The dovetail is the drawer joint of choice in many a classic drawer, but for a more mechanized world, the drawer joint of choice is often the half-blind tongue-in-groove. Sturdy, interlocking, mechanical without the need of nails, and quickly made on a table saw this joint often appears in commercial cabinetry (in a good way)....
I love routers and this elliptical router jig makes me love them even more. I’ve made countless circles with router jigs over the years, but this simple jig for creating a multitude of oval shapes is slick. Ovals are tough because it’s a mathematical equation to get the shape correct. While I love routers,...
Before taking my 9th grade students to visit Joseph Walsh’s exhibit last month (read more about the exhibit here), I made a mockup mold to show them how thin strips of wood (mahogany veneer in our case) can be persuaded to follow a three-dimensional path to form a helical shape, a curve, etc. I...
My skew and I have a troubled relationship. It is by far my favorite turning tool and when things go right I feel I can do anything. We also fight a lot. To the level where those “never again” words cross my lips. It usually takes some form of counseling to get us back together....
Fight woodworking ignorance 15 minutes each day. Editor’s note: In the September/October 2017 issue (which mails to subscribers on Aug. 1), we have an article from up-and-coming makers on the books that have influenced their work and woodworking philosophy. Below is a similar article we ran in June 2011, asking established makers what they...
Many old-growth trees are on protected land that will never be forested. But some ancient wood makes it to market. Is it worth working with? We find out. by Kara Gebhardt pages 94-97, December 2003 We crashed down a steep hill covered in ancient rhododendron thickets and the effect was complete. This forest was so old and civilization so far...
Anyone who has introduced a square to young students or beginner woodworkers knows the challenges of teaching them how to control the tool and maintain it square to the edge of the workpiece during use. The main problem for the inexperienced woodworker is to keep the square where they intended. As the student slides...
The Maslow is not a conventional CNC. It’s kit based, and costs less than $500. $350 if you’ve got a couple of 2” x 4”s and some plywood to throw in. If you’re new to the Maslow, here’s Part One, Two and Three. This started out as a crowd-funded Kickstarter project, which means that the...
One of the most impressive pieces of furniture in the show (read part one of my story here) is a tall, pod-like cabinet that was commissioned by a wrist-watch collector. To house the collection, Joseph built a stacked cluster of drawers that pivot out on arms of bronze and stainless steel. It is not...
