Author name: Enthusiast

All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better. – Ralph Waldo Emerson You know what the Telephone Game is, right?  One person starts by whispering a phrase into the next person’s ear and that person whispers what they heard to the next person and this continues down the line.  By the time the … Read more »

The post The Telephone Game – Woodworking Version appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

With the growth of hand tools in woodworking, or should I say the return to hand tools in woodworking, many up-and-coming furniture makers think that the final pass on a panel or surface is always with a smoothing plane or scraper. If you think that you may be wrong. Furniture makers in the 18th- and … Read more »

The post Shagreen: Sandpaper of the Past appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When I talk to woodworkers about drawers, particularly dovetail joinery, I mention the transition that occurs as we moved from one furniture period to the next. In general, dovetails became a drawer-joinery method during the William & Mary period; woodworkers had used dovetails earlier, but they became more widely used during the period that stretched … Read more »

The post Sweating the Details appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Matt Cianci’s initial forays into woodworking were as a luthier but his introduction to handsaws was born of necessity. “I had to furnish my house and I couldn’t afford to,” Matt says. “I made guitars, so I thought, ‘Hey! I can make furniture!’” So he learned to use a saw and other tools, and was … Read more »

The post Meet Matt Cianci – The ‘Saw Wright’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

A plunge router is a versatile tool, but setting an exact depth can be perplexing. There are a bunch of knobs and levers that control how far down the bit will go, but if you’re trying to make a precise adjustment you rapidly run out of hands and patience as you fight the springs and … Read more »

The post Plunge Router Depth Adjustment Trick appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In his April 2013 Design Matters column, George R. Walker introduced to our pages the work of Windsor chairmaker Richard Grell, and shared the fascinating story of how a devastating fire and its aftermath proved the enduring strength of the Windsor form. (Download and read that article here: A_Chairmakers_Design_Lessons.) Today, I received a press release … Read more »

The post New Windsor Chairmaking Classes with Richard Grell appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.