Woodworking Posts

The trick to becoming fast at handplaning is to never pause during stock preparation. No matter how you prepare your wood for a project (with machines, handplanes or some combination of the two) the biggest mistake you can make is to stop during the process for even an hour. Once you joint and plane the stock, you should take it as far as you can – even if that means […]

The post How to Avoid Hours of Handplaning appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

No, the photo at left is not from “The Woodwright’s Shop”…but it’s one of my favorite photos of me with Roy Underhill (he won). Why am I sharing it? Well, right now, you can order a passel of Roy’s DVDs for a special price with four new collections: “The Woodwright’s Shop Seasons 1-10,” “The Woodwright’s Shop Seasons 11-20,” “The Woodwright’s Shop Volumes 21-31” …or get the entire set of discs […]

The post Special Roy Underhill Collections (in Limited Quantities) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When I made my current workbench, I built it from a pair of robust, traditional-pattern sawhorses (a form you might know as sawbenches). On the bench build I’m about to start, I’ll be using the same setup. The sawhorses I made many years ago are out on jobsites at the moment, so it seemed a good excuse to make a new pair. These are an excellent skill builder because they […]

The post Making Sawhorses appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I do almost no power sanding. But I do use abrasives in my work. And the only abrasive I use is Abranet. I hesitate to call it “sandpaper” because it is absolutely nothing like sandpaper. There’s no paper – it’s a woven mesh. And the abrasive is nothing like sand. But it lasts forever, doesn’t clog and leaves a nice surface behind. I purchase the 5” discs in #220-grit and […]

The post Anarchist’s 2015 Gift Guide, Day 10: Abranet appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It’s that time of year when some of you might be scrambling to get a gift or two built on or before December 24. Might I recommend you take a look at the many simple (but good-looking) free projects from our “I Can Do That” files? As far as I can tell, the most popular among them has been “Fish Sticks” – often rendered in different animal shapes (though you’ll […]

The post Fast & Fun Gift Projects appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Perhaps the most important instrument for the hand-tool oriented woodworker is a sturdy workbench. A reliable bench is fundamental for the success of sawing, chiseling, planing, grooving, drilling and more. The heavier the bench the better, and a bench with plenty of holdfast holes is the best. But there are many situations where you will benefit from a small elevated clamping platform installed over your workbench – mainly when you […]

The post ‘Bench Bull:’ The Jack of All Bench Jigs, Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.