Author name: Enthusiast

You may know that Sears is in big trouble; the brand may not survive. It’s closing stores fairly rapidly and in January sold the iconic Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker. I have some history with Craftsman tools and some thoughts about what has happened, so I thought I’d share them. Back in the 1960s, I restored an old house in Washington, D.C., while I was serving in […]

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…without looking it up

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Dig out the best pictures of your work – or get started now on a new piece – and enter the fifth annual PWM Excellence Awards for a chance at the $1,000 grand prize. Submissions are accepted accepted in five categories from now  through June 16 – click on the logo at left (or above, if you’re on mobile) to enter (or see the link below) There’s no fee to […]

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I was in the shop last night helping a friend with a project for a college design course. The course required her to carry a furniture piece through the construction phase but seems they didn’t do a lot of teaching on that part and my friend has no woodworking background. I was happy to help (and do a bit of teaching along the way), though as we progressed it was me […]

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It’s hard to fathom, but finger joints are a relatively new joinery method for Frank Klausz, because why not just cut dovetails when you need a box?  In fact, when we filmed the video below (2014), he’d cut his first finger joints but two weeks before. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what he’s talking about – after all, Frank has been a woodworker for longer than I’ve been […]

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I recently posted on our Instagram account and Twitter feed the opening image from Rob Cosman’s 2006 article “Houndstooth Dovetails,” and it proved remarkably popular – so I figured I might as well post the article. And while that “opener” certainly benefited from good lighting, and great camera and a skilled photographer (as you can see below), the image above is from my phone, and taken just a few minutes […]

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