Strapped Hammer Tries Not to Kill You

Blacksmith David Maydole was the SawStop of the 19th century. Sometimes hammerheads would fly loose from their handles on the job site. This could be troublesome or deadly because occasionally [...]

Wonderful Wedgies With Cut Nails

Some of the best workholding ideas rely on simple wedging action. This weekend I stumbled onto one more great wedging trick using cut nails. This might be old hat for you. If so, forgive my waste [...]

The Case for Rendered Animal Collagen

The most stressful glue-up of my life was assembling my tool chest in 1998. The main carcase had 120 mating surfaces that had to be glued. Foolishly, I chose yellow glue as the adhesive. As a [...]

English Chests in Charleston, S.C.

This week I’m at my father’s house in Charleston, S.C., to get my USRDA of grits, tasso and shrimp. Whenever I visit the Holy City, I always make sure to pack comfortable shoes and a [...]

About Drawer Slips

There are so many ways to construct a drawer that someone could write an entire book on the variations across time and cultures. I’d buy it. One curious drawer detail that I quite like is [...]

More Hammer Tricks

You can do fancy things with a hammer and the right nails. And lately, I’ve been doing a lot of practicing with cut nails for a series of projects I’m working on that feature nails [...]

AW Extra 9/6/12 – Lock Miters

Lock Miters This simple set-up process guarantees perfect joints! By George Vondriska Lock miters are strong, attractive joints that make assembly easy. So why the heck don’t we use lock [...]