Author name: Enthusiast

While walking through the ridiculously tidy racks at Northwest Timber in Jefferson, Ore., I realized at that moment something that hadn’t fully occurred to me during the last 20 years. I am buying, transporting and storing a lot of garbage. Not “garbage” in the sense that the wood is of poor quality. But garbage in the sense that a good deal of rough stock goes into the dust collector, scrap […]

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Alan Lacer has been involved in the field of wood turning for almost four decades. He’s done almost anything and everything you can think involving the craft from turning to teaching to writing, and is a past president of the American Association of Woodturners. His latest book, “Alan Lacer’s Woodturning Projects & Techniques” is a collection of his writings for American Woodworker Magazine, presenting 15 years worth of his articles in one volume. In the […]

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Litmus tests are a necessary evil in life. In the sciences they are a critical tool; in a social context they’re a justification for exclusio, and a rational for prejudice. Having said that… Woodworking is not a science and during my time as a woodworker I’ve developed a litmus test. The longer I woodwork, the harder it is to find others who have information in their brains that I can […]

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At around $1 an eraser shield is one of the best buys in your drafting toolkit. This little bit of punched stainless steel if often in my hand when I am drawing a set of plans and is invaluable for cleaning up corners and errant lines. Most folks can intuitively figure out how to use this tool – you place it on your drawing and use a high quality eraser […]

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At Christmas time I was lucky enough to get a few tool vouchers that enabled me to purchase some Japanese-style saws. I had some trials runs, but had not really put them to work on a project yet. Lucky for me, I got some shop time this weekend on the proviso I make something for the house, not my tool chest! That was fine by me, although I don’t like […]

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Some of my favorite tools come from Blue Spruce Toolworks outside Portland, Ore. I own three of the different mallets Dave Jeske makes, plus several of his fantastic chisels and, of course, one of his marking knives. I was one of Jeske’s early customers when he started making marking knives about 13 years ago and sold them on the Internet. At the time, toolmaking was a side gig that Jeske […]

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