Woodworking Posts

One of my best woodworking tools is one I don’t write about much: my sketchbook. It’s an inexpensive spiral-bound thing I get at the grocery store, right by the romance novels. It’s always in my bag when I travel, and it’s on my lap when I’m “encouraged” to watch “Project Runway” with my lovely wife. I keep a mechanical pencil clipped to its metal spirals and use it to solve […]

The post Sketch Your Way to Better Designs appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The circumference of a 12” bowl (2πr) is about 38”. Multiply that to a lathe’s speed and you’ll realize that wood turners are making almost a mile of shavings a minute. I think it’s fair to say that turners sharpen more than any other woodworkers. Like other areas of the craft, religious sects have developed around sharpening in the turning world. Yet few fanatics outside of skew maniacs ever discuss […]

The post Diamonds are a Turner’s Best Friend: My Favorite Slipstone appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You may recall that I have a brother who comes up with some very unusual finish problems. This one’s a beauty. As with many people, my brother has a deck attached to his house. The house is located in the Northwest, and last winter the snow remained on the ground for three months. When it had melted off, the deck, which had been finished with a deck stain, was decorated […]

The post How I got Rid of Leaf and Pine Needle Stains on a Deck appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Note: This is the second of a series. The third will deal with mitered and rounded corners. Measure Be sure you take into account any desired overhangs at the front or end of a cabinet run (or table base) as well as radiused corners, and be sure you note the farthest points in all cases (such as areas along the length of a wall where the wall dips in), to make […]

The post How to Make Vintage Linoleum Countertops – Part 2 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I have to admit, it was an interesting week on popularwoodworking.com. The contributors to the Shop Blog brought up a few topics that typically stir conversation. On Monday, Nancy Hiller started a three part series on Linoleum countertops. We had at least one commenter ask, “why?”. Nancy shared her point of view about the historical precedent and the vintage style that many seek in remodeling. I have been eyeing Linoleum as […]

The post Week in Review: September 11-16 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

During the last decade I’ve amassed hundreds of images of early workbenches as part of my research into pre-industrial woodworking. Inevitably, some of the images don’t make a lot of sense and now populate a folder named: X-Files. These workbenches are from paintings and their features might be the result of a painter who doesn’t know much about woodworking. Or they could be a clue to a simple and neglected […]

The post The Workbench X-Files appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.