Author name: Enthusiast

Forget plastic or metal pans – a wooden one looks nicer and works better. June 2017 Pages 38-41 by Christopher Schwarz Some time during the last 25 years of prowling around workshops, museums and antique stores, I spotted a wooden dustpan. The encounter made me slap my forehead – why do I have a plastic pan when I could build a wooden one from scraps? After studying commercial dustpans and […]

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My friend and neighbor, Takuji Matsuda, is an untraditional traditional Japanese woodworker. He is one of a few remaining makers of a special kind of Japanese box called Kiribako, and perhaps the only North America based maker who is an expert in building dedicated Kiribako for Buddha statues. While well rooted in the traditions of Japanese woodworking, Mr. Matsuda, a graduate of the sculpture program at Pratt Institute in New […]

The post A Visit to Takuji Matsuda’s Kiribako Shop: Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Interested in how historic american furniture was built? This week’s book giveaway is for a copy of Zach Dillinger’s “With Saw, Plane & Chisel.” This look at period-accurate building techniques is perfect for those who love hand tools as well as anyone who appreciates classic American furniture styles. The book includes joinery techniques, processes for prepping stock by hand and features six furniture projects covering such styles as Queen Anne, William & Mary and Chippendale. Simply post […]

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In my last few posts, I showed how two different vise chops designs were created for the BARN workbenches. One technique was based on an easy to use 3D CAD tool: extrusion. Armed with a squiggly line, that gave me a 3D ripple in a hurry. The second chop was created using rule-based clone copies of simple geometric shapes to create an array. That gave me a big set of […]

The post CAD to CAM to CNC: Part Six — 10 Different Vise Chops appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

What the heck? Why would I want a forge, I’m a woodworker! Ah, but I have had the pleasure of watching a forge in action (very cool, lots of fire and sparks!) for a number of video shoots creating tools and hardware – and it was fascinating! But I kept coming back to the issue that I don’t have a forge and it seemed like a rather large ask to […]

The post Video: Build a Backyard Propane Forge for Less than $100 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I have a meager collection of handplanes made up of mostly dog-meat users. I like using planes that have history because it’s fun to think about what each might have made during the last 100 years. None of my planes are particularly nice, but I do want to keep them from getting destroyed. For a long time, my planes cluttered my workspace, got knocked around on my bench and were […]

The post Tricks of the Trade: Gas-powered Plane-till Lid appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.