring style to a structure. Different combinations of these concave and convex surfaces, or profiles, play with light and shadow to [...]