Woodworking Basics

Most woodworkers treat card scrapers as optional luxury tools, but they solve a problem sandpaper cannot—and once you understand the difference, you stop wasting time chasing tear-out on figured wood. I spent years convinced sandpaper was the complete answer until a stubborn piece of curly walnut forced me to try something different. A card scraper … Read more

How strong is wood glue? On a properly made long-grain joint, stronger than the wood it holds together. That is not a marketing line, it is what the published shear numbers show, and it is the reason a glue joint that fails usually fails by tearing wood fibers rather than by letting go along the … Read more

Conflicting advice about tool priorities floods woodworking forums: some veterans insist you absolutely need a full power tool setup before attempting serious projects, while others claim hand tools alone will get you 95% of the way there. The first camp is wrong. I know this because I arrived at woodworking as a metalworker with a … Read more