Fine Woodworking

For over three decades, The Taunton Press has focused on delivering valuable information and insights. We believe that our true strength lies in being a source of inspiration and support. That's why we share ideas, skills, and techniques in a straightforward manner, ensuring they are easy to understand and trustworthy.

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Layout kit for dovetails

2 months ago | finewoodworking.com | Michael Pekovich

The thought of cutting dovetails can be stressful. A big challenge is that it doesn’t consist of a single task. Instead, it requires a number of steps that involve multiple skill sets. This is not to say that it needs to be a daunting proposition. Rather, success lies in understanding the process and having a sound approach to each step.
Painting and Carving the Coffer Chest

2 months ago | finewoodworking.com | Christopher Schwarz

To paint the exterior, I use a linseed oil paint if I can allow a week for it to dry. If I don’t have the luxury of time, I use acrylic. After the paint is nice and hard, you can cut through the paint to decorate the coffer. Some cultures used carving gouges. Others used engraving tools that were pulled against a straightedge or inserted in a compass to make arcs. My engraving tool is a simple cutter used to trim the welds on vinyl floors. I hold it with an inexpensive craft knife.
Chris Schwarz's Coffer Chest

2 months ago | finewoodworking.com | Christopher Schwarz

This small shepherd’s coffer, based on examples from Central Europe’s High Carpathian mountains, is sized for holding papers and writing tools. Traditionally, no matter how rich or poor, almost every family in the region owned a few of these chests and coffers. The joinery for this chest is entirely tongues, grooves, and wooden pegs. You can make all the joinery with a tongue-and-groove plane.
Review: Woodpeckers Dado Nut for SawStop Table Saws

2 months ago | finewoodworking.com | Michael Pekovich

I use a dado set on my SawStop table saw quite a bit. When setting up wider cuts, I encounter a problem, running out of room on the arbor to fully seat the nut. In the past I’ve resorted to leaving off the arbor washer, but I’ve never felt good about that. Woodpeckers must have sensed my frustration and so has created a narrow-profile arbor nut with a washer built in. The Dado Nut can seat fully on the arbor threads, and it offers the support of a washer to keep the blades flat and cutting smoothly.
A Fusion of Pattern and Form

2 months ago | finewoodworking.com | Jonathan Binzen |Kaitlyn Hayes

-From Fine Woodworking #276Growing up, Ben Strear was enthralled by a book on the artist M.C. Escher and his interlocking, seemingly infinite patterns. Intricate patterns remain an obsession with Strear, and his carved and painted basswood pieces strive to fuse pattern with form.
A 3D-Printer-Assisted Table Repair

Jan 13, 2025 | finewoodworking.com | Ben Strano

A couple of weeks ago I wandered into a little-used room in my parent’s house. There I found the broken bits of a table I had made a few years ago. Clearly, someone had tripped over the table and one of the three legs had broken right at the dovetail joint. A nearby clamp told me the rest of the story, which I assume went like this:Don’t tell Ben. We’ll fix the table he made because he’s such a wonderful person.
Knife checks in veneer

Jan 10, 2025 | finewoodworking.com | R. Bruce Hoadley |Ben Strano

When considering veneer and its quality, we usually think only of characteristics such as species, thickness and figure, or defects such as knots, stain or pitch streaks. Beyond that, veneer is veneer. But of most serious concern should be knife checks. These are parallel-to-grain fracture planes produced in the veneer at the time of its manufacture and which may go unnoticed, only to cause agonizing problems later.
Carve a Bowl from a Board

Dec 6, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | David Fisher

Synopsis: David Fisher has designed a bowl that can be carved from a dry 8/4 board and worked on a standard workbench. In this article, he shares step-by-step instructions for crowning the top, laying out the handles and the hollow, carving the hollow, refining the hollow, creating the side curves, and shaping the underside. All the work is done with hand tools. In a separate Handwork piece, Fisher shares his technique for adding a decorative carved tree. No log, no axe, no problem.
Figuring out the details on your own

Dec 5, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | Ben Strano

First, I wanted to send along a heartfelt thank you for everything you do at Fine Woodworking; with the exception of the occasional YouTube video, I have learned to woodwork over the past two years exclusively through reading your articles, watching (and rewatching) the video workshops, and listening to every episode of the podcast (twice). I recently built Garrett Hack’s Shaker side table from FWW #104 (1994).
From the Editor: Asheville underwater

Dec 4, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | Jonathan Binzen |Ben Strano

At the end of September, when Hurricane Helene charged up from the Gulf of Mexico and dropped 14 to 30 in. of rain on Asheville and environs, engorging the French Broad River and generating floodwaters that ripped through western North Carolina, many of those in the way were woodworkers. One of them was Mike Warnock, a longtime maker who had quit his job a month before to go full-time as a solo builder of custom kitchens.