Woodworking Posts

Stains differ in the amount of colorant they include. On this panel I applied one brand of walnut stain to the left side and another brand to the right side, then wiped off the excess. I let the stains dry thoroughly and applied a second coat of the same stain to the outer quadrants followed by wiping off the excess. Notice that there is a big difference in the amount […]

The post Brands of Stain Differ in the Amount of Color they Leave on the Wood appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Wendell Castle, the father of the art furniture movement, died Saturday at age 85. Many are mourning the loss of an innovative mind that brought art furniture to the mind of the masses. In 2016, we documented an interview with Oscar Fitzgerald and Wendell. There are many insights to glean, please enjoy this video on YouTube Live this afternoon. Hop over to the live stream HERE.  Purchase the DVD or video download here. […]

The post WATCH: Interview with Wendell Castle appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

A friend in Utah needed a new kitchen and interviewed some cabinetmakers to do the job. My friend wanted dovetailed drawers, but one cabinetmaker said he had “something better.” What could be better? “It’s glue and super-high clamp pressure,” the cabinetmaker said. If you apply enough pressure, he said, the joint will be so strong that the wood will fail before the glue. So no joinery. Just glue and clamp […]

The post Yellow Glue & its Weird Superpowers appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

There’s something to be said for just finishing a long term project. I’ve been working on a furniture build off and on since I first started at PW a few years ago. It was to be an entryway table that doubled as a place to store shoes and custom built to fit under a window yet over a heat return. I had grand plans for the piece that were above […]

The post The Long Way Around: Finally Calling Your Long Term Project “Done” appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

There was a time, in the not so distant past, when we made more stuff. Things were less disposable – we fixed our possessions when they broke. The furniture, dishes and home goods we kept in our lives had stories behind them and were built with purpose. I believe we’ve lost much of that handmade magic. That’s why I joined this team as the new editor in January. I want […]

The post Why We’re Here: Introducing Andrew Zoellner appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The second article in my two-part series about hinges for Popular Woodworking Magazine was conceived as “5 Fussy Hinges.” Tricky, fussy…choose your adjective. I prefer “less commonly used,” with the disclaimer that one woodworker’s “less common” may be another’s “everyday”; Brendan Gaffney may be able to install knife hinges in his sleep, and I used non-swaged brass butts on an almost daily basis for years, but many woodworkers have never […]

The post The Case of the Missing Hinge: Trouble Installing a Soss Hinge appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.