Author name: Enthusiast

If you love to read about people screwing up, this post is for you. This week I’m shooting a DVD in the Popular Woodworking studio on building a traditional 18th-century tool chest (it should be out by mid-March). Building one of these chests alone in my shop is a 40-hour sprint-a-thon. Building it along with a class is an exercise in concentrating through interruptions. Building it in front of a […]

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My background is mostly based in family run businesses that depend on woodworking to put food on the table and keep the lights on. Because of this, I learned to make furniture with power tools. During my first week at Popular Woodworking Magazine, Christopher Schwarz was in the shop filming the “Build a Hand-Crafted Bookcase” DVD. I was amazed to see someone build a bookcase in such a short time, […]

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My friend Gil Arad, an Israeli woodworker who lives, works and teaches in a small village outside of Jerusalem has recently published a really cool video that depicts the kind of work that he does. More and more woodworkers are commissioning “about my work” videos as a means of promoting their work, but few of them actually show a project from start to finish. Gil (pronounced Geel) has an introduction […]

The post Gil Arad’s Mulberry and Ash Table appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Water causes wood to swell, so most people think that wetting one side and not the other will cause the wetted side to bow – that is, increase in width so the center is higher than the edges. If the wood is thin enough, this will be the case initially. But the overall swelling or shrinking after many wettings and dryings out, no matter the thickness of the wood, will […]

The post Water Warps Wood Opposite from What You May Think appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I cut my first dovetail in 1993 and that was also the first day I learned to use a marking gauge. The instructor didn’t tell me how to use it, so I set it and worked things out for myself. I ended up marking my baselines by pulling the gauge toward me. And I’ve never done it any other way. The funny thing is that this year I’ve been editing […]

The post I’ve Been Doing this Wrong Since 1993 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

A smooth feel is critical when judging the quality of a finish. It’s natural for people to run their hand over a finish, feel dust nibs and say, “This is not a great finish.” The problem is, there’s almost always a little dust that has settled on, and stuck to, the last coat of finish, even if you keep your finish area very clean. There will be less with fast-drying […]

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