Author name: Enthusiast

Here’s a question that comes up often. What is the best way to apply a stain or finish? To begin with, all stains and finishes can be applied with one of three finishing tools: rag, brush (including paint pad, roller, etc.) or spray gun. Each is easy to use. Even a spray gun is no more difficult to use than a router. There are at least five key differences among […]

The post Wipe, Brush or Spray: Pros and Cons of Finishing Tools appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As Christopher Schwarz posted on his blog, Brendan Gaffney and I are in Maryland for a chair class with Larry Barrett (along with Chris, Narayan Nayar and Sean Thomas); Larry is teaching us to make chairs a la Jennie Alexander’s in “Make a Chair from a Tree” (with some minor variations). Today, we split out the back posts from red oak (and some punishing black oak…with which I ended up) […]

The post Steam-bending Oak in the Kitchen appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

This week, Popular Woodworking Magazine is short two employees as Megan Fitzpatrick and Brendan Gaffney have joined me on a chair class in Maryland. We’re building a version of the Jennie Alexander chair from “Make a Chair From a Tree” with Larry Barrett – one of Jennie’s students and friends. If you think that taking a class is easy for an experienced woodworking magazine editor, think again. No matter how […]

The post Yes, Megan and Brendan are Alive appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The November 2017 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine features a reproduction of a sideboard made in 1903 by the English furniture manufacturing company Harris Lebus. I built this sideboard based on drawings I’d made in 2007 from measurements of an original owned by some acquaintances. Having had a chance to visit that same original sideboard recently, I thought readers would be interested in gaining further insights and seeing details of […]

The post Further Insights into Harris Lebus Sideboard appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

For the next five days I’m in Maryland with four other friends to build a Jennie Alexander chair from Larry Barrett, a student and long-time friend of Alexander. Larry makes a chair that is 90 percent similar to Jennie’s iconic chair from her book “Make a Chair From a Tree.” Some of the details of Larry’s chair are a little different than Jennie’s – especially the front rung that is […]

The post Post & Rung & Jennie Alexander appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

My turning ability is bound by my lathe – it has a maximum diameter capacity of 16”. That means all my accessory tools, such as my hollowing system and 50cc 20” chainsaw, were acquired because they are designed around those size limitations. The largest bowls I make with these constraints are in the 14-15” range. For years I used fallen trees with a 20” diameter as raw material. By the […]

The post Focus on Turning Design by Working From Larger Logs appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.