Author name: Enthusiast

I’ve enjoyed building Arts & Crafts furniture for a number of years. The look of the quarter-sawn oak after finishing has always been a strong selling point – a common approach is a historical finishing process called fuming. In a nutshell, the idea is to expose the finished piece of furniture to the fumes of ammonia. The tannins in the wood react to the fumes and darken. Pretty cool. But […]

The post Fuming a Finish – Cool but Dangerous! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

No, you have not entered an alternative dimension. Today – on this blog that focuses on handwork – we are going to talk about table saw sleds. When I do production work – processing hundreds of board feet of lumber for a class, for example – the table saw is an important machine. Table saws are great for ripping, but they are kind of crappy for crosscutting. Manufacturers have devised […]

The post 2 Table Saw Sleds (Part 1) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You can use a router to joint two boards at once. This is a really handy trick if you don’t have a long-bed jointer or you don’t have a jointer at all, and you’re working with really long stock. The trick is to rout both boards at the same time, so the edges mirror each other. Bowed or not, they’ll always fit tightly. To set this trick up, mill three spacer […]

The post How to Joint Two Boards at Once with Your Router appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve made several posts about measuring tools in the series Precision Instruments for Woodworkers. The purpose of the series is to introduce the idea of precision through establish standards for your measuring tools and to test all your measuring tools. It’s a simple theory: If you start with a few quality tools and make sure the other measuring tools you’ve chosen are tested or calibrated […]

The post A Video Guide to Measuring Tools in the Workshop appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You may be familiar with the problem Apple is having with their newly released Home Pods and the white rings they sometimes leave on wood surfaces. Apple explains that they come from the vibration-damping silicone attached to the bottom of the Home Pods. “The marks can be caused by oils diffusing between the silicone base and the table surface.” Apple says the marks can be removed by wiping the wood […]

The post Apple Home Pod and White Rings on Wood Tables. appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Blame it on the martini I had the night before. Or maybe on the dribble of eleventh-hour requests for illustration proofing related to my forthcoming book on English Arts & Crafts furniture. Whatever the reason, while I was sanding the 2″-thick edges of a current commission one day last week, trying to decide how much of the torn grain my client might want me to leave, it occurred to me […]

The post 21st-century Gothic: Book giveaway! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.