Author name: Enthusiast

If you’re about to embark on building your first workbench, you might want to read this blog entry. I expect you to discard every piece of advice in it (most bench-builders do) and build the crazy contraption you’ve planned out in your head. Here, in my opinion, are the most common missteps woodworkers make when they build their first workbench. 1. Too many workholding devices I’ve built workbenches with more […]

The post The Mistakes of First-time Bench-builders appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The topic of nails comes up quite often here in the Popular Woodworking Magazine (PWM) office and on the blogs. This morning I arrived in the office to find an e-mail from a reader that included a link to a short film. With the Academy Awards occurring last night, and this film having been nominated for one back in 1980, I thought it an appropriate time to bring up the subject […]

The post Nailing It appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Plans are underway in the U.K. for the third Spoonfest 2014 – The International Celebration of the Carved Wooden Spoon (Aug. 1-3, in Edale, in the stunning Lake District). It sounds amazing – kind of like a Grateful Dead concert crossed with a wood-carving festival. I want to go, but alas, my caravan won’t make it across the pond this year. “The Spoon, the Bowl and the Knife,” a documentary […]

The post Spoon Carving – The Next ‘Hot’ Thing? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

On our Twitter feed (@pweditors) and my Twitter feed (@1snugthejoiner) I’ve been slowly leaking the names of some of the instructors who will be at Woodworking in America 2014. But I know not everyone is on Twitter, so for those of you who eschew writing and reading in chunks of but 140 characters, thus far, we’ve revealed: Roy “the Woodwright” Underhill Wilbur Pan Matt Cianci Phil Lowe Drew Langser Frank […]

The post Teaser for Woodworking in America 2014 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I prefer to use cut nails in reproduction work because they hold better and look right to my eye. But when it comes to cut headless brads, which are used to hold moulding in place while the glue dries, I don’t think these nails are the right choice for me. While cut nails are always more expensive than the equivalent wire nail, cut headless brads are crazy expensive. A 1 […]

The post An Economic Truth About Cut Nails appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’m working on a book project at the moment in which we’re including an article that refers to another article…and I’m out of pages. So instead of editing around the problem (no time for such shenanigans), I’ve decided to post said “another article” online, and provide a link in the text. I figure I might as well share “another article” with everyone. So below you’ll find “A Better Blanket Chest […]

The post ‘A Better Blanket Chest Design’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.