Chuck Bender, Senior Editor, Popular Woodworking Magazine

I am beyond delighted to announce that Charles “Chuck” Bender is Popular Woodworking Magazine’s new senior editor. He’ll be writing project and technique articles (lots of articles) for the magazine and web site, serving as one of our a technical editors, handling tool reviews and Tricks of the Trade, answering e-mails from you on all things woodworking (you’ll be able to reach him at chuck.bender@fwmedia.com), sharing his three decades of furniture knowledge on the blog, recording videos and online classes, sweeping the shop floor (as do we all) and lots more – in short, contributing on a daily basis his expertise to everything that we do.

Reproduction of a Hollingsworth highboy.

You’re no doubt familiar with Chuck’s work, whether it’s through seeing his incredible period reproductions, meeting him at Woodworking in America, learning from his many magazine articles, taking classes at Acanthus Workshop, watching him on the PBS television show “Rough Cut – Woodworking with Tommy Mac,” subscribing to his “No BS Woodworking”…in other words, Chuck is ubiquitous in the world of woodworking. And now – though he’s been writing for us for years – he’s moving into our shop and office full time.

Chuck joins PWM June 3, and will be working from his Pennsylvania-based shop through the summer as he wraps up classes at his school, Acanthus Workshop, before moving to Cincinnati with his wife, Lorraine, this fall. Don’t worry though – like all of us on the editorial staff, Chuck will be teaching at woodworking schools and guilds all over the country; you’ll still have a chance to take a class with him. Plus, he’ll be teaching at Woodworking in America (if you’ve looked at the schedule, you’ve perhaps noticed that one class doesn’t have the instructor listed and a couple sessions read “TBD”…because we weren’t ready to make this announcement when the site went live – we’ll have that updated with his classes in a few weeks).

Tiger maple slant-front desk.

And on the off chance you don’t know Chuck and his work, here’s a little more about him:

Chuck began woodworking seriously at the age of 12, when he built a skateboard in a woodworking class. In his teens he studied under a German Master, Werner Duerr, at his local vocational technical school. He credits Duerr with teaching him how to use hand tools (though Chuck also uses power tools for much of his work, when appropriate).

Newport corner chair.

Since completing his apprenticeship and starting his own period-furniture business in 1991, Chuck has become recognized as one of America’s top traditional craftsmen (he’s honed his skills over more than three decades of creating masterpieces for clients throughout the country). His work is in private collections, museums and some of the best juried craft shows in the country. (He also owned a bookstore for 10 years that specialized in rare books and manuscripts on art, architecture and decorative arts – I was unaware of this until I read his resume; now I know the secret behind his incredible library of woodworking titles.) In 2007, Chuck opened The Acanthus Workshop, a school outside Philadelphia, to pass his woodworking knowledge on to others.

And, as of June 2013, he is senior editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Please join Bob Lang, Glen Huey, Kevin Ireland, me, David Thiel, Tom Nunlist, Dan Farnbach and everyone else at F+W Media in giving Chuck and Lorraine a warm welcome to the PWM family.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

• See more of Chuck work on his web site.
• Take a video tour of one of Chuck’s slant-lid desks.
• Learn how Chuck carves a ball-and-claw foot on this DVD.
• Read “It’s a Secret” – Chuck’s first article for PWM on secret drawers (look for a follow-up on the subject in an upcoming issue).
• Read Chuck’s post on his blog, Parings – A woodworker’s journal, to find out more about his move.