Author name: Enthusiast

The Planemakers’ Roundtable was one of the most popular sessions at Popular Woodworking in America 2016, with discussion topics ranging from metal vs. wood planes, to low-priced knock-offs. Panelists Raney Nelson (Daed Toolworks), Rick Blaiklock (Lee Valley/Veritas), Caleb James (Caleb James Planemaker), Konrad Sauer (Sauer & Steiner Toolworks) and Thomas Lie-Nielsen (Lie-Nielsen Toolworks), with moderator Christopher Schwarz (contributing editor, Popular Woodworking; editor, Lost Art Press) talked for almost two hours […]

The post Planemakers’ Roundtable from PWIA 2016 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Generally speaking, I like tools: power tools, hand tools, woodworking tools, farm tools. Tools. Also generally speaking, I like old things. I’m no Luddite (I’m very fond of Netflix) but am much more likely to smile over a thrift store treasure than a new iPhone. Be it a hat, lamp or hardback, old things have an ontological resonance that gets my neurons firing. Picturing all the sets of hands holding […]

The post Remove Rust from an Old Hand Plane with Citric Acid appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I had an excellent time at Popular Woodworking in America, and hope everyone else who was there did, too! It was such fun to catch up with woodworking friends new and old – particularly those I “knew” only through Instagram, Twitter and the like (nice to finally meet in person!). And though I didn’t have time to sit in for any full class sessions, I managed to at least poke […]

The post Popular Woodworking in America 2016 Photos appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

After surfacing the Y table slab, cutting the tenons, excavating the mortises and sanding and painting the legs, Colm mixed some slow setting epoxy adhesive in a cup and was ready to glue the legs. He brushed the epoxy on the tenons and inside the mortises, and then tucked the legs in. Next he put some adhesive on the wedges and drove them firmly down to expand the tenons and also […]

The post Live Edge Class at Peters Valley Part 4: Colm’s Table (C) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It has been my intention from the beginning of this blog to include postings about furniture restoration. By restoration I mean wood repair (including regluing), finish repair and refinishing. For twenty years, from 1976 to 1995 I ran a one-man (me) furniture making and restoration shop. I opened the shop with the intention of just making furniture, but there weren’t enough orders to keep me busy full time, and I […]

The post Introduction to Restoring Furniture appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When researching Roman workbenches, one of the things that leaped out at me was how low many of them were low, knee-high like a sawbench. After building a low bench based on drawing from Pompeii and Herculaneum, most visitors to my shop had one question: Were the Romans really short? The answer is: no. These low benches are used differently. You sit on them to plane faces of boards. You […]

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