Woodwork Online

North Bennet Street School: 125 years and thriving.

More than a mecca to the aspiring woodworker, the North Bennet Street School– lying a few steps from Old North Church (“one if by land, two if by sea”) in Boston’s historic North End neighborhood–operates as a veritable university of innovative training programs across eight different craft disciplines. The school draws students from across the… »

Lance Patterson: The dean of period furniture.

By: Manya Chylinski
Lance Patterson is a bit of an enigma. His colleagues and students at Boston’s North Bennet Street School seem to think they don’t know the real Lance, who doesn’t spend much time socializing. But they’re the people who know him best. Woodworker, teacher, brilliant craftsman–that’s the real Lance. He just happens to be… »

Attn: John Everdell

BY YOAV LIBERMAN
This story is about the evolution of a project, from its infancy as a pile of scrap lumber (1) and some very vague ideas about how it is supposed to look and be built, to its maturity as a cohesive creation that stands firmly on all four legs.
Most of my projects are based… »

Terry Martin: Speaking the Language of Wood

BY KEVIN WALLANCE
Terry Martin is a craftsman and sculptor, writer and critic, teacher and student in the field of wood art. He is a man who constantly changes hats, doing what he can to document and promote a field in which he is also a player. It is not an easy route to take, particularly… »

The Idyllic Woodworking Life of Grant Vaughan

BY TERRY MARTIN
Despite the notion that the woodworking life is very romantic, full of sweet-smelling plane shavings in a peaceful workshop, for many the reality is dusty, noisy and sometimes tedious work. Yet many of us became woodworkers in pursuit of an idealized lifestyle. When I recently visited Grant Vaughan, I was impressed to see… »

6/8 Tables - All in a Day’s Work

BY JOHN SHERIDAN
Although I’m a professional furniture maker, not every piece that I build is an heirloom. In fact, I’ve discovered that designing attractive, durable pieces that can be built in a short amount of time can be just as satisfying as making fine furniture. I call these my “6/8” designs, because they can be… »

The Pair of Shoes

BY TOSHIO ODATE
PHOTOS: LAURE OLENDER
Toshio Odate apprenticed as a young woodworker in Japan during the 1940s. He moved to New York in 1958, became a renowned sculptor, and was instrumental in introducing America and Europe to the Japanese craft tradition, publishing the seminal work Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use in 1984.
This article… »

2008 Design in Wood Exhibition

GALLERY
2008 Design in Wood Exhibition
DEL MAR, CALIFORNIA
In 1982, 35 members of the San Diego Fine Woodworker's Association (SDFWA) participated in the first Design in Wood Exhibition. Today the SDFWA has over 1600 members and Design in Wood now averages over 300 entries and awards over $20,000 in prize money to entries in 22 classes. Pictured… »

Wooden Grooving and Rabbeting Planes

BY KERRY PIERCE
A tablesaw equipped with a dado set is brutally efficient for cutting dozens of grooves, dadoes or rabbets. I tend to build just one piece at a time, though, so I rarely find myself faced with making such a large number of joints. More typically, I need dadoes for two or four shelves,… »

Fineply

A remarkable new form of shop-built plywood can stretch your imagination!

BY JERRY SPADY
The things humans have made over the millennia have depended upon both the materials available and our understanding of their properties. Secondarily, we’ve had to develop appropriate tools and techniques to manipulate these materials. This is true on the grand scale of, say,… »