Author name: Enthusiast

In the February, 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine I wrote an article on teak oil. If you’re interested in a more extensive explanation than here, I encourage you to go back to that issue and read the article. I titled the article “Teak Oil: The Oil That Doesn’t Exist,” because there’s no such thing as teak oil. I had suspected this from as far back as the early 1990s […]

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One of the little challenges for beginning handplane users to get a clean surface at the start of the cut, particularly with a smoothing plane. They push the tool forward and it leaves little bumpy chatter marks for about 3/8” of an inch until the plane starts to settle down and cut cleanly. The problem is particularly exacerbated in hard woods, such as white maple. One of the reasons these […]

The post Start Handplanes on the Skew appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In late June 2016 I visited Israel and attended Paul Sellers’s Fundamental Hand-Tool Joinery Workshop which took place at Gil Arad’s Woodworking School outside of Jerusalem. For Paul it was his first visit to Israel, and for Israeli woodworkers – amateurs and professional alike – it was a rare opportunity to learn from one of a great teachers and makers of our time.  Here I share a short slide show that […]

The post Paul Sellers Joinery Workshop at Gil Arad’s Woodworking School appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

If you’re someone who builds things (and as a PW reader, it’s a safe bet that you are), chances are at some point you’ve daydreamed about building a treehouse. But in order to make the dream a reality there’s a lot more to it than just nailing some boards into a tree. That’s why Django Kroner, owner of professional treehouse building company and tree service The Canopy Crew decided to write […]

The post Most Common Treehouse Mistakes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I sharpen all of my plane irons and chisels at 35°. Here’s why: I do this to keep my sharpening regimen as simple as possible. I don’t want to pick up a tool and wonder: What angle is this sharpened to? I also don’t want to sharpen a tool, discover that I used the wrong angle and have to resharpen it immediately. And I don’t want to have multiple jigs […]

The post About My Love of 35° appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As an editor it’s always fun to see the new books show up. Our latest offering, “How to Build Bookcases & Bookshelves” officially releases at the end of the month. It’s a compilation of stunning bookcase projects from the archives of Popular Woodworking Magazine and American Woodworker. The builds cover a range of styles from simple to more ornate – so whether you love the classic look of Arts & […]

The post Book Giveaway: How to Build Bookcases & Bookshelves appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.