A collection of articles on furniture making and casework
Whether you’re sawing, planing or carving, the transfer of muscle power to the tool you’re using is accomplished by the way you are holding the tool. Hand position sounds like some esoteric study by an anatomist, but it’s extremely important when it comes to tool [...]
When I'm carving a ball and claw foot, I use a gauge that includes all the info needed to carve the foot. The information is transferred to the gauge from an original or from a prototype that I’m satisfied with. Most feet I carve [...]
As a woodworker there are a few times when you need something unusual or just in a hurry, and these are the times you need to just make tools for yourself. Here are some examples of tools I’ve made on the fly. This plane [...]
My wife has wanted a 6 legged William and Mary highboy forever. I am finally chipping away at it bit by bit. The process is interesting, so here is what I have so far.I started out by turning the six legs from some beautiful air [...]
Do you have a special car that you bought that you only use to go out and buy broccoli? Do you have a special refrigerator at home only for the purpose of cooling the broccoli? Of course you don’t. That’s because any old car can [...]
There’s something about wooden planes. There’s something about a really nice piece of clear pine. There’s something about riving out a beautiful piece of red oak. There’s something about turning a blank of year old air dried white birch. There’s something about a real plastered [...]
The basic scraper is a piece of metal, sharpened on the edges and held in the hand or in some sort of stock that creates a fence. That’s it. At its worst, the scraper is a hard to sharpen, hard to hold hand numbing [...]
I have never had the least interest in making tiny furniture. For the same amount of work I could make a big one of whatever Barbie sized piece it was. It snuck up on me. My best customer had given me an 18th century English [...]
This is one of those instances where you may not hear me say "Don't worry, we'll just get another piece of wood and fix it." Some operations are just high-risk, and this is one. Many Rhode Island chests have a curved pediment molding that merges [...]
Dwarf clock is the antiques biz name for a small version of a tall clock or grandfather clock. A good old one from the early 19th century can set you back a hundred thousand or so, so I’ve made a few for collectors who can’t [...]
