The Renaissance Woodworker

I envy the carpenter. He can take his show on the road anytime. If I leave my shop and bench and tools, I am useless. Sometimes, even changing tools I am useless. I’m sure you know what I mean and if not, try cutting a set of carcass dovetails with a saw, chisels, and marking [...]

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…but not in the way you might think. Sure the edges are B-E-A-utifully sharp, but I’m talking about the sides of the blade that are ground down to a very fine edge. This is great for dovetail work as you can get into those tight spots. This is one of my more artsy photos but [...]

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This week I address a common problem when hand planing: inadvertantly tapering the board. This was something that Brian Meeks, @extremelyavg on Twitter brought to my attention. First off you should go check out Brian’s site because it is a humorous and refreshing look at our fine craft taken from the eager neophyte’s perspective. Enjoy [...]

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Hello, remember when I used to make podcasts? I’m back and hopefully with a bang as I try out and review what I feel is the slickest shooting board on the market. Don’t know what a shooting board is? Watch this and see how a shooter should work. Check out Tico Vogt’s site and if [...]

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Enough of these ear drum smashing, dust spitting machines. The rough and tumble work is done on this book shelf so now it’s on the the work I truly love with my faithful hand tools. Maybe I will still do some ear drum smashing, but that will be the fault of The Who and maybe [...]

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Here is the final episode in my unplugged attempt to turn a simple Shaker side table into a low country Southern Queen Anne version. In this episode I tackle the drawer and fit it. I did not go into detail on the ogee molding so stay tuned for a dedicated episode in the future on [...]

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For as long as there have been white collar jobs, there have been hobby woodworkers. I can see King Tut’s accountant coming home after a hard day of counting the gold and virgins obtained from the last raid into Ethiopia yearning to lose himself for a few hours in his workshop. The Royal Governor of [...]

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Hey friends, I am so busy lately and I apologize for the lack of posts. The Steppingstone Museum has been keeping me busy, but so has my day job in Internet Marketing. This recession is a beast and I have to work all that much harder to find and qualify new customers so I have [...]

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Shhhhh, don’t tell anybody but I sneaked in my iPhone and took a quick video of my new shop where I am a 19th century woodworking interpreter. Seriously, the museum is not that strict about these things. In fact, if you are quick you will see a modern day fan and a boom box in [...]

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My first day at The Steppingstone Museum was an eventful one. I met the shop Master, Wade Whitlock about 30 minutes before the museum opened and we had some time to catch up on each others backgrounds. Wade has been volunteering there since 1992 and he is really “the rock” of the organization as he [...]

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