Woodworking Posts

This Friday and Saturday (April 11 and 12), I’ll be at the new Lee Valley Tools store in Vaughan, Ontario, to help celebrate the location’s grand opening (the store officially opened this morning). I’m very much looking forward to my trip across the border; I’ve never been to the Toronto area and I hear it’s lovely. I’ve been asked to do a talk on my recent kitchen rehab adventures, so […]

The post Come to Toronto; Bring Your Rotten Produce appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It’s tough showing up on a Monday morning only to find that work has piled up considerably over the weekend. How am I seriously supposed to wade through two new Bosch cordless drills and a vacuum (I refuse to call them “extractors”, but I may be forced to in the official review)?And I won’t even mention all the new hand tools, from various companies, that are slated to come in […]

The post It’s a Bosch-mas Kinda Monday appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Reader Greg Merritt of Parkersburg, W. Va., drew up plans for making a nice-looking polissoir using broom corn and tarred nylon. The polissoir features two knots – a constrictor knot and a decorative Turk’s head knot, which are both easy to make. Merritt drew up complete instructions for making the polissoir and provided a nice pdf that you can download and print out: Polissoir_Polisher2 So if you cannot afford one […]

The post Make Yourself a Nice Polissoir appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Lots of folks think that back in the day, good quality wood was in such great supply that the craftsmen gave little thought to its judicious use. I have the perfect example to show that they were not only frugal with their use of raw materials, but their time as well; Queen Anne compass- (or balloon-) seat chairs. The back legs (or stiles) extend from the floor to the crest […]

The post Furniture Details — Compass Seat Back Stiles appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Don Rosebrook, past-President of the Early American Industries Association (EAIA), a prominent member of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association (M-WTCA) and author of “Wooden Plow Planes,” “American Levels and Their Makers” and “America Level Patents Illustrated and Explained,” died Monday following a brief illness. Carl Bilderback, a longtime friend of Don’s, said that in addition to his love for plow planes and levels, Don was an avid collector of high-end […]

The post Don Rosebrook, Tool Collector & Author appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Last weekend during the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Charleston, S.C., I completed three try squares and even applied the finish right at the bench using a polissoir (French for “polisher”). For the attendees who had never seen a polissoir or the surface it leaves behind, it was an eye-opener. Photographs don’t do the surface justice. It’s an experience that is both tactile and visual. Most people assume that the […]

The post Polissoirs: New Models & a Long-term Test appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.