The Renaissance Woodworker

I first used one of Mark Harrell’s new tenon saws at the hand tool olympics at the Woodworking in America design event last August in St Charles, IL. At the time my dovetailing skills were actually better than my tenoning skills because I had spent more time practicing dovetails. Needless to say I [...]

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After my trip to Valley Forge for the 2009 Hand Tools and Techniques conference I became a little obsessed with wooden planes. I had a particular interest in molding planes.
I was lucky enough to come across several auctions on eBay from the same tool chest. Unfortunately I was sniped on one of them, [...]

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Maybe it is just the circles I run in lately but there are a lot of conversations about not needing this power tool or never using this jig because it is more enjoyable and sometimes faster to use a hand tool instead.
It probably has a lot to do with my personal development as [...]

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I paid a visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art this past weekend. I had heard tales of their excellent decorative arts wing that contains excellent examples of 18th century furniture with an emphasis on local cabinetmakers from Baltimore and Annapolis. Unfortunately on my way down the hall to the exhibit I was [...]

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It’s the time of year when resolutions are made (and broken) and we look ahead with excited expectations for the new year. What do you want to get done in your shop this year? What do you want to learn? This is when I start to think about taking classes that will [...]

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I remember sitting in the Eight Bells pub just outside Stratford-Upon-Avon and sampling some fine sherry trifle while having a political discussion with a local about “nutter American politicians”. Our conversation eventually turned to British politics and the “royal problem”. I was very young and still really wide eyed but I remember this [...]

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Hand tools allow us to work in way not possible with a machine. Have you ever glued up a part and then thought, “dang, I should have chamfered those edges at the router table first”. While you can’t run a carcase across a router table easily, you can very easily use a block [...]

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How many times have you heard a fellow woodworker say that they are behind “schedule” on a project or, “I can’t believe how long that took to make!”
I am plagued with this all the time. I did a podcast many months ago on organizing yourself when working on multiple projects. In [...]

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These days I can’t help but examine every structure I see for design and construction hints. I find myself staring at leaves and branches and thinking about how I could incorporate those beautiful lines into an inlay or table leg. So it was no surprise to me when while sitting in a parking [...]

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