Short Video with Christopher Schwarz
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As editors, we search our two web sites (popularwoodworking.com and shopwoodworking.com) constantly for information for the online extras portion of all articles and most columns the information, we hope, is both relevant and interesting. While searching the sites, I often come across books, articles and DVDs that have scads of interesting information, including tips and techniques. Because woodworkers are visual, well provide a few short snippets of some of []
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posted at: 12:06am on 31-Jan-2014
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One Furniture Maker's Tool Cabinet
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I got an e-mail the other day letting me know that my new DVD, Building a Furniture Makers Tool Cabinet, had finally arrived in the shopwoodworking.com warehouse. The e-mail also asked if Id be willing to write something about the project here on the Editors Blog; obviously I said yes. This DVD is the first in a series of compilation videos that contain episodes from my No BS Woodworking show. []
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posted at: 12:06am on 31-Jan-2014
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Imitation Could be Illegal
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Ive lately seen an uptick in discussions on woodworking forums and social media regarding protecting ones own designs. And while its possible that some laws have changed since 2008 when attorney and woodworker Jon Shackelford wrote the article below, I think his explanation remains a good starting point for those concerned with the topic whether its protecting your own rights or making sure you dont trample on those of []
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posted at: 12:06am on 31-Jan-2014
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Finger Joint, Another Corner Joint
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Most of my projects have some form of dovetail joinery. Drawers have half-blind and through-dovetails joints, and drawer dividers generally attach to the case with sliding dovetails. In fact, other than the Southern Gents Mirror Stand from the August 2013 issue (#205), I cannot remember the last project to come out of my shop in which no dovetails were in the mix. As a form of protest, Im tossing aside []
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posted at: 12:07am on 30-Jan-2014
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Next up: The Douro Chair
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You would think that after 30 months of researching and building campaign furniture, I'd be ready to build something else. Such as something that didn't collapse, fold or have copious amounts of brass hardware. But no. I am nuts for the Douro chair. It's a reclining chair with leather cushions, yet it pre-dates the Morris chair by many decades. Not only is it a very comfortable chair (I sat in []
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posted at: 12:02am on 29-Jan-2014
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For the 5 Oddballs Who've Asked
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Most of you should probably stop reading right now. What follows will be of interest only to those who: read the dictionary for fun; keep notebooks handy for jotting down odd and interesting words and definitions; memorize large swathes of the AP, MLA and Chicago style books (because why wouldnt you?!); and take pride in knowing how to properly spell Volkswagen and the Procter in Procter & Gamblein other words, []
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posted at: 12:02am on 29-Jan-2014
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From Melbourne to Winston-Salem
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An e-mail recently landed out of the blue from Kevin Ireland (publisher of Popular Woodworking Magazine) with a bit of an inside scoop on the 2014 Woodworking In America. Last time I was in the U.S. selling tools at Woodworking in America in Pasadena, Calif., Kevin and I were having great chats and bouncing ideas around about WIA and the future of it all. Much to my disappointment, I couldnt []
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posted at: 12:07am on 27-Jan-2014
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Mastermyr Tool Chest Video, Coming Soon
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Ive met a great many fine and interesting people through woodworking, and Don Weber, who lives in the charming town of Paint Lick, Ky., is among the best of them. The first time I actually saw Don, he had a steam-bending contraption set up on the loading dock at our former shop, where he was teaching the Popular Woodworking staff how make a Welsh stick chair. I had not yet []
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posted at: 12:01am on 25-Jan-2014
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Mike Dunbar: Chairmaker and Presidential Kingmaker?
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Woodworkers know Mike Dunbar as the founder of The Windsor Institute, an expert in traditional woodworking techniques and the man behind the renaissance of the Windsor chair in the 20th century. But did you know he also was the man who drafted Donald Trump into a run for the presidency? Heck, I've known Dunbar for years, edited his articles and even attended a Windsor chairmaking class by him in May []
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posted at: 12:01am on 25-Jan-2014
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Creole Table, Free Plans
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Christopher Schwarz built this lovely and delicate Creole Table for our February 2007 issue (an issue that also includes a nice Greene & Greene side table, Michael Dunbar's discussion of traditional handscrews, an easy and accurate way to sharpen scrapers and more). You can read it free here, but I recommend downloading the PDF at the end for the cutlist and illustrations (and the images align better in the text []
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posted at: 12:00am on 24-Jan-2014
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Hey, is that a Nib on Roy's Nail Cabinet?
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Justin asks: My question is about Roys nail cabinet (PWM, February 2014). I have built the cabinet, turned it into a crate and have the door ready to assemble. I still need to build 21 drawers. I am so glad that you did this article it is the thing I have been wanting to add to my shop. My question is about the bottom of the cabinet as it hang []
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posted at: 12:00am on 24-Jan-2014
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Quartersawn White Oak Grain Matching
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I once worked with a guy who maintained that white oak wasnt suited for furniture and that whiskey barrels are a far better use for this wood. Looking at the pile of wood in the photo you might be inclined to agree with that, and there are days when I find myself leaning in that direction. Im working on a project for an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, a []
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posted at: 12:00am on 24-Jan-2014
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Sticking A Preview of the April Issue
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Sooner or later into every woodworkers life stiles and rails must fall. And, unless you leave them square, youre going to have to deal with sticking. You know what sticking is, right? Its that little bit of decorative moulding that makes the transition from the frame face to the panel surface. For the upcoming April issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (which should be mailing to subscribers on, or about, February []
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posted at: 12:02am on 23-Jan-2014
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2013 Popular Woodworking Magazine Favs Part 2
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In a continuation of selecting my favorite articles from the issues of 2013 (read part 1 here), below covers the August (issue #205) through December (issue #208) for the year. My hands-down winner from the August 2014 issue is the article written by Mario Rodriguez, Take a U-turn to Scoop a Chair Seat. Jigs are a weakness of mine, and to see a guy rig-up his table saw to plow []
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posted at: 12:02am on 23-Jan-2014
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New 16 oz. Indestructible Mallet from Blue Spruce
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Blue Spruce Toolworks has just introduced a new 16 oz. square-head joiners mallet with a resin-impregnated head, which makes the mallet nigh-indestructible. This little guy ($95) is similar to the 24 oz. version ($115) introduced at Woodworking in America, which I own, use and adore. Thanks to the heft and one leather-covered face of the big mallet, I gave away my old rubber dead-blow, which loved to leave black marks []
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posted at: 12:02am on 23-Jan-2014
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Woodworking in America 2014, Save the Dates
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In the coming weeks (and months), well have a great deal more to share about Woodworking in America 2014, but for now, know this: Dates: Sept. 12-14, 2014 Location: Winston-Salem, N.C. The main venue is the Benton Convention Center, located in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem (read: You wont go hungry. Or thirsty.) And were particularly delighted to be partnering with Old Salem and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative []
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posted at: 12:03am on 22-Jan-2014
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Leg Vise with No Parallel Guide or Garter
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Last summer I built a workbench that was as close to the bench shown in A.-J. Roubo's plate 11 as I could manage. While I still have three details to add to my bench (a drawer, a tool rack and a grease pot), the rest of the bench has been up and running since August 2013. The leg vise is perhaps the most unusual feature of this circa 1768 workbench. []
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posted at: 12:03am on 22-Jan-2014
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PWM Query Guidelines
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Im often asked if we accept unsolicited queries. We do. We just havent had the submission guidelines posted on the web site for the last couple of years, and now we do. Every issue includes at least a couple of articles from freelance writers, many of which started out as unsolicited queries. In fact, we rarely assign projects or techniques to freelancers; wed much rather have folks tell us []
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posted at: 12:01am on 18-Jan-2014
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21st-Century Workbench Leg Joints
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Its hard to separate woodworking from history. Most of the skills we need and tools we use come from earlier times when everyday items that are now mostly plastic or cardboard were made of wood. Its easy to look back and assume that a tool or process developed for a specialty in the 18th or 19th century makes sense today, or to make the assumption that what one branch of []
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posted at: 12:01am on 18-Jan-2014
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Kansas City Woodworkers Guild. Wow.
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I have visited a lot of woodworking clubs in North America since 1996, and I thought I had seen it all until I stepped into the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild's enormous facility today. Perched on top of a cave (Kansas City is full of caves), the club has more than 10,000 square feet of space for demonstrations, plus a bench room and a machine room (not to mention storage galore). []
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posted at: 12:01am on 18-Jan-2014
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Get a Groat in Your Throat
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When it comes to pushing our handplanes, I think we are candy-bottomed wussies compared to the joiners of the 17th century. We are obsessed with how thin a shaving we can make. Early joiners, however, wanted to take the thickest, gnarliest shaving possible for the tool, the bench and his or her arms. For proof, take a look at the first English-language woodworking book, "The Art of Joinery" (1678) by []
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posted at: 12:05am on 17-Jan-2014
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31 Days of Christmas Grand Prize Winner!
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The Grand Prize Winner of Popular Woodworkings 31 Days of Christmas 2013 was.. Richard Wienhold! Congratulations to Richard for winning a Custom-made Hanging Tool Cabinet AND a $1,000 Gift Card from Lee Valley Tools. Richard has a Lee Valley wish list already filled and ready to go! Richard grew up woodworking with his Dad but got serious about woodworking over the last 6 years. Richard focuses in on hand tool []
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posted at: 12:05am on 17-Jan-2014
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2013 Popular Woodworking Magazine Favs, Part 1
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Ive been associated with this magazine in one capacity or another for the past 20 plus years. As a new year begins, Ive made it a habit to look back through the previous seven issues to pick out which articles caught my interest. I grabbed a copy of the Popular Woodworking Magazine 1995 2013 DVD and began reminiscing. (Theres also a one year CD available, click here.) Ill take []
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posted at: 12:03am on 16-Jan-2014
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Still Shooting
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Some time ago I posted about theLee Valley Shooting Plane. In that post I used a shop-made shooting board. That will be the subject of todays lessonerr, blog post. When I made the quick video about the Lee Valley plane, I had no shooting board in the shop. I was still in the midst of moving from Pennsylvania and mine were either packed away somewhere or still to be packed. []
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posted at: 12:00am on 15-Jan-2014
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Good Woodworking Reads
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Today, I was coding the Great Woodshops article on Jeff Miller that Christopher Schwarz wrote for our February 2012 issue, and I categorized it in our back end under interviews. (Its an online extra to go with Jeffs February 2014 articleyes, Im a little late on getting that done.) On the front end, when I went to view the post to make sure I didnt screw up any paragraphs returns []
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posted at: 12:00am on 15-Jan-2014
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Book Review: Woods in British Furniture-Making
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I try to keep Adam Bowett's book "Woods in British Furniture-Making 1400-1900" closed tight as much as possible. That's because every time I open it, I lose at least an hour of my day reading a section of the book that I hadn't yet discovered. "Woods in British Furniture-Making 1400-1900" (Oblong Creative, 2012) is a massive text in every sense. Measuring 9-3/4" x 13" with 360 pages of extensively footnoted []
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posted at: 12:00am on 15-Jan-2014
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Put Your Boots Up & Stay a While
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During the week between Christmas and the New Year, I was on a short vacation in Colorado. Even though I had never spent time in the state (except passing through on a connector flight), I had a preconceived idea of what to expect when it came to Colorado furniture. My idea may have been wrong it may still be wrong. But it was reinforced within the walls of the []
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posted at: 12:00am on 11-Jan-2014
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New Year, New Look for the PWM Site
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Get ready for a new-and-improved PopularWoodworking.com. Tomorrow, or possibly on Monday (because goodness knows we dont want to launch a new site on a Friday), when you visit this site it will look a little different. The home page will feature a slide show of new content, plus youll see links to our various blogs,
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posted at: 12:05am on 09-Jan-2014
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Cove Moulding by Hand & Machine
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Werner Duerr continually drove one concept into our heads: Do everything by machine until you come to a point where the only way to do it better is by hand. Ever concerned with our productivity, the cabinetmaking and carpentry vocational teacher tried his best to instill in his students a sense of urgency in the
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posted at: 12:01am on 07-Jan-2014
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The Roorkee Bed?
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With my latest book, "Campaign Furniture",I'm at the very titillating stage of processing several gigabytes of scanned images of furniture that I've gathered from musty British catalogs. Many of these high-resolution images take several minutes to process, and so I abuse my friends with annoying text messages about Pepsi Max and acorns as Photoshop
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posted at: 12:09am on 04-Jan-2014
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Czeck Edge Goes Carbide
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In preparing to review the new Czeck Edge birdcage awl for the February issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (find out how to get the electronic version free by clickinghere), I asked Bob Zajicek (founder of Czeck Edge Tools) to also send his new Super Kadet II carbide marking knife. Because it is a (relatively) new
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posted at: 12:18am on 03-Jan-2014
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My Screwdrive's Little Brother
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At Christmas, my preference would be to receive nothing. But that's not an option with my wife and kids. The kids got me some stickers for my tool chest (Johnny Cash, Foo Fighters and Nirvana). My wife bought me 12 beers I'd never tried before, she replaced some worn out socks and bought me this
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posted at: 12:08am on 02-Jan-2014
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