Author name: Enthusiast

It’s a privilege to be invited into people’s homes to discuss a potential project. Often it’s just an enjoyable meet-up where ideas can be discussed and proposals put forth. Every now and then, however, it goes far beyond that. When that happens, I feel excited and guilty. Excited from the experience of something new and unique, and guilty that I’m having so much fun while at work! While out on […]

The post Passage Through Time (Surveying a Vintage Building in England) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Stick around long enough and many things come full circle. When I first joined the Popular Woodworking staff lo these many years ago (OK, as of August, it was 10 years), Christopher Schwarz was working on the first edition of his first book, “Workbenches: from Design & Theory to Construction & Use.” It was published in 2007…by which time I could reliably spell rabbet. And now, he’s revised it with […]

The post ‘Workbenches: from Design & Theory to Construction & Use’ – Revised Edition appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Like most latchkey kids who grew up in the ’80s, I watch too much TV. If you are ever in my shop you’ll likely see a small TV on in the background. Do I really pay attention to it? Not really. I’ll catch 10 or 15 seconds, remember the plot and move on. It’s white noise – my generation’s version of an “El Lector” (reader) in a cigar factory. You’d be amazed […]

The post Woodworking: A Tool for Developing Imagination appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

A few weeks ago I was invited by the Yale University Art Gallery to do a presentation on colonial wood turning. The event took place at their legendary Furniture Study in lieu of their weekly public tour. During the presentation, I highlighted the differences between the work of the cabinetmaker and the work of the turner and then discussed how lathe turning uniquely satisfied the demands of the preindustrial artisan […]

The post Dawks at the Yale Furniture Study appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It takes a special tool chest to get me to sit up straight – I’ve spent the last six or seven years of my life researching and writing about tool chests. But this one, presumably Swedish, is fantastic. It was recently sold on this auction site for an astonishing sum. While the composition of all the tools, burl handles and color scheme is nice, what is most fascinating is the […]

The post Boarded Scandinavian Tool Chest – Too Cool appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

If your painted finish feels a little rough, you need to go to the liquor store. OK, that doesn’t make sense, so let’s back up a couple weeks when I was teaching a bunch of young woodworkers how to build a tool chest by hand at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. After building the 18 chests, we finished most of them with milk paint, a modern and quite easy […]

The post Smoothing Milk Paint & Other Rough Surfaces appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.