The Woodshop Shed 05 2013

College of the Redwoods Instructor at Woodworking in America

Furnished content.

When we started the Woodworking in America conference several years ago, one of our goals was to bring in instructors who offer a unique perspective. This year, we looked to the west coast and invited Ejler Hjorth-Westh, one of the instructors at the College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture program, the school founded by James

Read more here

Happy 60th Anniversary to One of the Most Important Books in Our Office

Furnished content.

Nope, this isnt about woodworking or a woodworking book. The only lignum involved has been chipped, pulped, bleached, beaten, pressed and printed. Stop reading now if that offends you. Today, the second-most consulted book in our office marks it's 60th anniversary with the release of the 2013 edtion of The Associated Press Stylebook.

Read more here

Do You Need More Roughage?

Furnished content.

At one of the woodworking schools where I teach there is a quote hanging on the wall that has always bugged me a bit. Ill paraphrase it: In 100 years, people will only care WHAT you did, not HOW you did it. Whenever I read that quote, all I can think about what the first

Read more here

Holdfasts of a New Design

Furnished content.

I need to get busy on my workbench top so I can decide how many of the different work-holding designs to use at my bench. At this time at my home shop, Im using a pair of Gramercy holdfasts, but earlier this year a couple of companies, namely Lee Valley and Kreg, introduced holdfasts of

Read more here

Dale Nish, 1932-2013

Furnished content.

Dale Nish, one of the worlds most influential woodturners, teachers and writers, died yesterday in Provo, Utah. Nish taught woodworking at Brigham Young University for 28 years, until his retirement in 1995. Hes the author of several landmark books on turning including Creative Woodturning and Artistic Woodturning, and of many magazine articles and columns. In

Read more here

30 Days for Dad, Don't Miss Out

Furnished content.

Fathers Day is just around the corner, and weve already given away six fabulous prizes in our 30 Days for Dad Sweepstakes, that means there are 24 more to win, including the great gifts pictured at top. Heres a little refresher on the contest details, are you taking notes? Its true that all

Read more here

Workbench Storage Build Begins

Furnished content.

As you can see, I did get into the shop this week to begin on my workbench storage boxes. The thing I most like about building my own design, after 15 plus years building 18th- and early 19th-Century designs for customers, is that I can change the design clear up until I cant.

Read more here

New Release of SketchUp Make & Pro 2013

Furnished content.

Bob Lang goes over the details of the new release of Sketch 2013, shows the new features and explains the difference between the free SketchUp Make and SketchUp Pro

Read more here

Hand-tool Mecca

Furnished content.

Early tomorrow morning, Im traveling to Amana, Iowa, with Christopher Schwarz, John Hoffman, Ty Black and Andrew Lunn for the May 24-25 HandWorks: Woodworking Tools and Traditions event. But first, Im upending all the couch cushions, checking my old purses and scrabbling under the car seat to see how much loose change I can dig

Read more here

Look it Up or Suffer Under it: Resistentialism

Furnished content.

When I teach a woodworking class, I give my students free reign with my tools. It's a great way for them to get a feel for tools that are sharp and in order. It's also a great way to get a broken turning saw. During the last few years, students have destroyed my turning saws

Read more here

Work(wo)man's Compensation

Furnished content.

Note the wheel in the lower right corner ouch. No, I didnt drop a chisel on my foot or get bit by the table saw. But I did run into challenges of several sorts in the shop this weekend while working on a Shaker blanket chest with half-blind dovetails for an upcoming issue, and

Read more here

Yellow Pine, Poplar or Plywood for Workbench Storage

Furnished content.

This week, I swear Im getting started on my workbench. To heck with my computer, I need to make dust or something. Its time to get into the shop. Trouble is, I dont have, as of yet, any tools at the Popular Woodworking Magazine shop. I need a place to store my tools when I

Read more here

Shut up and Sharpen

Furnished content.

I make it a point to avoid blogging about sharpening. It is the simplest thing to do that is made confusing by too much talk and too many commercial products. I honestly do not care how you sharpen your tools. If you can get a zero-radius intersection and then polish the two surfaces, then you

Read more here

We Have a Winner!

Furnished content.

A hearty congratulations goes out to James McGlothlin of Willow City, Texas, for winning our JET Lathe Sweepstakes hes taking home the JET 1221VS variable-speed lathe. McGlothlin is a retired Baptist pastor who now spends a good deal of his time woodworking. He starting making wooden toys when his children were small, but has

Read more here

Chuck Bender, Senior Editor, Popular Woodworking Magazine

Furnished content.

I am beyond delighted to announce that Charles Chuck Bender is Popular Woodworking Magazines new senior editor. Hell be writing project and technique articles (lots of articles) for the magazine and web site, serving as one of our a technical editors, handling tool reviews and Tricks of the Trade, answering e-mails from you on all

Read more here

Sneak Peek at August Popular Woodworking Magazine Cover Project

Furnished content.

Here is a sneak peak at the cover project for the August 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. This project is also the subject of a video from Robert W. Lang that will be available soon. Subscribe now, and you won't miss out.

Read more here

Final Notes on Hannah's Inlaid Chest

Furnished content.

My trip to Winterthur greatly impacted my knowledge of Hannahs Inlaid Chest (what others may know as the Darlington Chest) I built for the June 2013 issue (#204). I posted a few things that would tilt the chest toward being a closer reproduction. I also promised I would point out which drawer was the imposter

Read more here

The Traitor's Tool Chest Now Available on DVD

Furnished content.

When I first mentioned the topic of my latest DVD, my e-mail inbox filled up with messages such as: This project is beneath you. Beneath all of us. You traitor.And that's the G-rated version. The DVD, 'A Traditional Tool Chest in Two Days', takes a home-center approach to building an 18th-century-style tool chest with

Read more here

Highland Woodworking 35 Years Young

Furnished content.

A happy 35th anniversary to Highland Woodworking (nee Highland Hardware) in Atlanta, Ga., and congratulations to its founders, Chris and Sharon Bagby, for offering the best tool selection in the South for three+ decades. To celebrate, theyre offering special 1-day deals (May 15 only) both in the store and on the web; click here to

Read more here

Sketchup Tutorials Galore

Here's a resource page with links to a bunch of very helpful Sketchup tutorials. And goodness knows, most woodworkers, myself included, can use whatever information we can get on Sketchup.

Make Moulding with SketchUp

Furnished content.

When it comes time to make mouldings with SketchUp, many woodworkers struggle. They get the hang of making each piece a component, and figure out that a moulding is simply an extruded face. Where things go south is when it comes time to turn a corner; how can that be accomplished with as little blood,

Read more here

New This Year at Woodworking in America: Silas Kopf

Furnished content.

Sila Kopf, renowned marquetarian will be one of the featured speakers at this year's Woodworking in America conference, held October 18-20, 2013 in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

Read more here

A Two-day Traditional-looking Tool Chest

Furnished content.

As regular blog readers know, I have too many tools with no home, so Ive been building an "Anarchists Tool Chest", a traditional English chest, a la Christopher Schwarzs book on the subject. And as regular readers know, Ive been building it sinceohsince many months ago (Im almost done really! Just

Read more here

Drawer Construction Details Make Life Easier

Furnished content.

Woodworkers are shy people, especially at the beginning of their journey. They make parts or assemblies oversized and then plane, sand or rasp them to fit. On one hand, this makes sense. It's easier to take wood off than to put it back on. However, the other hand is already done with the job

Read more here

I Want to Give You "Go Fever"

Furnished content.

In some high technology circles there is an expression they use when engineers move too quickly to launch a project. They have "go fever" and are willing to overlook horrible mistakes in order to launch a product. When teaching woodworking, especially casework, I find that most students need to take down their protective netting,

Read more here

New This Year at Woodworking in America "Silas Kopf"

Why Build a Traditional Tool Chest? Wait"ll You See the Sideboard

Furnished content.

I met Evan Court last month at CraftBoston, where he was representing the North Bennet Street School as one of the students in their furniture-making program. Heres a brief and informal introduction for you Evans latest work, a great sideboard that was on display at the show: But what I really want to tell

Read more here

String Inlay Tools - Radius Cutters

Furnished content.

On Hannahs Inlaid Chest from our June 2013 magazine (issue #204), I scratched most of the string inlay by hand using tools from both Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and Lee Valley/Veritas. Of the string inlay tools used on the chest, the most import is the radius cutter. For that job, I selected the tool from Lie-Nielsen (item

Read more here

Art History v. Experimental Archeology

Furnished content.

I have often found it beneficial to sketch furniture while examining it. Unlike a photograph, a pencil insists a form be understood to be reproduced. But my sketches don’t always look like my subjects. My failing can be attributed to both my lack of skill and lack of understanding of the subject. I’m not convinced … Read more »The post Art History v. Experimental Archeology appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Read more here

A Day at Winterthur: Part 2

Furnished content.

OK, I know I wrote that I would tell more about the Darlington chest (June 2013 cover project) next week. But I have three big reveals, so I had to share another bit yet this week. And this post should give you a little insight into the world of museums and high-priced antiques. Here goes.

Read more here

The Dumb Way to Teach Design

Furnished content.

While I like and appreciate strict reproductions, Ive always preferred to design my own stuff. How do I design a piece? In the only way I know how. Its not easy. There are no formulas or rules or ratios. It is by a process I call saturation and feedback. Step 1: Absorb everything you can

Read more here

A Safety Message from the Netherlands (You Needn't Know Dutch)

Furnished content.

I probably shouldnt share these here, because I copied the images from another site: Flavorwire (my daily stop for cool stuff on the Interwebs). But I couldnt resist, because these two workplace safety posters about woodworking tools are awesome. I wonder what they say? Not that it matters, the point is clear. (See 10

Read more here

Hand Tool Maintenance-Don't Ruin Your Tools!

Furnished content.

Woodworking, like fishing covers a lot of territory, so the audience for our magazine and website is a diverse lot. When I learned how to make stuff out of wood, the internet didnt exist and there was only one magazine and few books available on the subject. Lacking these modern resources, I was forced to

Read more here

On Steve Shanesy's Last Day

Furnished content.

All woodworking stories are by definition somewhat sappy. This one is even more so. The day I met Steve Shanesy I was a burned-out writer, designer and editor. I was managing a newspaper that was swirling around the rim of the toilet bowl. I was writing about politics something I didnt care

Read more here

A Day at Winterthur: An Eye-opening Experience

Furnished content.

This week Im at Acanthus Workshop LLC teaching a class in which we are building the cover project from the June issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, the Hannah Darlington Chest. Tuesday morning started out great: Breakfast at Annamaries; pancakes to die for. Then it was off to the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Winterthur,

Read more here