Author name: Enthusiast

When traveling, there are many times when I wish for a toothed planing stop, especially when installing stuff where I rarely even have a bench. Enter the Whipple Hook from Lee Valley Tools. This early 20th-century patented $9.50 gizmo turns any wooden surface into a functional planing stop with the addition of two screws (so don’t use this in your hotel room). This week I installed it on the corner […]

The post Whipple Hook: Turn Any Board into a Bench appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Look for the new “Woodworking Legends: Garry Knox Bennett” video in mid-May (it will be available at ShopWoodworking.com). On it, fellow furniture making giant Alf Sharp chats with Garry about his life, his work, his woodworking philosophy and more. On this excerpt (rated PG-13 for language), Alf and Garry take a walk through Garry’s shop to take a look at his impressive collection of “old arn” – including a 30″ […]

The post Video Shop Tour: Garry Knox Bennett appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

My biggest arguments while at Popular Woodworking Magazine weren’t about hand tools vs. power tools, Shaker vs. Arts & Crafts, Grizzly Industrial vs. everyone else. Instead we fought about a question you might not think about: Isn’t so-and-so woodworker full of crap? When you get experienced woodworkers around a table and throw them an article from someone new, the reaction is: This dingus doesn’t know how to cut a dado. […]

The post A Voice You Can Trust – or 100 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

There are many ways to cut this popular edge-to-edge joint. by Bill Hylton from the April 2005 issue A tongue-and-groove joint is an edge joint with a mechanical interlock. The edge of one board has a groove. A matching tongue is formed on the edge of the mating board. The tongue goes into the groove, and the boards are joined. You probably are most familiar with the joint’s many applications […]

The post Tongue and Groove Joinery appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ve been helping out a friend with a college project (in case it wasn’t obvious, it’s a wall-hung wine and liquor cabinet with a detachable serving tray) and while it’s mostly been a favor, it’s also been a privilege that has shown me that teaching is its own satisfaction. While helping my friend was a chance to do a little teaching, it really wasn’t the intention…I just couldn’t help myself. […]

The post Teaching Is Its Own Satisfaction appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In Stanley Kubriks “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the opening scene of our primate ancestors contends that the earliest tool was the mallet. It was made from a femur, but a mallet all the same. Woodworkers have since refined that original design. Mallets are our most-used tool because woodworkers hit more things in an afternoon than a mobster does in a lifetime. As such, most woodworkers have a small collection of […]

The post Small Rubber Mallet – a Cheap Indispensable Tool appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.