Shop Blog

My dovetails are always at their best if I warm up before sawing. But I’ll be honest – when I am pressed for time I have no patience to cut an entire joint, much less prep the wood for a …

I have to admit it – I’m having a rough time in this relatively new job. Not my actual work duties, but figuring out what new technique or project I want to try next. I’m a [...]

While putting a new tool through its paces for a future review, I was reminded just how important the basics are and what a fine job a regular bench plane will do when sharp. I was delighted with [...]

Ah, the glamour of being on camera. The trailer with your name on the door…M&Ms separated by color to meet your needs…people hustling around to keep you happy and hydrated. Fans swarming you [...]

The following blog entry might seem snarky. I assure you it is not. I’m interested in what impresses people when they view a piece of furniture. In fact, when a fellow woodworker shows off a [...]

I had the pleasure of chatting with Daniel Carter and Lance Granum a few weeks ago for a  This Old Workshop podcast; it seems I talk too much, because they’ve broken the conversation into [...]

One of the things I enjoy in life is the experience of the under promise and the over delivery. I bought “Is It Genuine” (1971) while searching for good information about 18th-century furniture. [...]

The shop at Popular Woodworking has been a bit of an embarrassment for the, oh, last year or so. We’ve made a desultory effort now and again to whip things into shape, but ever since our [...]

If you haven’t figured it out, I’m wary of tool reviews in magazines or online. With rare exception they are uninformed or (worse) misguided. And believe me: I am the first to admit that I was [...]

I found myself reviewing future projects that I want to do and on so many I’ve found some woodturning is. That’s an issue for me, I don’t own a lathe and I’ve never turned [...]

There are lots of ways to get around not having a sliding deadman – sometimes called a “board jack” – on your workbench. For the last 15 months I have been working on a bench without a deadman or [...]

I’ve been in the shop for about two hours this morning and the first task I faced was clearing out a jammed dust-collection pipe above the jointer. A dirty, dusty job, but it had to be [...]