Popular Woodworking Editors' Blog

Many woodworkers think that the ability to design a beautiful piece of furniture from scratch is a God-given talent. Either you have the knack or you should just make knock-offs.

I'm here to tell you that idea is crazy talk.

While there are some people for whom design comes naturally, I insist that anyone can learn to design well-proportioned, inspiring pieces that are built to last generations. Building things that endure is not just about using the right joinery – it's also creating a form that transcends the shackles of contemporary taste so that it will never be kicked to the curb.

Like any woodworking skill, your eye for design needs to be developed so it can flow through your hands, onto the page and into the wood. And that's why we created the Woodworking in America: Furniture Construction & Design conference.

This three-day event in St. Charles, Ill., will bring together the very best minds on furniture design and construction. And through a carefully orchestrated series of lectures, question-and-answer sessions and hands-on training, you will make serious advances in your ability to create furniture that looks good now, will look good in 100 years and is stout enough to endure everyday use.

The program, which runs from Aug. 14 to 16, is divided into three parts:

• Mastering the mechanics of the design process
• Gaining a deep understanding of the predominant American furniture styles
• Learning to create the right joinery, mouldings and details to execute your designs.

Mechanics
During the last few years, Google SketchUp has changed the world of designing furniture. This free 3D drafting program works on virtually any computer and can be mastered by anyone willing to learn the ropes.

During the three days in St. Charles, we'll show you how Google SketchUp can be used for designing all kinds of furniture, and how you can harness its astonishing power to create designs that can be quickly modified. In addition to interactive lectures, we'll have an open SketchUp laboratory where you can bring your laptop and get hands-on instruction and advice from SketchUp wizards who are also dyed-in-the-wool woodworkers.

And with the help of Jim Tolpin – author of the seminal "Measure Twice, Cut Once" – you'll learn how to take those designs and execute them in a power-tool or hand-tool shop.

Furniture Styles & Details
Though there are many furniture styles, woodworkers tend to build in early American, Shaker, Arts & Crafts and Contemporary styles. So we gathered the foremost experts on the last four centuries of furniture styles to deepen your understanding of them.

Jeffrey Greene – author of "American Furniture of the 18th Century" – will show you how you need to understand regional details to create period furniture that looks right. Robert Lang – author of several books on the Arts & Crafts style – will help you explore this misunderstood era and realize it's not all about dark oak and straight lines. Jerry Grant, curator of the Old Chatham Shaker Museum, will dispel the many myths about Shaker furniture and show you what it really looks like so you can build more authentic, better-looking pieces. And Oscar Fitzgerald, author of "Studio Furniture of the Renwick Gallery," will take you on an inspiring tour of contemporary furniture styles that will open your eyes to the work of the last 100 years.

Construction
Good design is worthless without sound construction. So we brought together some incredible woodworkers who can tell you exactly what joints are appropriate and how to scale them.

For 18th-century furniture, Jeff Headley and Steve Hamilton from Mack S. Headley & Sons will explore authentic casework joints and mouldings, which they reproduce daily in their shop (they've even done work for the White House). Conservator Don Williams will explore the joinery of the 19th century and how it went from being cut entirely by hand to almost entirely by machine – and what means for your work.

For the Arts & Crafts era, we've brought on Jim Ipekjian, a professional woodworker from Pasadena, Calif., who has built hundreds of pieces in the Greene & Greene style. Jim has an unrivaled mastery of the incredible joinery of this era. And for the contemporary woodworker, we have enlisted Brian Boggs to help you unlock the secrets to composing your projects using wood grain – one of the defining aspects of modern design.

To top it all off, the keynote speaker will by Thomas Moser of Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers. Moser, one of the most successful designers and builders of contemporary furniture, will explain how he started as a home woodworker and became one of the premiere designers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

And if this is not enough, we also will have a Marketplace area filled with vendors selling the finest tools available now. This really is a weekend not to be missed.

The cost of the three-day conference is $375. You can read more details of the conference and register at woodworkinginamerica.com. I'll be there this summer, most likely sitting next to you and taking it all in.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you've ever wondered what happens when you combine high-quality beautifully designed tools with a blue-light special, head on over to Bridge City Tools.

The Portland, Ore., toolmaking company is having a sale on the different profiles for its HP-6. The HP-6 is a cool moulding plane that uses interchangeable soles and cutters so you can produce a wide variety of profiles.

The sale is pretty good. If you buy three profiles, you get two more for free. And for every additional profile you buy, you get another one free (buy five profiles, get four for free etc.) all the way up to 10 profiles.

We purchased an HP-6 for our shop and like it a great deal. It makes beautiful, highly detailed mouldings that don't require any sanding.

You can download our review of the HP-6 by clicking the link below.

HP-6V2.pdf (261.78 KB)

There is (naturally) some fine print, and this special is good for phone or e-mail orders only. So head on over to John Economaki's blog for details. Note: The sale end Dec. 9.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Vise-Grips aren't a woodworking tool, but I'd be hard-pressed to do woodworking without them.

Whenever I break a screw head off, I reach for these adjustable locking pliers to get myself out of trouble. Whenever we have a weird bolt or nut that needs wrenching on a machine, my old Vise-Grips are never far away.

If you have a similar affection for this tool, you should check out a contest being run by Irwin (makers of Vise-Grips) that ends Oct. 31. If you have a good story you can tell in 100 words or less about how Vise-Grips got you out of a jam, you could win a custom motorcycle or $25,000. There also are other prizes and ways to win some tools instantly.

Check out all the details on the Irwin web site via this link. And if you win, be sure to stop by the office and give us a spin on your new ride.

I wish I had a story about how I delivered our second child in the wilderness with the help of Vise-Grips, but my best story won't win me squat. But here it is: Until two weeks ago, a pair of Vise-Grips served as my window crank in my 1968 Karmann Ghia. Yawn.

— Christopher Schwarz

Have you ever been part of a lynch mob? Me neither. But I got a little taste of that today as we finished gluing up our workbench tops for the class I’m teaching at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking.

Today was the day to complete gluing up the workbench tops, which are solid hard maple slabs measuring 3” thick, 24” to 28” wide, and 6’ to 8’ feet long. The morning was spent gluing small-size laminations into medium-size laminations. Then, after lunch, most students cut their mortises in the legs and we then embarked on a massive effort to complete the tops.

Here was our task: Each top was composed of two laminations measuring 12” wide or more. We had to dress those on the jointer, mill them to finished thickness on the planer (and everyone’s finished thickness was a bit different) and then we had to edge joint the two slabs so they would come together seamlessly.

Up until this point, everyone has kept close tabs on their laminations, like watching their kids at the playground. They were in charge of all the milling steps on their laminations and were running the show when their boards were getting glued up.

But sometime during the day, the students let go of their ownership of their slabs. Edge-jointing a 70-pound slab of maple takes four people to do it quickly and well. Planing the slab takes three people hustling. And gluing up the slabs takes a roving band of clamp-happy, gap-hating glue Nazis.

And that’s exactly what we got.

I was on the edge-jointing team (I love jointers) at first. And I helped out with the planing team between slabs. But watching the glue-up team was a thing of beauty. The minute we completed any slab, they attacked the task like a bobcat on an injured baby bird. Two people pounced on the edges with glue rollers, and people fetched clamps and worked the seam in a deliberate way to make sure the laminations lined up.

We all quickly lost track of whose top we were working on, and everyone simply focused on closing that final seam.

We finished ahead of schedule today, but many students stayed late to clean out their mortises and get ready for tomorrow: tenon day.

Kelly Mehler and I have been plotting how he might be able to offer this class again next year (be sure to check his web site on Oct. 1 for details), and we’ve tried to come up with ways to streamline the class. One of our ideas was to purchase the tops pre-made.

Kelly said he floated the idea with some of the students today. They weren’t impressed and said they wouldn’t be as interested in that sort of class.

That’s actually not surprising. Everyone got a lot of practice doing a lot of very precise lamination work that required mastery of both machines and sensitive hand-clamping. And they all did so much of it, that after two days they were good enough at it to go pro.

I don’t think I would want to give that up either.

— Christopher Schwarz

Read "Build the Holtzapffel Workbench Part 4: Gruntwork"

Planemaker Gary Blum introduced a new workbench design for sale here at the International Woodworking Fair. Well, it’s not really fair to call it new. The base design is a couple hundred years old, but Blum has added Baltic Birch plywood, bronze bushings and pipe clamps to make it a thoroughly modern bench.

The bench looks like the English-style workbench immortalized in Peter Nicholson’s “Mechanic’s Companion” of the 19th century. It is essentially a torsion box on top of some stiff legs.

The top of Blum’s ingenious bench is also a torsion box made from 3/4" Baltic birch plywood throughout – the front apron is actually a sandwich of two layers of Baltic birch. Below the torsion box top is a set of red-oak legs and stretchers joined with bolts, which allow the bench to be knocked down. The legs are angled out to give the bench a firm stance.

Weighing in at about 240 pounds, the bench is 24" deep and 6' long, though Gary says he will make the bench 7' or 8' long upon request. The user also can specify the height of the bench.

The most clever aspect of the bench is how Blum incorporated Jorgensen pipe clamps into the design to work as the face vise and the end vise.

In the face-vise position, Blum built a twin-screw vise by placing two pipe clamps in bronze bushings on 18" centers. The clamps press a large removable wooden chop against the front edge of the benchtop. You might be wondering if pipe clamps have enough throw to be useful as a woodworking vise. They don’t. If you need to clamp really thick work, the pipe clamps can be slid out and locked in position to hold thick stock.

Blum put a similar clamping system on the end of the bench, but he also incorporated a dog system into the end vise so you can clamp panels to your benchtop between dogs.

The base model of the bench will cost about $995. Longer versions will cost more.

I got to work with the bench for about 15 minutes today and was very impressed. It is a solid bench, and the torsion box will ensure that the top remains rigid and flat (unless you leave your bench out in the rain).

So for those woodworkers looking for a solid English-style bench, drop Blum a line. It’s a heck of a deal at that price.

— Christopher Schwarz

I think I was in the DeWalt booth when I suddenly felt the tide turn.

One of the company’s product managers was explaining the new guard on the DeWalt jobsite table saw. It was one of the new riving-knife-based guards that all the manufacturers are installing on their machines to comply with new government standards.

“This guard is so easy to use,” the product manager says, “the user won’t have any excuse or reason not to use it.”

And with that he installed all three components of the guard on the saw in less than 17 seconds (I timed him).

When I say the tide turned at that moment, I mean that at that moment I realized how many times I had heard that same speech – and almost those same words – used by other manufacturers as they introduced their new European-style guards during the last 12 months.

Bosch, Delta, Steel City, Grizzly and Jet have all been eager to show off how easy their new guards are to use. Whereas during the last 13 years I’ve covered the industry, usually the guard was discussed like this: “And there is a clear plastic guard.”

Those old guards, which were required by government regulations, were practically useless (as we all know). And they’re rarely used. Heck most people probably couldn’t find their table saw’s guard hiding somewhere in their shop.

But now suddenly a safe saw is a selling point. Wow. That’s a big change. As I began to look around a bit, I realized that many European-style tools are now infiltrating our American shops. Don’t believe me?

In the last three years Festool has gone from being a niche toolmaker to a company that makes the tools that everyone wants to beat. The Festool Domino, a feat of European engineering, is probably the most visible evidence of this. But you also see other clues: DeWalt is introducing two plunging circular saws to compete directly with the Festool TS 55 EQ.

Last year Jet Tools introduced a new European jointer/planer – and this year is introducing another version of that machine with a helical cutterhead. SawStop has always used European guarding on its saws and has successfully used safety as a selling point – and the company just continues to expand.

Even Grizzly Industrial – long a mainstay of Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturing – has been putting down some Teutonic and Italian roots. Parts of some of Grizzly’s sliding table saws come from Germany and Italy. And right now, there are four Grizzly products that are made in Germany, including a sliding table saw and a wet sharpener. Plus the company is introducing more European-style machinery that is designed in Germany but built in China.

So what does this mean for U.S. woodworkers? Good things, for the most part. I’ve seen what Festool is planning on introducing to this country in the coming years, and a lot of it is exciting stuff. Plus, I’ve been in European workshops and can say they are safer and healthier places to work.

But the tools are more expensive (usually because of the quality). And I find that many of their machinery setups are more complex than ours (mostly because they use the guards properly).

So as the DeWalt’s new table saw guard clicked back into place onto the top of the saw I concluded a couple things: American woodworkers are due for some changes in the way we work. But I also bet that as Americans, we’ll find a way to mix the Budweiser with the Beaujolais to suit our tastes.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you own a 14" band saw, then you know that you have a conundrum on your hands when you set it up.

You could leave it stock, which would allow you to cut material up to 6" thick. Or you could add a “riser block,” which allows you to cut stock up to 12" thick. Many woodworkers add the riser block in case they ever want to resaw veneer material on their machine. But adding a riser block has downsides: The machine is less stable, harder to tune and the longer blades cost more.

General International has developed a new band saw that allows you to have the best of both worlds. It’s a bit of a shock to see it work the first time. In essence, the spine of the band saw is like the post on a drill press. Turn a crank and you can raise the head up so you can resaw thick material with a 102"-long blade. Or crank it the other way so you can enjoy stable cuts with a 93"-long blade.

Changeover takes about two minutes, plus changing the blade on the machine. When we first saw this new saw at the International Woodworking Fair we just shook our heads thinking it was a gimmick. But after a moment of thought, we could see that it was a bright idea. Most woodworkers rarely use their band saw for resawing and would be best served by keeping their machine set low. But when you need to resaw, it’s a simple thing to raise the head and give yourself that extra capacity.

This band saw, which should be available this year, is fully loaded. It has a 1-1/2 hp motor, ball-bearing blade guides, cast-iron wheels, a laser, a rack-and-pinion table-tilt mechanism, rack-and-pinion guide adjustments, a quick-release blade-tensioning mechanism, wheel brush, a tall aluminum fence, two speeds and a nice one-piece base. The price? About $1,400.

— Christopher Schwarz

Magazine_Cabinet.pdf (1.66 MB)

Here's what else you'll find on this CD, which is available in our store for $15 (that includes free shipping in the United States).

■ 42 Furniture Projects: We feature comprehensive plans and cutting lists for a complete suite of furniture for your home, including two Morris chairs, sideboards, side tables, bookshelves, outdoor furniture as well as home accessories, including lamps and wastebaskets. Every project includes step-by-step instruction and measured drawings.

■ 7 Technique Articles: Arts & Crafts furniture uses straightforward joinery like the mighty mortise and tenon. We show you a wide variety of ways to cut this essential joint, plus articles on achieving an Arts & Crafts finish with home-center materials and detailed plans for the jigs and fixtures that will make your shop time more efficient.

This CD is in stock and ready to ship. To order your copy, visit our store today.

— Christopher Schwarz

The next issue of Popular Woodworking will be heading into mailboxes in the next two weeks, so we thought we'd give you a quick look at what you can expect inside.

21st-Century Workbench: For at least a year, Senior Editor Robert W. Lang has been working diligently on plans for a new kind of workbench that blends the best of modern and ancient designs. He succeeded beyond my expectations. This bench performs all the workholding tasks for power or hand tools. It's simple to build. It knocks down in less than 10 minutes (we timed it). And it looks great. We were so impressed with the design that we've even made a complete hour-long DVD of the construction process. We'll tell you more about the DVD when the issue comes out.

Tool Test: Random-orbit Sanders: If you own only one sander, it should be a random-orbit tool. But which one? Senior Editor Glen D. Huey tested nine popular brands in our shop here and found one tool that we liked better than all the rest. Here's the best thing: It's definitely not the most expensive in the test.

Details & Joinery of Greene & Greene: Trust me on this – the joinery and level of detail found on Greene & Greene-style pieces is far beyond what is typically done in today's shops. We sent woodworker David Mathias to the West Coast to get inside the casework and under the tables to reveal the inspiring level of work found in these masterpieces. Read the first installment in this series here.

Taming Handplane Tear-out: Battling tear-out is one of the most vexing things about using a handplane. Everyone has an opinion about what reduces it, but not all these strategies work all the time. We investigate.

Layout Tools: Michael Dunbar surveys the 16 tools you need for accurate layout in any shop. With his typical practical approach, Dunbar shows you how you don't have to spend a small fortune to do precision layout work.

Marc Adams on Table Saws: The table saw is the most used (and misused) tool in the American workshop. Marc Adams shows you how to set up and use your machine so you get accurate results without becoming one of the thousands of casualties each year. You can read another installment in Adams's series on safety here.

Arts & Mysteries: Adam Cherubini builds a 17th-century "joynt forme," a type of low seating bench with turned legs. Adam gives you hints on angled mortises and riving your materials using traditional methods.

The Wood Whisperer: Marc Spagnuolo runs a power-tool shop, but he uses hand tools to improve his joinery. He shows you how.

Flexner on Finishing: Bob Flexner takes on the common perception that shellac is best used a sealer when finishing. He shows you how you might be making your finishing harder than it has to be. Read more of Bob's articles here.

— Christopher Schwarz

One of the magazine issues on our 2000-2007 CD was damaged during our efforts to squeeze it smaller, and the text looks garbled or missing when you try to read it. So we're going to provide that issue here, free of charge, for you to download.

The damaged issue is the October 2003 edition of Popular Woodworking on the CD. You can download a repaired version by clicking here. Be aware that this file about 16 megabytes in size, so it might take a little time to download it depending on your connection.

We apologize for the error and hope this quick fix takes care of any problem you've experienced.

Download the October 2003 issue.

— Christopher Schwarz

Plow planes are workhorse of the hand-tool shop when it comes to cutting joints with a plane. With a plow plane you can, if you are so inclined, cut many of the important joints for a carcase: rabbets, grooves and even tongues.

Before electric power tools became affordable, plow planes were even a status symbol among craftsmen. If there was one fancy tool with ivory inlay and nickel silver tips in your chest, it was your plow.

Since World War II, plow planes have all but vanished from tool catalogs – their functions being taken up by routers and table saws. But now Veritas, the manufacturing arm of Lee Valley Tools, has revived this important form. And I think that anyone who gives this tool a try will get hooked on how easy it is to use, how crisp the results are and how fast you can make simple joints.

The Veritas version of this tool improves on many of the details of the old tools (both the metal and wooden versions) that have vexed woodworkers for generations. Let’s start with the fence, which is the heart of the plow.

To make a straight groove, the fence must be locked parallel to the skate – the thin rail of iron that’s the plane’s sole. All vintage plows I’ve worked with require fussing to get the fence parallel. The Veritas makes it almost impossible to skew the fence, and you can thank router technology for that. Veritas uses, in essence, router collets to lock the fence in place. And the collets work quite well.

Another improvement is the fence itself. Wooden plows eject shavings onto the bench (nice). But vintage metal plows eject them into your fence and hand. This means that you have to clear that trap every few passes. Veritas improved the way shavings eject. And though it’s not a jam-free set-up, you do have to clear the tool of curls far less than usual.

The third major improvement is in the controls themselves. Everything adjusts through knurled knobs – no tools are required. Metal plows require at least one screwdriver. Wooden plows require a mallet to adjust.

The Veritas comes with a 1⁄4" cutter (the most useful size) in durable A2 steel. Four other sizes are available from 1⁄8" to 3⁄8". The plane body is lightweight at 1 lb. 14 oz. and is made from unbreakable ductile iron. The plane costs $199 with a 1/4" cutter. Additional cutters are available individually or in a set. The plane is available only through Lee Valley Tools.

In use, I found the tool superior to my old plows. Everything locks with hand pressure, and the tool balances on the work. The fence has a large bearing surface so you can keep it firmly against your work, a critical point (and the fence is bored to accept a longer wooden fence if you require it). The workmanship on the tool is top-notch.

Here’s the best part: This is the Veritas Small Plow. With a name like that, you have to think that other versions are on the way.

— Christopher Schwarz

Made for joinery. Here you can see how the fence is relieved so you can close it up to cut rabbets. Also note the slight curved shape of the depth stop. This prevents the stop from ramming into your work.

Several readers have called us a bit confused about the coverline on the new December 2007 issue that proclaims: "Shoe Polish: The Secret to an 18th-Century Finish."

They cannot find the article in the issue.

It's there. The problem is that we were too clever (or obscure) for our own good. It happens sometimes in the magazine business, and we apologize for the confusion.

The coverline is about Adam Cherubini's Arts & Mysteries column that appears on page 24 of the issue titled: "The Standing Desk, Finished." In the article, Adam details how he finished his desk with paint, oil wax and shoe polish.

The shoe polished was used much like a glaze: Adam rubbed it on and then rubbed it off of the broad surfaces and left some polish behind to collect in the recesses of the mouldings and other details.

"This won't fool anyone into thinking the desk is an antique," Cherubini writes, "but it will remove the shocking newness of the piece."

Sorry if we threw you for a loop.

-- Christopher Schwarz

The Auriou company has been making rasps by hand since 1856, and have only recently become available to woodworkers in the United States and Canada, where they have been hailed as outstanding tools. Several of the North American catalog companies that carry the tools still have stock on hand (get your credit card ready), but once that is gone, no more tools are expected.

Mike Hancock, the Auriou representative for the United States and the United Kingdom, said that the company had been growing quickly during the last few years, but that some employees refused to work overtime to keep up with demand. The situation deteriorated during the factory's normal August shut down, and now the company has been handed over to liquidators.

The full text of Michel Auriou's statement about the closure can be downloaded below.

Auriou's rasps are, without a doubt, the most prized rasps in the Popular Woodworking shop, even more so than the Nicholson patternmaker's rasps that most people consider as the best. Auriou also made carving tools, adzes and other tools.

The teeth of the Aurious are made by hand, which gives them a slight randomness in their arrangement on the blank. This randomness creates a rasp that cuts quite smoothly and quickly. If you'd like to read more about how these rasps were made, Joel Moskowitz of Tools for Working Wood has written an excellent explanation of the process that you can read on his web site.

If you are looking to purchase Aurious, here are a few of the places that we know that carry them. Act fast.

As to our recommendations for the rasps to have, that really depends on your work. We typically use a cabinetmaker's rasp followed up by one of the modeller's rasps. We've also used the rifflers, which are excellent, if your work demands it. I'm not sure how fine ours are. The cabinetmaker's rasp is coarser than the modeller's rasp, which is a good combination for us.

• Tools for Working Wood
• Lee Valley Tools
• Lie-Nielsen Toolworks
• Woodcraft
• Highland Hardware
• The Best Things
• Classic Hand Tools

And if all of those sources are sold out, we recommend you take a good look at the Gramercy Tools handmade rasps from Tools for Working Wood. Though not quite as perfect as the Aurious, they are high-quality tools.

Download the full text of Michel Auriou's statement.

AuriouStatement.htm (6.47 KB)

— Christopher Schwarz

I enjoy a good beating. Chopping dovetails or mortises is almost as pleasurable as sawing or planing. So, as you can imagine, I'm picky about my mallet.

For years I tried to make myself like the traditional round mallet used in carving and cabinetmaking. But I couldn't grow to enjoy using it. I'd be more likely to pick up a hammer than a round mallet when it came to chopping time.

So I abandoned the round one and have since been trying out a variety of mallets that are wooden or both wood and metal. I bought a couple English mallets that have a brass head that's filled with wooden striking surfaces. These are good, but replacing the wood when it expired was no fun.

So I've settled on two mallets that I really like. One is the Veritas Cabinetmaker's Mallet, which I've had since the company started making them. It's well-balanced and heavy enough (1 lb. 5 oz.) to get the job done. The head is brass and the wooden inserts are 1-1/2" in diameter, so you can cut them using a hole saw and pop them in (I'm about to replace one of my faces with a synthetic material that toolmaker Paul Hamler sent me. Don't know what it is, but he swears by it).

The handle is, I believe, ash. I stripped the finish off of it and applied a little oil and wax so it suits my hand better. This was the only mallet I used – until May.

That's when one of my students, Dante DiIanni, handed me one of the mallets he was developing for sale through his woodworking supplies store, Di Legno Woodshop Supply. It looks like a smallish beech carpenter's mallet you might see in a typical woodworking catalog. I've never cared much for this form because they were so lightweight that I ended up getting a sore forearm.

But Dante's mallets are different. He soaks them in linseed oil for a long time. This greatly increases the weight of the mallets, and gives them a nice feel in the hand. The mallet I tried is listed as approximately 22 oz., but mine weighs 19 oz., according to our postal scale. The mallet is 13" long overall with a 2-3/8" x 4-5/8" head. So it's a nice small size – you're in not going to smack yourself in the head and you can get into fairly tight places.

All the right edges are chamfered (I like chamfers), and there's a nice leather wrist strap, which is great for hanging the mallet over the bench (or keeping it on your wrist should your palm become separated from the handle during a wild swing).

I like this mallet. And so does Senior Editor Glen D. Huey, who has been chopping out about 100 dovetails for the cabinet base on his workbench. The mallet packs a ton of punch for its size and is a good fit in your hand. The mallet comes in four sizes between 18 oz. ($22.95) up to 32 oz. ($29.95). The 22 oz. model we tested is $24.95. you can order one from the Di Legno web site or by calling 877-208-4298.

— Christopher Schwarz

Get Free Shipping if You Order before Sept. 21

Every issue of Woodworking Magazine (our sister publication) is designed without an "expiration date" – we strive to make the instructions and projects that we write to be just as good in 20 years as they are today. To ensure the magazine will endure, we've just published a hardbound book containing the first seven issues, including issues that have long been sold out and unavailable.

These are the complete issues, just as they appeared in the magazine, and they are printed on paper that is even heavier and brighter than the originals. The book's 252 pages are bound in red cloth, stamped with gold foil and covered with a nice glossy dust jacket that features the Roubo workbench on the cover.

If you're not familiar with Woodworking Magazine, you're probably wondering why we're making such a fuss about it. Here's the deal: Woodworking Magazine is different than other woodworking magazines. We seek to challenge the conventional wisdom of the craft to find the most accurate, fast and straightforward way to perform an operation, whether it's cutting dados or making cherry look 100 years old. Our staff tests dozens of techniques in our shop in Cincinnati to find the ones worth using in your shop.

We publish projects that are historical classics, from the 18th-century Roubo workbench to a Gustav Stickley Magazine Stand to a Shaker Tall Cabinet from the Enfield Community. These are pieces of furniture that have earned their status as classics.

And even the way we review tools is different. We don't review table saws (there are enough table saw reviews already). We review the tools and items that we consider critical to good work: 6" rulers, hinges, marking knives, moisture meters, combination squares and the like.

Plus, we accept no outside advertising. Our interior pages are black-and-white. And we're not afraid to blend the use of hand and power tools to get good results.

This book is about to arrive in our warehouse, and we are making a special offer for readers who order the book before midnight on Friday, Sept. 21. If you order before that date, the book is $30 and we'll pay the shipping and handling. Orders placed after that will be $30 plus $4.95 shipping and handling.

This book will not be available in stores. You can order on our secure web site or call toll-free 800-258-0929 and ask for item# WWCMP7A.

When I took this job in 1996, I remember calling my dad to give him the news. His reaction confused me at the time: “That’s great son,” he said. “Woodworkers and carpenters are good people. You’ll be happy.”

It turned out to be a prescient comment. One of the things that has kept me in this job for so long (journalism is an itinerant profession) has been the readers who call to comment, complain or commend. There is something about people who work wood with their hands that sets them apart from the general population.

I know this because as a newspaper reporter, I got to sample a wide variety of the general population. And as someone who co-founded his own political newspaper (that failed), I also got to rub elbows with the elite and the powerful.

As I left the newspaper world behind in 1996, I wondered what sort of people woodworkers were, especially after my father’s comments. I knew only a handful from my classes at the University of Kentucky. There were no woodworking Internet forums that I knew of. I was unaware of my local club in central Kentucky.

And coming from a political publication, I wondered what sort of politics were associated with woodworking. I mean, you can see it both ways. There is the self-reliance and discipline in the craft that you find in many Republicans. And there also is a nature-oriented sensitivity that is common among many Democrats. There is a spiritualism in the wood you would expect from evangelicals. There is a deep river of science and chemistry you’d find in the atheists.

For years, I just assumed I’d never know the answer to this question. Then one day Publisher Steve Shanesy received a survey of woodworkers that had been commissioned by Woodcraft. The catalog and retail company was trying to assess the craft so they could see what should be done to ensure its future health.

The survey was interesting, but what was even more interesting to me was that the survey company Woodcraft hired was typically involved in political research. As I dug into the raw data, I saw that they had actually asked all these woodworkers their party affiliation and if they considered themselves liberal, moderate or conservative. And the survey company also compared this data to the population at large.

At long last, I was going to have my answer.

As it turns out, woodworker’s political persuasion matches exactly that of the population at large. The craft is filled with people from all political persuasions, from Yellow Dog Democrats to Rock Ribbed Republicans. (And don’t forget the Libertarians.)  So when it comes to what happens in the voting booth, we’re all over the map.

But there’s still something different about woodworkers. A couple weeks ago a reader wrote me about a sander I was selling (see my column from the August 2007 issue for more on this). So without a single qualm I boxed it up and sent it to him. I told him to send me a check if he liked it. Never once did it cross my mind that I’d be stiffed.

Yesterday the check showed up, right on time. I wasn’t the least bit surprised. Woodworkers are, like my dad said, just good people.

— Christopher Schwarz

Reader Brady Fretland writes:

I'm tired of drooling over the designs in your employer's publications and want to get to work. However, here is my situation: My tools consist of a framing hammer, a ball peen hammer head with a broken handle, a Delta compound miter saw that hasn't even made it out of the box yet, and a little Black and Decker multi-purpose drill-screwdriver tool.

No chisels, no clamps, definitely no spokeshave, 17 different wooden mallets, or pi-angle truffle planes designed and manufactured by the Elves of Middle Earth. My experience consists of several month-long forays into and out of frame and finish carpentry, before seasonal layoffs and thus, reality, intervened.

My completed projects include some restored floors and mouldings in a huge Victorian in South Minneapolis, and a letter holder made of a clothespin screwed onto a piece of 1 x 2 and stained with linseed oil for a 4th grade 4-H project.

I've read Woodworking Magazine for almost two years now, and have taken note of the required reading lists from your blog and from the Autumn 2006 issue, though I haven't made any purchases. I also haven't bought any of the recommended tools, because while it would be nice to own and eventually use a Lie-Nielsen jointer plane, I shy strongly from dropping $300 on one until I know that I'll need it and have a damned good use for it.

So, from the recommendations in your reading materials and the projects they suggest, can you name for me: Two books to start with, four must-have tools, and a good couple projects to keep me busy this summer? I realize that you're busy and I just dropped a tall and unbelievably generalized order on you, but just remember when you started, and shoot for something off the top of your head. Any advice you can give is much appreciated.


Editor Chris Schwarz responds:

I've been woodworking a long time, but I can still taste the frustration at getting started that you are experiencing. Right after college I was cursed with a burning desire to build furniture but had almost no tools. No shop. No money. And I wasn't smart enough to have any good books (and I'm a writer -- how dumb is that).

But I sat down at the kitchen table one night and sketched out a bench we needed for our kitchen. I went to the lumberyard and bought some pine. And I built the entire project with a circular saw (1960s vintage), a cheap drill, a block plane and a hammer. I keep the piece around to remind me (see above).

I built four or five more projects this way, and then the path became clearer. I could see better what tools I needed and the next steps on the path.

So here's my advice: We have a special section of our web site called "I Can Do That," that shows you how to assemble a very low-cost toolkit for building furniture. There's a free digital eBook you can download there that shows you how to use these tools. And we have a few basic projects there built using these tools. (We feature one of these projects in every issue of Popular Woodworking).

Here's where you can get started:

http://popularwoodworking.com/icandothat

After that, I would buy a good book on hand work. Either Aldren A Watson's "Hand Tools" or Robert Wearing's "The Essential Woodworker."

And readers: If you have further advice for Brady, please post it in the Comments section. Any tips on getting started are appreciated. The hardest part of starting in woodworking is starting.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you've ever struggled with sharpening a card scraper or using your handplanes while building furniture, there are two new DVDs on these topics you should find useful.

"Hand Scrapers: Understanding, Preparing and Using the Ultimate Finishing Tool" and "Building Furniture with Hand Planes" were produced by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and hosted by Popular Woodworking editor Christopher Schwarz (that's me).

The DVD on scrapers is based on my research into all the conflicting advice given on sharpening scrapers. I went through every one of my woodworking books and found 14 distinctly different methods explained for preparing this simple rectangle of steel. Using each of these techniques, I then prepared 14 scrapers and we compared the results in our shop here at Popular Woodworking.

And, as is our way, we took the best details from all the techniques to create a 15th way to sharpen card scrapers that is fast and makes a hook that is far more durable than those on any other scraper I've used. This 30-minute DVD shows you, step-by-step, how to prepare a scraper using these methods and how to properly use the tool.

Now, I generally am the harshest critic of own work (just ask Lucy, my spouse), but this DVD and the technique shown is one of the things I'm most proud of in my 11 years here at the magazine. It really was one of those few "a-ha" moments of my career. I hope you'll agree.

The other DVD, "Building Furniture with Hand Planes," explores a realm of hand-tool instruction that gets little ink. While there are endless articles on how to set up a plane (I should know, I've written some of them), there is precious little advice out there on how to actually use the tools on furniture. After all, we don't make shavings, we make furniture.

This 60-minute DVD shows you how to use a jointer plane, smoothing plane and block plane when building furniture. I offer my method for setting up all three planes with slightly curved cutting edges and how to use those curved edges to your advantage when making furniture.

With the jointer plane (one of my all-time favorite tools), I discuss:
• How to work on edges to produce square, straight edges and spring joints.
• How to work on assembled panels and case sides to flatten them using cross-grain and diagonal strokes.
• How to turn your tail vise into a huge shooting board (an old French trick).
• How to gang-plane your boards to identical thickness.
• How to cut tapers to fit an inset door.
• Match-planing, the pros and cons.

With the smoothing plane, I discuss:
• How to set up the tool to take a very fine shaving.
• How to use your smoother as little as possible (and why)
• How to smooth assemblies.

And for the block plane, I discuss:
• Why a curved iron is sometimes desirable.
• How to trim end grain without blowing out the ends of your work.
• How to use the tool for chamfering and in conjunction with your jointer plane to eliminate the splintering of edges.

The DVD on scrapers costs $20; the DVD on using planes in furniture work is $25. Both are in stock and available from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. Also, all Chris's proceeds from these two DVDs go to the Roger Cliffe Memorial Fund, a charity that provides tuition assistance to students in need at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. So your purchase will help other woodworkers.

— Christopher Schwarz

John Sindelar stands in front of a door at the back of his thriving cabinet and millwork shop in Edwardsburg, Mich. The door opens into blackness and Sindelar turns around for a moment before entering.

“This room,” he says with a sly grin, “is like church to me.”

He flips on the light and walks into the small paneled room. The room is filled with antique tools. No, strike that last sentence. The room is filled with tools that you never thought existed or that you would see in person. Tools that you have only heard about, seen in auction catalogs or drooled over in Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s books “The Art of Fine Tools” or “Tools Rare and Ingenious” (Taunton).

And not just a few tools. Hundreds and hundreds of vintage tools lined up on tables, shelves and a display case made from a harness for an elephant. Few of the tools are under glass. In addition to the tools, there are two comfortable chairs against one wall and under a panel of stained glass. And that is a good thing because I have to sit down.

This is just one of the five rooms filled with tools. Sindelar has so many tools (“Probably, tens of thousands,” he guesses) that he keeps a significant number in storage. In one adjoining room there is a wheelbarrow filled with a stack of plow planes. In another room there’s a wall of rare infill miter planes. In the front room – the biggest room – the walls are lined with vintage workbenches. Tools cover the benches, axes cover the walls, the floor is covered in boxes (that are filled with tools).

That this collection exists is remarkable. Getting to see it is something else. And what Sindelar has planned for it just might change your vacation plans someday. Sindelar is actively making plans to build a 30,000-square-foot public museum and woodworking school that will show off his collection and teach woodworking skills.

He has three locations in mind – near Williamsburg, Va., Harrisburg, Pa., or perhaps in North Carolina. He sketched up plans for the building, which would look like a French castle, and turned them over to an architect to develop. He wants the museum open for business by 2010. Opening a tool museum on this scale sounds like an unlikely feat for anyone. But once you meet Sindelar and hear his story, you are unlikely to doubt that it could happen.

Download a short slideshow tour of the collection:

SindelarSlideshow5.pdf (1.71 MB)

— Christopher Schwarz

As a child, nothing put me to sleep faster than one of my father's slideshows. Sure, they were of his fascinating time in Vietnam, but there's something about a couch, a darkened room and a root beer that would put me under fast.

So with that caveat, I've prepared a 3-1/2-minute slideshow of the construction process for the Holtzapffel Workbench, which will be the cover project for the fall issue of Woodworking Magazine. There's no audio to the slideshow or plans available yet, but it is a fair overview of how this bench goes together.

The slideshow is in pdf format, so just about anyone should be able to view it. Out of a possible five Ambien, I'll give this slideshow a "four."

— Christopher Schwarz

Good news: The next issue of Woodworking Magazine goes on sale on July 24. The new issue will be bigger than the last seven issues – 48 pages instead of 36 – and will be available in both printed and digital versions through our web site.

However, this new Autumn 2007 issue will not be available at newsstands. The only place you'll be able to purchase the issue is through our secure server on our web site. We've decided to forego newsstand distribution for the new issue for a variety of reasons, including the recent poor newsstand sales of all magazines and the general wastefulness of the process (all the unsold copies are thrown in the dumpster).  

Here are the details on pricing and availability: Starting on July 24, you will have two options for buying the new issue. For $6, you will be able to instantly download an enhanced pdf version of the magazine. This enhanced pdf will be much like the pdfs on our CDs, which have links embedded in the stories that take you to expanded content on our blog, web site or on other outside sites. The digital version will feature a full-color cover and the same rich sepia-toned photos inside.

For $8, you will be able to purchase a printed copy of the issue and it will be mailed to your house directly from our warehouse in Wisconsin. The printed version will be on heavy #70-pound paper stock and will be true black and white throughout.

I know that many of you are wondering if we will be offering subscriptions to Woodworking Magazine in the near future. The honest answer is that we don't know yet. Our circulation and accounting analysts are still preparing a report. Theirs is a difficult task because our company has never published a magazine like this one, and the playing field is a crowded one. I can say that our executives will be paying close attention to how this new issue sells. So your continued support of the magazine is appreciated and might even sway their decision.

Below is the important stuff: The stories we're working on right now for the issue.

The Holtzapffel Cabinetmaker's Workbench
Author: Christopher Schwarz
In 1875, when the world was balanced on a precipice with its rural past behind it and the modern age spread before it, this bench was published in an English book: “Holtzapffel’s Construction, Action and Application of Cutting Tools Volume II” by Charles Holtzapffel. It’s a tremendous book even today and is crammed with details on working wood and metal with both hand and power tools.

The Holtzapffel workbench is the third archaic workbench that I’ve built and put to use in a modern shop. Each of the three benches had a deep connection to the culture that developed it. The bench from A.J. Roubo’s 18th-century books is as French as béarnaise, strong coffee and berets. The bench from Peter Nicholson’s 19th-century “Mechanical Exercises” is entirely British. The only other place this English bench shows up with any regularity is in the Colonies.

The Holtzapffel is a cultural mongrel. The Holtzapffels were Germans who settled in England. And the bench has features of both cultures that, in my opinion, create a bench that is outstanding for cabinetmaking.

Wall-mounted Tool Rack
Author: Robert Lang
One of the most efficient ways to work at a bench is to have all your common tools in a rack right in front of and above your bench. We've built a number of designs, all of them simple and taking no more than a couple hours to build and mount. The trick is in knowing how to space the elements of the rack to accommodate the widest variety of measuring, marking and cutting tools.

Tool Review: Flush-cutting Saws
Author: Glen Huey
Flush-cutting saws allow you to trim pegs, wedges and through-tenons without marring the surrounding work. Well, that's the theory, at least. Some of these saws stink. Some are nutty expensive (more than $100), and some seem a good balance of price and performance. We bring in half a dozen of the best examples we can find and give them a workout.

Tool Techniques: Cutting Flush
Author: Glen Huey
There are a wide variety of ways to trim pegs, wedges and tenons flush to your work, from a trim router with a planing bit, a special saw, a chisel and a gouge. We examine all the methods and find the ones that require the least set-up and the best chance of success.

Become a Better Borer
Author: Christopher Schwarz
Cutting accurate, clean and square holes is a skill that will serve you well in making furniture. We examine the mechanics and ergonomics of boring by hand and by power and show you how to develop your freehand boring skills to a fine art.

Finishing Technique: Pumpkin Pine
Author: Glen Huey
One of the most desirable finish colors is what is sometimes called "pumpkin pine." It's essentially an aged, mellow and warm clear finish. Is shellac the best way to reproduce this finish on new work? If so, what is easiest and best? Is there some other technique that doesn't involve mixing flakes?

The Back Cover Poster: Sandpaper
We take a close look at this common but confusing abrasive. What is open coat? Closed coat? Stearated? P-grade? Garnet? We cut through the confusion so you'll finally understand the labels and make the right choice.

— Christopher Schwarz

From June 2006 Popular Woodworking

Wenzloff & Sons Backsaws Make the Cut

The hand-tool crowd lives and dies by the hand saw. But even for the rest of us, no matter how many electrons we consume in our shops (and I consume my fair share) we all need a couple decent hand saws for the all-too-common tricky cut.

Now we have one more choice when selecting the right saw. Veteran cabinetmaker Mike Wenzloff of Forest Grove, Ore., has recently taken up custom sawmaking as his primary business and his early offerings are excellent. Thanks to his long career as a professional woodworker, Wenzloff’s backsaws are exceptionally functional and a joy to use – the wood, split brass nuts and brass back are expertly finished to a high degree.
I test drove two of his adaptations of the now-vanished Disston No. 9 backsaw – one saw was filed with rip teeth and the other with crosscut teeth. The saws are surprisingly large (201⁄2" long) and heavy (11⁄2 pounds) – both attributes are assets to cutting fast and true. The saws are hand-sharpened and track a line quite well.
The crosscut saw had 14 points per inch; the rip saw had 11 ppi. If you need something different, just ask. Wenzloff makes this saw in a variety of lengths and with 9 to 15 ppi. There also are a variety of wood species you can choose for the handle.

And if the price of the No. 9 is too much, Wenzloff also sells the saw as a nearly finished kit for $110 – you essentially finish shaping the handle and fit it to the blade.In addition to the No. 9 saw, Wenzloff also makes pure custom saws and a halfback saw –  a smallish panel saw with a short brass back. Wenzloff was tweaking the handle of that saw at press time; we’ll give you an update on that saw and its performance in a future issue.
The Wenzloff saws rank up there with other premium makers, including Lie-Nielsen, Adria and Gramercy Tools. And, as a bonus, you can get your saw easily customized to your liking. I think you’ll be as impressed with these saws as I was.

— Christopher Schwarz

More information on these saws from Wenzloff & Sons

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From August 2006 Popular Woodworking

Exquisite!

I’ve long been a fan of large shoulder planes and have many miles on my Lie-Nielsen 073, which I bought the first day it was available. So I wasn’t sure I needed the company’s new 3⁄4" shoulder plane when I ordered it. Surprisingly, the medium shoulder plane gets as much use as the bigger tool. The 3⁄4" width gets this tool into the bottoms of dados to clean out the unevenness or junk left by coarser tools. At 2.3 pounds, it weighs almost two pounds less than its bigger brother, which makes it a bit easier to wield when working narrow stock and small rabbets.


And, of course, it excels at its primary job – trimming tenon shoulders and cheeks.
Like all Lie-Nielsen tools, the medium shoulder plane is made to high standards. I placed a straightedge on the sole and it revealed that it was perfect. Then I placed a machinist’s square on the sidewalls to check their orientation to the sole. If the sidewalls aren’t perfect to the sole the tool will never work quite right. Both sidewalls were dead-on perfect all along the tool’s body.
The real surprise was the iron. With most tools, I’ve come to expect some serious work to flatten and polish the unbeveled face of the iron. Lately, I’ve found Lie-Nielsen (and its competitor, Veritas) to have irons that require almost no work. This one took a scant five minutes to sharpen and go. That’s worth something in my book.

Which brings me to the price: $175. You might be able to buy a vintage Preston, Record or Stanley shoulder plane for a bit less, but I ask you: How will you true up the sole or sidewalls if they’re not perfect? With the modern tools, you can send back the ones that aren’t perfect. And for those of us who prefer woodworking to metalworking (a show of hands, please) the price is incidental. Especially when you take into account this is the last one you’ll ever have to buy.

— Christopher Schwarz

More information on the Medium Shoulder Plane from Lie-Nielsen

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