Author name: Enthusiast

Though I’ve built a lot of chairs, I don’t own an adze, which is used to roughly shape a plank seat so it has a buttocks-shaped depression. I also don’t own any of the typical power-tool solutions, such as an angle grinder outfitted with a special cutter for seats. Instead, I have a scorp, which is like a drawknife that was bent around a telephone pole. It’s much slower in […]

The post Use a Drill to Shape a Chair Seat appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Silicone contamination causing fish eye doesn’t only come from consumers using silicone-containing furniture polishes on their furniture as I’ve been discussing in my last two posts. It can also come from hand and body lotions and from overspray if you use an aerosol polish in your shop to make the furniture you’ve just finished look better. The problem is that no manufacturers of any products I’m familiar with list silicone […]

The post More on Silicone Oil appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Look for new videos from Popular Woodworking every Tuesday on our YouTube channel and Thursday.  Cutting dovetails is a skill that many strive to master. It has become a right of passage for many woodworkers who are developing their hand tool skills. In their eagerness to get to the sawing, many beginning woodworkers rush through the layout process. Christopher Schwarz makes this often complicated process simple, using basic layout tools. Follow along […]

The post Laying Out Dovetails with Christopher Schwarz appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’m in Amana, Iowa this weekend for the Handworks 2017, and it’s a bit of a madhouse (but in a good way). It’s difficult to estimate the number of people, because the event is spread over five buildings in this historic German village, with hand tool makers, woodworking schools, timber framing, chairmakers, blacksmiths and more. I also haven’t gotten to see too many of the tools up close, because I’ve […]

The post Handworks 2017, Day 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Learning about CNCs at the Marc Adam’s School of Woodworking Furniture manufacturers and large cabinets shops have been using digital tools and CNCs for decades. But, for hobbyists and small to medium shops, digital woodworking is just now getting started. Being a new kind of woodworking, it’s certainly different. That means there are new things to learn. A few weeks ago, I taught two classes at the Marc Adams School […]

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I recently completed a box project that I did as practice for hand-cutting dovetails (a new skill for me that I plan to use for a furniture build in the not too distant future). Personally I like to feel like I’m making something when I practice instead of just cutting and recutting on a practice board (though I did do a little bit of that as well before starting my box). But […]

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