Techniques

An historical detail adds refinement to projects both period and modern. The 18th century – a time when human hands were set to work in order to create the objects of material culture; when men [...]

This strong and simple – but uncommon – joint imparts a decorative touch. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the June 2014 issue of Popular Woodworking. After 20 years of [...]

Hinges are some of the most important hardware elements at our disposal. We need them for practical reasons, but we also want them to look good – as together with pulls and knobs, they [...]

Regular attention to a few simple procedures will keep you turning smoothly. A lathe, like any other piece of woodworking equipment, is exposed to wood shavings, dust and other substances as well [...]

You can tune up your band saw to resaw veneer without expensive fences or blades. The subject most often written about in woodworking magazines is probably cutting dovetails. In second place – [...]

There are many things we do wrong but we don’t know they’re wrong. In woodworking there are two kinds of mistakes: There’s the garden-variety gaffe where we simply cut a board too short or botch [...]

Cooking wood in your kitchen can produce results that rival specialty kilns. Luthiers have long used roasted or tempered wood in stringed instruments because the roasting process pre-stresses the [...]

Since I received my Benchcrafted Roubo workbench a year ago, my woodworking life has tremendously improved. My new and heavy bench (I wrote about it here and here) has 1” holdfast holes that can [...]

Bringing an old hand plane back to life is simple to do, and will yield a top-not tool. When I build a project, I use a variety of “fancy” tools (readers’ words, not mine). Lie-Nielsen, [...]

Knowing the techniques will help you, even if you aren’t doing the sewing yourself. For a woodworker, upholstery can be intimidating. It’s hard to know what you want, until you can clearly [...]

This millwork technique can be used to make curved parts with accuracy and ease. Much of my recent work has been making period-appropriate arch-top sash windows for an historic building. They are [...]

Learn how computers, software and CNCs can contribute in your shop. There are a lot of ways to do woodworking. For example, there’s more than a dozen ways to make mortises and tenons. The same is [...]