Doors of Oxford I spent three days ferreting the streets of Oxford over the holidays. Stayed in a nice hotel so I could walk into the City and see it emptied of students and cars, a million bikes with cyclists on and such. I’ve never seen the streets so emptied so “I actually walked down […]
Read the full post Beyond Closed Doors—Oxford on Paul Sellers' Blog.
It cost £12 with free shipping and the design intrigued me. It comes from an era when manufacturers wanted different because different was patentable and patentable meant protection and protection might well lead to profit if the design was liked. Even without cleaning and oil it works well enough despite the broken piece that I’ll […]
Read the full post I Bought A Different Gauge on Paul Sellers' Blog.
Today we’re talking about some of our goals for the upcoming year. Of course we also have the usual Q&A.
The post Resolutions! – Friday Live! appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
Back in the dim and distant past I found myself struggling with an issue. I’d learned to chop mortise holes parallel to the outer face by rote repetition. With non-through mortises this can be difficult to get perfection in. In my teens I pretty much mastered the technique but most people don’t have what I […]
Read the full post Devloping My Mortise Alignment Jig on Paul Sellers' Blog.
I have drawn the following winners at random for the second week of the contest. Continue to enter throughout the month of December! December 15: Francis Blais, Ohio December 16: Dennie Arnold, Texas December 17: Mike Quan, North Carolina December 18: Raymond Fontenot, Texas December 19: John Maslar, Florida December 20: Terry Fancher, Ohio December 21: Ken Rich, Michigan
The post Winners of Week 3 – December to Remember 2017 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Kitchen islands are the contemporary version of the old-fashioned kitchen worktable: a centrally located station at which to chop, slice, mix, roll, and knead. Today’s islands typically provide enclosed storage, as well as work space; some even house sinks, dishwashers, and other appliances. And of course lots of people also use their island as a place to eat. Some islands are freestanding pieces of furniture designed with work and storage in […]
The post Build an Affordable Kitchen Island appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Perhaps it’s more about learning how to learn I’ve taken many pieces apart, you know, undone them, unpackaged them and spent time dislodging parts by breaking glue lines, dissolving paints and varnishes, band-sawing open joints through and through and my investigations helped me to grow and understand. It’s not just the finished techniques or the […]
Read the full post I’ve Learned to Learn, Always! on Paul Sellers' Blog.
I’ve built a few benches in my time, benches for show and benches in a hurry. I’ve also seen, written about and filmed other benches being made. Each bench and each maker has a process and something unique that they want to add to their bench – and they darn well should! There’s nothing quite as personal as a woodworking bench with the fair amount of planning and energy that […]
The post Making a Bench in a Hurry with Alan Turner appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
It’s just a more active word when the two come together—less passive without a hyphenation. I like knifewall because it’s more punchy, but really I like it more because it so describes what I want people to see. It’s 20 or so years old now, not much more. It’s not that I invented its work, more that […]
Read the full post What’s ‘Knifewall’? on Paul Sellers' Blog.
Today’s Prize — December 25 We have a huge prize for December to Remember today! Remember to enter every day for your chance to win a daily prize! Week One Winners Week Two Winners Contest Calendar Enter now! Mirka® DEROS Dust-Free Sanding System Includes BOTH Mirka® DEROS 5″ and Mirka DEOS® 3″ x 5″ Brushless DC Sanders, MV-912 Dust Extractor, MVHA-5 co-ax 5m vacuum hose. Mirka® DEROS and DEOS are […]
The post Enter to Win a Mirka DEROS Dust-Free Sanding System – Today Only! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I use a lot of arched shapes in my work. They are a pleasing geometrical construction that can be used in doors, on the ends of bookshelves or on the bases of chests (I particularly like them on the ends of a six-board chest). For the most part, I use three types of arches. And to be honest, that was because I didn’t know the geometry for other forms. Recently […]
The post How to Draw Eye-pleasing Arches appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I took a look at our analytics for the blogs on our site and found that y’all really like drama and Chris Schwarz. I really can’t blame you, I’ve waited for the day of reckoning when we can put the “why isn’t a 2×4 actually 2×4” conversation to bed. And Chris…can you even be a woodworker in the 21st century with one of his holy works by your bench? I don’t blame […]
The post Top 10 Blog Posts of 2017 – Y’all Really Like Drama and Chris Schwarz appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
This week we’re talking about what makes a spokeshave differ from a cabinet scraper, as well as tons of other topics from the Q&A. Check out out!
The post Spokeshave VS Scraper – Friday Live! appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
I have drawn the following winners at random for the second week of the contest. Continue to enter throughout the month of December! December 8: Fred B., Michigan December 9: James Leinen, Minnesota December 10: Rhonda Hunt, Colorado December 11: Les Burger, New Jersey December 12: Billy Ervin, North Carolina December 13: John Day, Ohio December 14: Mark Mistretta, Illinois
The post Winners of Week 2 – December to Remember 2017 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Holiday fever is upon me. Panicked gift shopping aside, I spent the weekend working on a couple of projects for family. This morning I decided I needed another stocking stuffer for my two daughters – wooden robot dolls. I’d seen some cool robots made of wooden blocks on Pinterest and decided to try my hand at them. I dug through our scrap pile and found my materials (I used poplar […]
The post Quick Holiday Project: Wooden Robot Dolls appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I’m happy to report that there is a bright future for woodworking. A short while ago, we had a chance to catch up with Jaida Waggoner. She stopped by our shop to show us a couple of chairs she’d recently completed and the staff was duly impressed. In fact, Jaida is part of an accomplished woodworking family – her older brother is an impressive woodworker too. If these young woodworkers […]
The post The Bright Future of Woodworking – Jaida Waggoner appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
The February Issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine is one of the more rewarding issues I’ve worked on in my (relatively short) time here at the magazine. In particular, two articles stand out as shining examples of the work we do here at the magazine. Ben Brunick, the talented lead at Chalkstone Woodworking in Yankton, S.D., brought us an intuitive and clever means of making solid, tenoned arches. While the article is wonderful […]
The post Popular Woodworking Magazine, February 2018 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Up to now, CNCs were large, heavy, complicated tools that take up a lot of space in a shop. The Shaper Origin is something quite different. It’s a hand-held, easy-to-use CNC that you take to your work instead of the other way around. I had the opportunity to try one of the prototypes in 2016 and, now that the Origin is ready to go, it’s time for a review. Facts: […]
The post Hands-on With The Shaper Origin – Exclusive Review appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
There’s really no substitute for a nice, dialed-in shooting board. It’s a bench appliance that every woodworker with a handplane should have for sneaking up to a line and making perfect miters. When I saw this particular trick in the archive, I thought I’d build it and see how well it worked. The build is very simple – the adjustable shooting board sits in a snug dado. I took two passes […]
The post Tricks of the Trade: Adjustable Shooting Board appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I’m not easily riled. But if you want to get me worked up, then make a casual comment on a piece of woodworking that you’ve never built or dealt with. Case-in-point: I’ve been using a metal planing stop (as shown above) for more than 12 years. It is the foundation of everything I do at the bench. Yet, if I ever show its teeth in an article or on the […]
The post Shut Up & Build (or Just Shut Up) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I’ve always liked leanable shelves, especially because when the design is right they just seem rest happily in place and thereby work so well with no more ado. That said, I wanted my own design, one to stand rock solid with no semblance of throwaway disposables and without racking everywhere. I also wanted to start […]
Read the full post A New Design I Made on Paul Sellers' Blog.
On Nov. 22 I posted an explanation of how cooler temperatures slow the drying of all finishes. Well, the opposite is also true. Warmer temperatures, especially with the aid of air movement, speed the drying of all finishes. The example of why this information is helpful came in the form of a question from a woodworker. He had made the cabinet pictured and finished the inside with oil, specifically Liberon […]
The post Air Movement and Heat Speed the Drying of Finishes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
On Nov. 22 I posted an explanation of how cooler temperatures slow the drying of all finishes. Well, the opposite is also true. Warmer temperatures, especially with the aid of air movement, speed the drying of all finishes. The example of why this information is helpful came in the form of a question from a woodworker. He had made the cabinet pictured and finished the inside with oil, specifically Liberon […]
The post Air Movement and Heat Speed the Drying of Finishes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
One of my current jobs involves adding some cabinets to a kitchen in a 1912 house. Luckily, the kitchen still has its original built-in, which guided the design of the new pieces. “Hang on,” you may be wondering. “What do you mean, ‘its original built-in,’ singular? Surely there would have been a set of built-ins.” No, there would not. Most kitchens of that era had just a single cabinet, if […]
The post A Stroke of Luck While Refinishing a Wooden Counter appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Most of the Woodworking Shows I’ve attended through the past three decades have been 98% selling more and more stuff no one really needs to people who buy it with hopes that what they buy will suddenly make them highly capable woodworkers. Often what taken place is not increases in knowledge skill and empowerment but […]
Read the full post Best of Shows! on Paul Sellers' Blog.
This week we discuss a few woodworker gift ideas as well as answer your woodworking questions!
The post Woodworker Gift Ideas – Friday Live! appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
No book giveaway this week. Instead I’m giving away $100 Lee Valley gift card to one lucky winner! Thanks for all the great comments each Friday throughout the year – it’s been fun to read all the smart, funny stuff you guys have posted and hear about what you’re working on. We’ll probably get another giveaway or two in before the end of the year, but I wanted to give […]
The post Friday Giveaway appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Open throat planes and spokeshaves, like a scrub plane, are designed for the quick removal of thick shavings. Unfortunately, no meal comes free and the price for this quick work is an undulated and often distorted surface. You see, If the throat of the plane is large, it will leave behind a trail of course and often torn fibers. In order to produce a smoother surface, one needs to make […]
The post Close the Throat of a Plane by Shimming the Blade appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
When I started woodworking the idea of veneering seemed like magic to me. From selecting the best materials, to the design (orienting the grain of the pieces to present the desired and impressive final result,) to cutting the pieces (to not leave ridiculous gaps!) and ultimately gluing the whole thing in place. That last task, glueing up the veneer, seemed the most daunting. The process must have constant, even pressure […]
The post Introduction to Vacuum Veneering with Jonathan Benson appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Every year with this gift guide, I recommend one tool that is just a little more expensive than the others but is definitely worth the money. This year it’s the Lee Valley Cast Masons & Engravers’ Square. This is a new item in Lee Valley’s catalog, and the minute I saw it, I ordered one. This well-made tool excels at scribing lines that are parallel to the edge of a […]
The post Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 11: Masons’ & Engravers’ Square appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas and I try to have a simple Christmas project that isn’t too complex to make, is inexpensive and doesn’t tie up too much time. In making these you make four (or more) at once so I think making them hits the mark for me. I wanted something […]
Read the full post I Think You’ll Like Making T̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ Trees on Paul Sellers' Blog.
If were being honest, woodworking would be a lot more difficult in the winter months without O’Keefe’s Working Hands. I have a container of this at my workbench and by my computer. It is the only thing that keeps my fingers moving smoothly over my tools and the keyboard. I know there are a lot of other hand-care products out there. I’ve tried many of them. But I keep coming […]
The post Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 10: O’Keefe’s Working Hands appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I learned this lesson the hard way. Don’t transport unfinished wood in the open bed of a pick-up truck if there’s any chance of rain. A local cabinet shop had made some oak display stands, and I was hired to finish them. It was sprinkling when I picked up the stands in my pick-up. I took them back to my shop and immediately began applying a stain (the cabinet shop […]
The post Water Spots From Rain: A Lesson Learned appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Meet the artists from the December 2017 issue How five masterful makers integrate CNC and CAD technology into their woodworking In the December 2017 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine, the article, Digital Artistry gives the readers a peek at what five professional woodworkers are doing with digital tools in their shops. Each has an extensive traditional woodworking background and many years of experience before they added digital tools like CAD […]
The post Digital Artistry — Meet the Artist: Darrell Peart appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Building furniture without a dedicated workshop or even a workbench has always been a challenge. While there are lots of ways to get around the problem, one of my favorite is what is called the “bureau-shop.” This is where you transform an old chest of drawers into a complete hand-tool shop for light work. The top of the bureau is used as the benchtop (more on that in a minute). […]
The post Turn a Bureau into a Workbench appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I’ve long been fascinated by handmade utility furniture: the kind of stuff made to be used, not admired for the craftsmanship invested in its production. In the early 1980s, I bought an old chest of drawers from an antique shop in Reading, a large industrial town southwest of London, where I lived at the time. It was made of a nondescript softwood known as deal and had originally been painted. […]
The post Perfectly Imperfect Furniture appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Social media to some is a bit like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Thos who like Marmite usually have it on toast and turn to it every morning to start their day. It can be the same with Facebook and YouTube. I like it for one or two reasons but the […]
Read the full post Last Year’s Different Highlights on Paul Sellers' Blog.
Editor’s note: With the holidays upon us, we’re looking through the magazines and books we own for fun handmade gifts – things that you can build in not too much shop time, but that will help to create a lifetime of memories for the recipients. This is Holiday Project Post number five – for the “Pint-sized Pickup,” click here; for a Craftsman-style Wall Shelf, click here; for “Heirloom Photo Album” […]
The post Holiday Gift Projects! Table-Top Skittles appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
This year when people ask me what they should get their woodworking family and friends for the holidays, my first answer is always a board of hardwood. But if they have a tool in mind, things get harder to suggest. Below are items I recommend because they work for most types of woodworking and if they already have one, then having another is welcome. 1) Sloyd Woodworking Knife – On […]
The post 5 Inexpensive Gifts a Woodworker Will Use appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
The first week of December to Remember is over! I have drawn the following winners at random. Continue to enter throughout the month of December! December 1: Jim Dunn, Alabama December 2: Donald Nay, West Virginia December 3: David Hodgerson, Iowa December 4: Douglas Slater, Wisconsin December 5: R. Mark Underwood, Texas December 6: Eric Webb, Georgia December 7: Heidi Smith, Michigan
The post Week One Winners – December to Remember 2017 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
One of the things about my lathe that has always made me feel a little iffy was the QCTP stud. From the factory, it was a very anemic M8, that I’ve broken several times over the years. While taking some heavy cuts during a recent project, it looked almost as if the tool was tipping […]
A while ago I blogged about a Breast Drill that I bought on eBay and restored. I also mentioned that it is hard to find a good quality drills with concealed gears on the market today. After I wrote the blog I found a supplier of drills who held (and still does) a few tools on stock. I bought one drill for myself and three for our woodworking program. The […]
The post New Old Stock of Italian Made Breast Drills appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
I love wooden tool handles. Their only downside is they break and need to be repaired or replaced. If you prefer to repair your tool handles, the inexpensive Clamptite tool is your best friend. The Clamptite is a bit difficult to explain to people who haven’t used it. Basically, it is a device that can pull a wire tight and then cleverly knot it around an object, such as a […]
The post Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 8: Clamptite Tool appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
“I just wanted to congratulate with your staff for the great quality videos that are surrounding your work. During the videos I noticed many improvements in descriptions, camera captures and the quality of images. That’s very important for people that view the projects from home. Thanks.” “Thanks Giorgio, I’m a fortunate woodworker. Personally, I think […]
Read the full post Wraparound Support on Paul Sellers' Blog.