There will be a time when your improvement in a particular technique will start to grind to a halt, even though your time in the shop hasn’t. Your cuts aren’t perfectly square, your finishes aren’t perfectly smooth, and your projects aren’t looking any better than they did the last time you did them. You might […]
If you cut two pieces, try to fit them together, and they are gapped, or if you have to force them into alignment, or if the pieces will not sit flat together, don’t despair. In my experience, a failed joint is never the result of a single error, but rather a series of small errors […]
A lot of new woodworkers will work for hours in their shop and not get much better because they’ll work on too many different things. Measuring, cutting, sanding, assembling… It’s all great practice, but it doesn’t give you the dedicated time to really hone your skills. It’s better to dedicate time to one specific technique, […]
Impatience to make something valuable is a common trap for the newcomer. A big project can mask poor techniques, particularly if the initial few strokes don’t follow the guideline, or if adjacent pieces don’t fit together as they should. Small exercises to understand the interaction between tool and wood are invaluable to a beginner prior […]
