Models and Design
Front end load your design work and you will feel better at the back end when you finish a piece. Sketching, full scale modeling in cardboard, and quarter scale models are enormous aids in discovering what’s right and what’s wrong about your design ideas.
Pad Sanders I have known
I know plenty of pad sanders. But I’d trade them all away for a sharp hand plane. Hand planes can be time savers when it comes to smoothing surfaces. They also fight that perfectionism that pad sanders lead you to.
10 Things to Know about Wood
Wood doesn’t just sit there. It’s alive. It moves, it changes dimension, it colors over time. Learns some essential facts about wood so you can choose your wood for your next project with more information at hand.
Beginners Mind
Everyone starts at the beginning. Yet our expectations rarely match our skills then. The hardest thing is to be patient as we learn.
The Total Body Work-out
This April Fool’s Day lecture is on the value of working out with your woodworking.
Brian Boggs, Master Craftsman
Brian Boggs is a chairmaker, artist, designer, and engineer extraordinaire. He is also quite a philosopher on the nature of work and workmanship, the value of excellent work, and how tooling affects design.
Discipline and Practice
Practice is what brings us first to competency and then to mastery. Listen to some stories of discipline that allowed practitioners to work through their own limitations. Quality doesn’t have a shortcut to it.
The Lowly Scraper
The scraper is a small wonder. It is capable of cutting in most any direction without tear-out. How to get one sharp can be frustrating. Listen to one simple tip that will change your method and make sharpening a scraper a snap.
Hock Irons
An interview with Ron Hock of Hock Tools, maker of plane irons and knives. This is a fascinating discussion about starting a business, metallurgy, and the rise of civilizations.
Drilled and Screwed
Drilling and screwing a box together. What could be simpler? But it often turns out to be a test of your patience, your dexterity, and your ability to forgive yourself.