In case you don’t follow rarewoods.us (also known as Travis Knapp) on Instagram, I share with you this cool (and inexpensive) tool lube solution he’s now offering: mutton tallow in a [...]
What is the best design for a round mallet? It has to do the job, feel good in your hand and remain comfortable as you use it. Three weeks ago, while at Peters Valley, I had a chance …
We all know that Joseph Moxon didn’t invent the Moxon vise. But perhaps the Italians did? I spent a fatigue-fueled weekend researching some red herrings and stumbled on this circa 1300 hand-drawn [...]
I came to the Popular Woodworking team with an interest in woodworking, but since working here, I seem to have been drawn specifically to woodturning. I find it fascinating, and as with any [...]
Some woodworkers just don’t believe in using CNC routers. They believe that someone who cuts and shapes parts with a CNC router is not a craftsman, and has little or no connection with the [...]
I learned how to make tools from two places: 1.With Hammer in Hand (The book about the Dominy workshop) and 2. American museum tool collections. When I looked at these collections, I saw an [...]
I use round-head mallets almost all of the time. I find that they are very effective in driving my gouges and chisels decisively into the wood. There are cases where I prefer to use [...]
I count myself among the luckier people in the world for having had the chance to hang out with Toshio Odate and Laure Olender for a couple of days in Connecticut. Sure, we were there to film [...]
There’s something very graphical about the design of the Mid-Century Modern Bookcase I built for the October 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Viewed head on, the arrangement of [...]
If you read Don Williams’ blog, you already know that he lost a fight with a wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, Don broke his hip last week, and while the doctors have given him every indication [...]
Through dovetails—for woodworkers, this is batting in the big leagues, isn’t it? Cutting them by hand certainly requires skill and practice, but if you use a well-designed router jig, almost [...]