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The usual way of applying stain is to apply a wet coat and wipe off the excess before it dries. You can use a rag, brush or spray gun to apply the stain. When you wipe off the excess, you …

One of my woodworking instructors years ago liked to reassure students by saying “Anyone can build furniture, but it takes real skill to fix mistakes.” Here’s how I went about [...]

https://youtu.be/evkW6Hqei-0 Video: How I use a grid system to make digital woodworking easier CNCs are wonderful machines. For woodworkers who want to combine traditional woodworking with [...]

Mr. Robinson saw the signs in 1967, and I lived it in the 70’s building restaurant fixtures and lots of furniture out of plastic laminates. Laminates were everywhere. Durable, colorful, [...]

Three-legged folding stools need a “tri-bolt” to allow the legs to fold in and out. Years ago, Tandy Leather offered an inexpensive tri-bolt, but it has been absent from the company’s inventory [...]

The instructions for applying oil and wiping-varnish finishes are usually to wipe or brush on a wet coat, wait a bit, then wipe off the excess and let what remains dry. So I got this question [...]

Most lubricants are associated with oil, wax and grease, substances that are hard to remove from wooden surfaces. When drilling wide or long holes in wood, especially when you later need to glue [...]

Finding a paying job as a woodworker is one of those tricky negotiations. Working in a woodworking business or owning your own business sound attractive, but we all know there are risks and [...]

This summer I spent a couple of weeks driving around the East Coast delivering furniture, giving talks related to English Arts & Crafts Furniture and Making Things Work, and photographing [...]

Laying out accurate angles on your work is critical. So it’s funny to me that we spend $100 on a Starrett square for 90°, then spend $1.59 on a plastic school protractor for every angle that [...]

Back when I was a young woodworker (shortly after the exit of the dinosaurs) I had a general acceptance of the reality that the planks of wood I purchased came from trees. I knew that they came [...]

Some call it a Patternmaker’s vise, others name it a Gunstock Carving vise, and the luthiers among us, obviously, refer to it as Guitar Maker’s vise. Many names for the same vise that [...]