Author name: Enthusiast

This has nothing to do with wood finishing, but I find it interesting anyway. You’re probably aware that Google is working on self-driving cars. Well, the company has filed a patent for an adhesive paint to be used on these and other cars that will help reduce injuries to pedestrians hit by these cars. The coating would be applied to the front end of the car and be composed of […]

The post Adhesive paint: Another Smart Coating appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As an editor, my work involves pouring over woodworking books. And as guy who’s trying to learn a bit of woodworking and build a few things in my spare time, that’s not a bad way to spend the workday. In addition to the books I develop for Popular Woodworking, I also look through our library of books for ideas and inspiration. Recently I came across “Working Wood 3” by Simon […]

The post Modern Hand Tool Methods for Furniture appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

During the last few months I’ve been revising “Handplane Essentials,” an out-of print book that we published while I was the editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine. The revisions, additions and subtractions will be significant. We’re removing a lot of the reviews and features on planemakers who are no longer in business. And I hope we’ll replace them with articles on those who are. On the technique side of things, I’m […]

The post Revising ‘Handplane Essentials’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’m building a pair of Roman workbenches in my shop that I’ll be demonstrating at Woodworking in America this fall (Sept. 16-18 in Covington, Ky.). This will be my only public appearance in 2016 – I am in full-on hermit mode right now. Why the heck would an Arkansas boy build Roman workbenches? Easy. They were the dominant form of workbench for about 1,500 years, they are simpler to build […]

The post Roman Workbenches at Woodworking in America appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

To maximize the beauty of curly maple (also bird’s-eye maple), you want the curls to “pop” – that is, be significantly darker than the rest of the wood. To do this you need to get more color into the curls. To some extent this happens naturally with any stain when you wipe off the excess. Though it’s a lot more work, you can significantly increase the darkness, or pop, by […]

The post Making Curly Maple Pop appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.