Q: Paul, Can you post a close up picture of those dovetails, a good clear close up shot. A: I took pics today and will show and tell tonight,later. You guys must remember I am a working craftsman making furniture for my living. I am not hanging out. I put in 8-10 hours a day…
Q: Paul, First of all, thank you. Thank you for caring about the way things were done long ago, and bringing them to life in the modern era. Thank you for your books and DVD’s (all of which I own). Thank you for your blog. Thank you for caring enough about the art of woodworking…
Organising wood can be a difficulty and there is no way but to customise to your work and product because we are all different. These two racks work best for me. I have used this one for a year and it’s excellent. I can see what I have clearly, see when I am low and…
Q: Hi Paul, I really like that chest and look forward to reading about your next piece in detail. I make all my workshop tables from either Douglas Fir or White Pine from Home Depot. Unfortunately, HD never labels it as anything but just pine. How critical is the exact type of pine? All I…
So many of your questions will be of answer to others who do not write so I have decided to post them here so others can benefit too. This will be anonymous of course. You can ask in your emails not o post it and I will respect that of course. The first one will…
The hand takes the chisel, unites with the wood, the hammer strikes and the wood splits the waste from the wanted. The hammer withdraws, strikes again and more wood separates from what must remain to form the tenon and tail, the mortise and the housing. My hand twists, turns, twists more as the wood rejects…
Some pine chests at a car-boot sale… …some people cheated even back then – nails in each tail.. … or no tails at all here. Well, some of you love pine as much as I do I see. I think it’s a lovely wood for tool…
Another friend leaves my workshop this weeks after nine months of intensive training and friendship; but more than that, service. In times past a man of 15 served his apprenticeship and at the end of 5-7 years, depending on the era, he was or became a time-served craftsman. But it wasn’t that he served time…
Here is a piece I will be making shortly – a tool chest for my next book. This one was made from Home Depot white pine. Pine like this is lightweight and strong. Oak would be twice the weight yet not twice as strong and too heavy to lift of course. There are of course…
I am preparing wood for my next chest, which is my version of a Shaker-style hope chest. This one has similar features to the one in the blog, but dovetailed corners from top to bottom (to reinforce what everyone learned in the Shaker Candle Box in the Working Wood 1&2 book and DVDs) and a…