Author name: Enthusiast

“Could I do it,” I thought? A half-reasonable set of through-dovetails in thre minutes? Needless to say, I could not do it the first time of asking (and if you are interested you can watch my best attempt below). But the lessons to be drawn, reflections and the benefits of such a challenge are beyond a quick set of dovetails in pine. Here are some of my thoughts. An analogy would be […]

The post 3-Minute Dovetail – Pointless? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I wish I could send Frank Klausz to the shop of every reader to teach you the following lesson, but I think he’s busy. The first time I met Klausz was at a woodworking show on the East Coast about 15 years ago. He was demonstrating wooden moulding planes; I was demonstrating some infill planes I had built. At one point during my demonstration, Klausz walked up to my bench […]

The post The Best Defense Against Rust: Frank Klausz appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I get more questions about workbenches than any other – and among those, many of them are about the LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) bench Christopher Schwarz and I built in 2009, that appeared in the November issue. After more than five years in use, the top remains dead flat. It has a few dings from chisels and the like, but it had not needed flattening. in contrast, my pine “roubo” […]

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In life there’s a first time for everything and in this case it’s my first time with a woodworking tool custom-made by a small family business. Shane Skelton is the person behind the saw and I was eager to find out what he’s come up with. Just for the record Shane has be lending his saws out to anyone who wants a go, for free. A few UK tool sellers […]

The post Skelton Dovetail Saw – Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

For subscribers who have received their copy of the February 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, you are forgiven if you didn’t notice the piece of furniture on the cover and became fixated on the plow plane sitting on top of the piece of furniture. The plow is a masterpiece of ebony, brass and steel made by Jim Leamy, a long-time planemaker. And it is one of my most prized […]

The post Cover-worthy: Jim Leamy Plow Plane appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’m at home today awaiting the arrival of family, so I’m taking this time to install the doors on the pantry I built into a wee hallway between my living room and dining room. And though I’m at home, my good drill bits (the boxed set of seven) are not. It’s almost worth it to run out to the office to pick the up (and I probably would, except that […]

The post A Gift to Myself: (More) Brad-point Bits appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.