50,000-Year-Old Trees Rise Again
The bogs of New Zealand yield gargantuan Kauri logs. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in American Woodworker #139. Ancientwood is listed as permanently closed on Google but [...]
Three Gold Coins
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 [...]
The Downside if Up is Sideways
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 [...]
Mom’s Shop
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 [...]
World’s Best-known Tool Cabinet
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 [...]
Adventures of a Porch Rocker
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 [...]
Bespoke Toolmaker: Leather by Dragonfly
The world’s best custom-made apron is handmade by husband-and-wife team Patrick and Michelle Melchior. When I step into my shop,a few things happen each and every time — so much that they’re [...]
Working Memory
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 [...]
Almost a Plane Wreck
The perilous flight of the world’s most valuable tool. Half of the airplane’s hydraulic system had failed at take-off; the other half failed as the plane was 10 minutes from the Atlanta airport. [...]
A Puzzling Beginning
How one woodworker got over her fear of dismemberment: more fear. Industrial Technology. That was the name of the course I took in the autumn of 1993. Beats me as to why it was entitled thus, [...]
Fighting Evil Alien Technology
Beating it requires knowing the right way to nail a board. When I was about 8 years old, I decided that I needed to construct a sturdy fort to protect myself from the army of aliens (who cleverly [...]
Squirrel Surprise
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, [...]