New Book! ‘Handsaw Essentials’ written by a lot of Woodworkers

The newest book from Popular Woodworking Books, “Handsaw Essentials” has my name on the cover. But that’s really a marketing move that you should ignore. The book is a quite good compilation of all the saw stuff that has appeared in Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine during the last decade . There’s great articles from … Read more »

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Eastern Advice for Western Woodworking

The only thing I dislike about teaching at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking is that I’d rather be listening than talking – especially if Doug Dale is my assistant. Doug, a 10-year employee at the school, is a low-key, casual and humble guy. But every time I shut my yap and open my ears, … Read more »

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Getting Too Close to the Studley Tool Chest

Photographer Narayan Nayar shot me a look of disdain – perhaps the first time I’ve ever been on the receiving end of that particular facial contortion. “I just can’t believe you guys are being such babies,” he said. Narayan was right. Don Williams and I were balking at what seemed a simple request: Move H.O. … Read more »

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A Close Look at H.O. Studley’s Vises

Once you are able to rip your eyes off of H.O. Studley’s magnificent tool chest, you can spend almost as much time looking at the benchtop and vises of the Massachusetts piano maker. On Monday, Don Williams, the author of a forthcoming book on Studley, and Jameel Abraham of Benchcrafted spent the morning taking a … Read more »

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New Workbench DVD Available for Pre-order

You can now order my newest DVD “Build a Sturdy Workbench in 2 Days” from Popular Woodworking for $24.99. The two-hour video show you how to build a sturdy workbench using home-center materials and a benchtop made using solid-wood kitchen countertop from IKEA. It really can be built in two days – I built it … Read more »

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Six-board Chest: Day 2

We decided to skip adding a till to the chests so that we could spend most of Monday working on the mouldings, the decorative scratched patterns and the painted finish. As a result, the chest carcases went together with alarming speed. One minute it was like we were in a shop full of boards. Then … Read more »

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Six-board Chests at The Woodwright’s School

For the last two years I’ve been building six-board chests in a variety of ways as part of my research into the forms of furniture that have remained basically unchanged for centuries. This summer and fall, I’ve begun teaching workshops on building this furniture form to woodworkers in Connecticut and North Carolina as a way … Read more »

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Another Way to Fold a Table

During the last two years my woodworking has been consumed with furniture in the campaign style from Great Britain. One of the many cool aspects of this style of furniture is that many of the pieces fold up for transport. Last week I finished building a teak folding officer’s field desk from about 1830. The … Read more »

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Highly Recommended: ‘The Practical Woodworker’

I was going to write about these books when they were first republished, but by the time I got around to it, ShopWoodworking.com had sold out. “The Practical Woodworker” edited by Bernard E. Jones is a one of the backbones of a good library on the craft of woodworking and is now back in print … Read more »

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Félibien and the Fantastic Goberge

  Before Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises,” there was André Félibien. Félibien (1619-1695), was an early and important art critic and published a book in 1676 on the tools and processes used by woodworkers, sculptors, painters and architects called “Principes de L’architecture….” The book, published anonymously, is beautifully illustrated. And the plates were almost certainly copied … Read more »

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