Woodworking Posts

I’m often asked if we accept unsolicited queries. We do. We just haven’t had the submission guidelines posted on the web site for the last couple of years – and now we do. Every issue includes at least a couple of articles from freelance writers, many of which started out as unsolicited queries. In fact, we rarely assign projects or techniques to freelancers;  we’d much rather have folks tell us […]

The post PWM Query Guidelines appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It’s hard to separate woodworking from history. Most of the skills we need and tools we use come from earlier times when everyday items that are now mostly plastic or cardboard were made of wood. It’s easy to look back and assume that a tool or process developed for a specialty in the 18th or 19th century makes sense today, or to make the assumption that what one branch of […]

The post 21st-Century Workbench Leg Joints appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When it comes to pushing our handplanes, I think we are candy-bottomed wussies compared to the joiners of the 17th century. We are obsessed with how thin a shaving we can make. Early joiners, however, wanted to take the thickest, gnarliest shaving possible for the tool, the bench and his or her arms. For proof, take a look at the first English-language woodworking book, “The Art of Joinery” (1678) by […]

The post Get a Groat in Your Throat appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The Grand Prize Winner of Popular Woodworking’s 31 Days of Christmas 2013 was….. Richard Wienhold! Congratulations to Richard for winning a Custom-made Hanging Tool Cabinet AND a $1,000 Gift Card from Lee Valley Tools.  Richard has a Lee Valley wish list already filled and ready to go! Richard grew up woodworking with his Dad but got serious about woodworking over the last 6 years. Richard focuses in on hand tool […]

The post 31 Days of Christmas Grand Prize Winner! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ve been associated with this magazine in one capacity or another for the past 20 plus years. As a new year begins, I’ve made it a habit to look back through the previous seven issues to pick out which articles caught my interest. I grabbed a copy of the Popular Woodworking Magazine 1995 – 2013 DVD and began reminiscing. (There’s also a one year CD available, click here.) I’ll take […]

The post 2013 Popular Woodworking Magazine Favs – Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Some time ago I posted about the Lee Valley Shooting Plane. In that post I used a shop-made shooting board. That will be the subject of today’s lesson…err, blog post. When I made the quick video about the Lee Valley plane, I had no shooting board in the shop. I was still in the midst of moving from Pennsylvania and mine were either packed away somewhere or still to be packed. […]

The post Still Shooting appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.