Author name: Enthusiast

Gathering the tools and materials necessary to make a Roorkee chair might seem intimidating because of some of the unusual operations (riveting?). I think the list of necessary tools is pretty manageable and reasonably priced – nothing too exotic. When students ask me for recommendations on what they should buy, here is my list. I have found this set of tools to work very well. Make substitutions at your own […]

The post Tools to Make a Roorkee Chair appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

One of the most influential chairs of the 20th century was built and designed by an anonymous craftsman in Roorkee, India. Whoever built the first “Roorkee” chair in the late 1890s was trying to supply the military forces of the British Empire with a lightweight camp chair that could be taken to pieces in a few minutes and could adapt to any terrain, no matter how rugged. The simple Roorkee […]

The post Coming Soon: Build a Campaign Chair DVD appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

If there is a defining image that says woodworking, a silhouette that most would identify with, then it’s likely the Bailey-style outline of a plane would be top of the list. Gracing many a business card, letterhead or sign on a van, it’s all around.  A mark of the plane’s success is the very fact it’s burned into the minds of many in wider society as something good about woodworking. […]

The post Before the Archetype appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You’d think after 20 years of doing anything it would start to get a little stale. Tell that to Roy Underhill! We recently put together his 21st through 31st seasons in a kit and I’ve got to tell you, Roy’s still hitting on all cylinders. I don’t mean to come off sounding like a commercial, but I guess that’s where I am. It’s hard not to be excited. These seasons […]

The post A New Decade of Roy Underhill! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The doors on the rest of my kitchen cabinets were constructed with stub tenons. But the pantry doors that I (finally) hung over my holiday break are 82″ tall and will get used a lot (the pantry shelves were built in part to house boxes of kitty litter); stub tenons aren’t up to the task. So, for these, I cut traditional mortise-and-tenon joints. The poplar rails and stiles are 3/4″ […]

The post Doors Built to Last (Though They Probably Needn’t Be) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

During the last two weeks, I’ve been perfecting my impression of the common garden slug. I’ve become quite good at it. Pretty much the only thing woodworking-related I’ve accomplished is to hang the doors on the pantry shelves I built just before Thanksgiving. I’m not done fitting them, mind you (if only I’d made each 1/16″ narrower, darn it!). I’ve been feeling too lazy to take them back down to […]

The post A Supremely Lazy Holiday appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.