Use ‘Gun Blue’ to Instantly Blacken Hardware
I use blacksmith-made hardware whenever I (or my customers) can afford it. But if you’re on a budget or have hundreds of pieces of hardware for a project, it’s time to visit the gun store. My [...]
The New Made Old: Antiquing Wood
Antiquing Wood This article originally appeared in the June 2007 of Popular Woodworking under the title “Antique Barn Finish.” by Troy Sexton pages 78-83 This is the furniture finish [...]
Build a Tool Tote With Your Kids: Part 1
On top of the daytime woodworking classes, my school offers to our students the opportunity to stay later for an hour and half of “extended day” classes. My woodworking class is one [...]
How to Test for Case-hardened Lumber
Thanks to the long-term relationships I’ve made with lumber merchants, I have little trouble with them sending me crappy stock. But even after 20-something years of buying wood from my suppliers, [...]
First Project on the Workbench
To test how effective your chosen workbench is, you’ll need to make something. Doubtless we all complete very similar tasks, but we also all have our own preferences which leads to tweaking [...]
Simple Seating
A few months ago I was tired of running into my kitchen table while sneaking through my house to get a midnight snack. I’m not entirely sure why I chose to be sneaky considering the only other [...]
The Table Saw: When Was Your First Time?
Do you remember the first time you used a table saw? Was it in shop class? Did your father, or grandfather show you how? My first time was with my father at the age of 15. But it wasn’t in …
Might Your Work be Award Winning?
From the June 2016 Issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. The submission period opened on April 1 for the 2016 PWM Excellence Awards – but there’s still plenty of time to enter your work (and be [...]
Pattern Routing Curved Shapes
Looking for some help pattern routing curved shapes? Here’s a quick way to do it based on a wall-mounted dining server project by former Popular Woodworking publisher Steve Shanesy. The [...]
New Handles For a Mid-Century Walnut Dresser: Part 2
Read Part 1 Here After the terraced rhombus was formed, it was time to start coving. The required radius for the coves, as dictated from the original handle was 1”. But, since the only round [...]
3D Carvings with a CNC Router
I use my CNC router mostly to make small parts out of solid wood, MDF and plastic. Until recently, I had never done any 3D work with it. Then I saw a photo from one of the students in Build …
Don’t Forget the Quality of the Kiln
While I prefer to work with air-dried lumber, that’s not always possible for woodworkers who use a lot of wood or don’t have access to a dealer who air-dries stock. One of the major problems with [...]
