Archives

The universal and timeless structure of our imaginations. Woodworking spans the globe and is a common thread linking humans across the ages. This craft shares a basic tool kit across time and [...]

Gain more control over your staining with these techniques. The most popular types of stains are oil stains, also called wiping stains (though most stains are wiped after application). Oil stains [...]

Christmas, 1956. I was a little fella, and my seeing the Tonka Hi-Way series display in the W.T. Grant store months earlier had captured my entire attention. In my letter to Santa, I asked for [...]

This handle design is a safety improvement over commercial versions. Let’s face it: Many of us all too often see safety as…well, just plain boring. We always seem to be anxious to use that little [...]

Invisible lines and circles explain the beauty of a series of fair curves. I can still remember Holloway’s farmhouse. Even in summer when the fireplace was cold, the smell of wood smoke lingered [...]

Lessons from a big box guide my approach to woodworking. I love Ikea. Yes, I said it. This store has provided me with an understanding of furniture design and with products I use on many of my [...]

A rescue and careful work reveal the spirit of land and sea. I have lusted for years after the wide, irregular planks used by the legendary George Nakashima to capture what he called “the soul of [...]

While this natural Danish finish looks beautiful, it’s high-maintenance. You may be surprised to learn that a quite popular finish for furniture and floors in Denmark, and other northern European [...]

A gnarly old conifer finds new life on a recognized California estate. In 1908, architects Charles and Henry Greene built one of their most famous residences, the Robert R. Blacker House. In [...]

Raking light through windows is the clear winner in a hand-tool shop. In 2007, I was a speaker at Colonial Williamsburg’s Furniture Forum, and there I met Adam Cherubini. He was in costume in the [...]

One of the most challenging tasks in wood finishing is matching the color of an existing object, color swatch or photo in a magazine. Most people try to accomplish this with just a stain, but it [...]

Inside Job While building kitchen cabinets, I purposefully chose straight-grained lumber for the doors’ stiles and rails and bought expensive, highly-figured boards to make the panels. In [...]