How-To

Turner’s Gate/Class Cancellations

I prefer to size stretcher tenons with a Turner's Gate (Sorby calls it a Sizing Tool). It's major advantage over dowel plates and tenon cutters is that the tenon shoulder can be easily removed using a skew, plus the tenons are always in line with each other. A...

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Finding green wood

Green wood is everywhere. In fact, dry wood doesn't usually exist in nature: trees are veritable pipes full of water and once they die the rotting process is fed by water. Yet finding green wood can be a daunting task for many modern woodworkers. Where to look? What...

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Storing Green Wood

You've got your hands on some green wood.  How do you store it? If your winter stays below 40 or 50 degrees, take your time, it will probably keep fresh till spring. However, with several recent warm winters, rot seems to be becoming a year round event here in...

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Octagonal Legs

A couple months ago I filmed an Octagonal Side Table DVD and a Milk Painting DVD with Popular Woodworking. They should be out sometime this summer. Here's a photo of the table:   To film a DVD you need lots of parts at various stages, so I made a pile of bent...

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Making Shellac

This video was made by the fellow I buy my shellac flakes from.  Who knew it took so much effort by insect and man to make a pound of shellac?  Or that different trees make different kinds of shellac?  Now I feel bad for spilling the stuff.  

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Curtis Carving Spoons/Settee Class

Curtis Buchanan and I spent some time carving spoons last January.  I photographed his process, which he describes as "the way a chairmaker with bad elbows carves a spoon."  Or something like that. He carves the bowl first.  This is steam bent cherry....

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Kiln Construction

We have talked about kiln temperatures and kiln heaters, now onto kiln construction. Size The primary use of a chairmaking kiln is to super-dry tenons. It's nice to be able to set bends in a kiln too. This requires the kiln to be large enough to fit the bend while...

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Pitchforks with Curtis

I've made a few pitchforks for historical museums over the years, though I can hardly say I'm an expert. Curtis Buchanan called me a few months ago and said he wanted to make a pitchfork. Here's some photos from my weekend in Jonesborough,  eating the Buchanan's...

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