Woodworking Posts

This week a team of 25 woodworkers is in Barnesville, Ga., to build 17 massive French workbenches using ancient oak imported from France and every bit of machinery muscle we can get. I love hand tools, but when it comes to moving around 400-pound slabs of oak, I’m happy to see a forklift coming my way. These 17 benches will be the product of the French Oak Roubo Project, an […]

The post Big Workbenches Need Big Machines appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

So what is SketchUp and why should woodworkers use it? Simply put, SketchUp is a 3D sketching, modeling, rendering and design documentation tool. However, SketchUp is much more powerful than this simple description implies. SketchUp derives its name for a task it does quite well, drawing sketches. SketchUp comes in two versions: SketchUp Pro and SketchUp Make. The major difference between the two is in their ability to save/open/export/import files […]

The post Why Woodworkers Should Use SketchUp appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Clearly, Jim Tolpin has let a lot of folks know that he’s writing about his standing desk (perhaps you’ve seen it on his Instagram feed?) for an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. I know this, because a lot of folks have emailed to ask when it will appear. The answer is: In the February 2016 issue, and it’s the cover article (as shown in our cover template at left…the […]

The post Standing Desk Build on Deck appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In today’s woodturning world, the project can be much more than just about wood, and there are three episodes here that go beyond basics to let you customize your pieces.

The post Woodturning with Tim Yoder Season 2, Ep. 7-12 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Woodworking is a craft steeped in knowledge handed down through generations. The techniques have been tested and rethought and retested time and time again. While experimentation is a wonderful thing for the craft, there is simultaneously a good deal of importance in attention to detail and being exact. Learning the old ways and time-tested woodworking techniques is important. Once you have a good foundation you can be creative with your craft […]

The post Looking to the Past: Time-Tested Woodworking Techniques appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In my last post, I showed how I made a dedicated slip form (a slipstone made of wood) for one of my gouges. This week, I’ll explain how to make a complementary sandpaper sharpening stone that is surprisingly effective and inexpensive to build. First, let me explain why I began using this sandpaper technique in the first place. In the middle of a carving class, for example, a student will […]

The post Sandpaper Sharpening & Honing, Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.