Author name: Enthusiast

Last night I put the first coat of linseed oil on this oak aumbry I’m building for an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine and think it came out like I wanted. The oak is nothing special – just rift and quartered red and white oak off the rack at the lumberyard. I chose it mostly for its straight grain and color. Most of the construction is dados, rabbets and […]

The post American Gothic: An Aumbry from Kentucky appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I have a strange relationship with Frank Klausz. Frank doesn’t know it, but I’ll share it with you. I went to work with my father in his custom woodworking shop when I was in high school, and worked there through college. I learned much from my dad, but I also lost something in the process – the dynamic of father and son. Decades later dad and I are on good […]

The post Frank Klausz — The Man Behind the Bowsaw appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Following a restructuring of the woodworking team by our parent company, three people have elected to leave the company. October 15 will be the last day as part of the F+W woodworking community for Robert Lang, Glen Huey and Chuck Bender. I, along with the rest of their co-workers, thank them for the excellent work they’ve done for Popular Woodworking Magazine and the F+W woodworking community, and wish them well […]

The post Wish You Well appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I can’t swear to there being a “cycle” for every Arts & Crafts woodworker. I can only speak to my own experience and add that I have had many nods of agreement when sharing my philosophy. I began building Arts & Crafts pieces, because the sturdy simplicity spoke to me, and the beauty of the quarter-sawn white oak was all the embellishment I required. A gentle curve here or there […]

The post Does the Arts & Crafts Cycle End with the Greenes? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

This week I’m finishing up work on an aumbry for a future issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. More than anything, this project has been about exploring Gothic geometry. But as with any project, I always have a lot of detours and dead ends. The pierced carvings on the front of the aumbry are fairly simple, yet I was afraid they would be off-putting for some beginning woodworkers. So I started […]

The post An Introduction to Gothic Tracery (With a Router) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In the November issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine I wrote an article outlining the router bits I consider to be the core of any powered shop. The workhorse bits of that core set are the straight bits. Straight router bits come in three varieties: Spiral-upcut, spiral-downcut and straight-cut bits. The choice of which to use comes down to the specific job and your preferences. The difference between straight and spiral […]

The post Straight or Spiral appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.