The Renaissance Woodworker

Mother’s Day is this weekend. This is yet another instance for woodworkers to shine and create that perfect gift. Several months ago I saw that a set of garden tools was now available without the handles. I got my spade and fork set from Craft Supplies but I believe Woodcraft also is selling them. My [...]

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I have written before about the beauty of taking a minute or two of shop time to unwind at the end of the day and how refreshing it can be. Last night I had about 30 minutes to play in my shop and still have my lathe set up on the workbench from turning Walnut [...]

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The last few weeks have not been banner woodworking weeks for me. Not because of a lack of shop time…far from it. I have been furiously working to complete my Queen Anne Side Table. The less than stellar experience comes from my own mistakes. This has been a series of “nothing gone right” shop days. [...]

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This episode was a trial to make. It was an example of those times in the shop when nothing goes right. However, I managed to turn out 4 legs and learned a lot along the way. What more can you ask for in a project right? Come along and learn about eccentric turning.

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I’m taking a short break from the Queen Anne Table to turn a traditional Shaker knob. One of my fellow Guild members does not have a lathe and I offered to turn a few for him. I figured this would be as good as time as any to shoot a quick video and illustrate the [...]

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Renaissance Woodworker. As with every year, I was hard at work at my lathe turning out all the little gifts for friends, family, and clients. I haven’t done a turning episode in a while so I thought I would bring you all into my shop and turn some [...]

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‘Tis the season where woodworkers venture into their shops to churn out small projects by the gross for all their friends, family, business contacts, mailman, etc., etc. Every year my wife goes to great lengths to devise new and original gifts that (gasp) mean something to the recipient. Besides the fact that she is one [...]

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This is just a short episode to fill in the space before the next WIA conference. I didn’t want to start a new project series with WIA coming this weekend and my coverage to follow after that. In this episode I mention my plans for upcoming episodes at the lathe and 2 more project series: [...]

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In the last year I have started to see some stunning in lay work coming of the lathes of craftsmen around the world. In particular there have been some amazing inlaid pens with all manner of images and exotic woods put together in an intarsia like approach and then turned round and used as a [...]

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This week’s episode is sponsored by Penn State Industries. I turn the new Bullet Cartridge pen and give a complete kit away at the end of the show. Also I turn this pen from acrylic and discuss how to work with this material. Finally PSI was kind enough to send two bottles of Plastics Polish [...]

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