Author name: Enthusiast

I’ll probably get pushback on this, but here goes anyway. I’d love to hear your objections. Look at the above picture. What seems odd to you? It’s not something small. It’s jumping right off the screen. The spraying technique is entirely correct, especially with the opposite hand holding the hose out of the way. Not doing this is the most common mistake I see when teaching a class. The student […]

The post This Mystifies Me Every Time I See It – Wearing Gloves While Finishing appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In my classes, we use marking/carving knives quite a lot. We score lines in preparation for making a “knife-wall”, we use them to whittle animals, to cut paper veneer and more. Our knives are shaped in the traditional European pattern with a wide bolster at the meeting point of the blade and the handle. To sharpen a knife I use DMT diamond stones.  Typically, I begin with a fine stone […]

The post A Tip for Sharpening Marking Knives appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As a maker of custom furniture and cabinetry, I use a variety of finishes. Some pieces need minimal protection – perhaps sealed with shellac and a coat of buffed wax, or finished with a blend of boiled linseed oil and polyurethane. Sometimes I brush oil-based poly onto horizontal surfaces that are going to get a lot of household wear; sometimes I use Osmo because an ultra-low sheen is what my […]

The post Keep the Hot Sauce Off the Table – Testing Finish appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The second till of my tool chest sits right below the top till and is almost exactly the same size. My trips to this till are infrequent. This till holds the small items I don’t use every day, including the spare bits and blades, a few specialty chisels and a bunch of tools for dealing with nails and screws. There are also a few specialty layout tools here that I […]

The post The Tools in the Second Till of my Tool Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Join the Popular Woodworking team! We’re looking for a Senior Editor, read the description here: http://bit.ly/2q7FIIY Check out Mortise and Tenon Magazine, Issue 4: http://bit.ly/2q7gXfV Congrats to Billy R. on winning the carving knife kit!  🎥 Kyle Toth – Maple Cabinet with TV: https://youtu.be/CUgqcZ3GmDw 🎥 Shaun Boyd – Modern Plywood Desk:  https://youtu.be/MRh4U9zEqnk 🎥 Mortise and Tenon Magazine: https://youtu.be/9A1KiyKj0lI 🎥 Wm. Walker Co. – Zero Clearance Insert:  https://youtu.be/wqtEyQ9qLHA 🎥 Rockler – Stripped […]

The post We’re Hiring! PopWood Playback #14 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When applying laminate on a narrow edge, it’s a little tricky to not tip the router and undercut the edge while trimming laminate. The surface on which the router must balance is often not wide enough to provide adequate support. I made this fixture from two pieces of plywood dadoed and screwed together for strength. It makes the job of holding the router at the correct angle for trimming laminate […]

The post Shop-made Jig for Trimming Laminate appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.