Chris Schwarz's Pop Wood Blog

I make it a point to avoid blogging about sharpening. It is the simplest thing to do that is made confusing by too much talk and too many commercial products. I honestly do not care how you sharpen your tools. If you can get a zero-radius intersection and then polish the two surfaces, then you … Read more »

The post Shut up and Sharpen appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When I first mentioned the topic of my latest DVD, my e-mail inbox filled up with messages such as: “This project is beneath you. Beneath all of us. You traitor.” And that’s the G-rated version. The DVD, “A Traditional Tool Chest in Two Days,” takes a home-center approach to building an 18th-century-style tool chest with … Read more »

The post ‘The Traitor’s Tool Chest’ Now Available on DVD appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Woodworkers are shy people – especially at the beginning of their journey. They make parts or assemblies oversized and then plane, sand or rasp them to fit. On one hand, this makes sense. It’s easier to take wood off than to put it back on. However, the other hand is already done with the job … Read more »

The post Drawer Construction Details Make Life Easier appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In some high technology circles there is an expression they use when engineers move too quickly to launch a project. They have “go fever” and are willing to overlook horrible mistakes in order to launch a product. When teaching woodworking – especially casework – I find that most students need to take down their protective netting, … Read more »

The post I Want to Give You ‘Go Fever’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

While I like and appreciate strict reproductions, I’ve always preferred to design my own stuff. How do I design a piece? In the only way I know how. It’s not easy. There are no formulas or rules or ratios. It is by a process I call “saturation and feedback.” Step 1: Absorb everything you can … Read more »

The post The Dumb Way to Teach Design appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

All woodworking stories are – by definition – somewhat sappy. This one is even more so. The day I met Steve Shanesy I was a burned-out writer, designer and editor. I was managing a newspaper that swirling around the rim of the toilet bowl. I was writing about politics – something I didn’t care about. … Read more »

The post On Steve Shanesy’s Last Day appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The Milkman’s Workbench – a portable bench I built for the June 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine – is about 653 percent better than my first workbench. Thanks to the clever engineering in the portable bench, it can handle most handwork tasks when clamped to a dining room table or kitchen countertop. My first … Read more »

The post The Milkman’s Workbench in Use appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The portable “Milkman’s Workbench” from the June 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine has attracted a lot of attention, judging from the e-mail piling up in my Inbox. The No. 1 question: How can I build the bench without wooden bench screws? One answer: wedges. Reader Ilkka Sivonen of FInland built the bench without wooden … Read more »

The post ‘Milkman’s Workbench’ Without Screws appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ve collected tons of drawings of old workbenches, during the years, and most fall into two categories: 1. A typical workbench with typical vises that looks like lots of other workbenches. 2. Workbenches that were drawn by an artist that have vises that would never work and that are put in stupid places where vises … Read more »

The post German Workbench: Artistic License or Pure Genius? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

If there is one disadvantage to round bench dogs, it is that they can occasionally rotate as you are clamping something between two dogs or when you are planing against a single dog. It’s a minor annoyance, but it’s real. An Italian reader devised a very clever solution to this problem that is quick. I … Read more »

The post Round Bench Dogs that Don’t Rotate appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When in Canada, you do need to be careful about what you use your toothbrush for. At woodworking schools in the United States, a lot of them use a wet toothbrush to remove wet glue squeeze-out from the inside corners of a carcase. But when teaching a tool chest class at Rosewood Studio in Perth, … Read more »

The post Toothbrushes & Glue in Canada appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As my dad is a Vietnam vet, I’ve always had a soft spot for the men and women in the armed forces. So when I heard from several of them that they were interested in buying one of my portable workbenches, I thought I could do better than sell them something. I enlisted the help … Read more »

The post Portable Benches for Servicemen appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Holy cow I mucked around a lot making the dogs for the portable workbench featured in the June 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. I made spring-loaded bench dogs (more complex than necessary). Dogs using a bullet catch (the right-size hardware wasn’t readily available at the home center). And when I considered casting the dogs, … Read more »

The post Dogs for the ‘Milkman’s Workbench’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

One of the best things about getting older has been the fact that I can now do more woodworking tasks “by feel” than “by eye.” As my already-crappy eyesight has become dulled by middle age, I’ve found that my other senses – particularly my sense of touch – have become heightened. I cannot always see … Read more »

The post Is Your Handplane Tuned? Acacia melanoxylon Knows appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

If you own a saw that has a “nib,” a decorative nipple-looking thing on the toe of your saw, someone will ask you what it’s for. The best answer is: It’s decorative. But that doesn’t stop woodworkers from coming up with uses for it. Here are two good ones. 1. As a place to tie … Read more »

The post 2 Great Uses for a Saw’s ‘Nib’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

If you don’t like (or cannot) sharpening a marking knife, the new Czeck Edge “Super Kadet II” knife is likely the right choice for your tool chest. Based on the well-balanced and well-made “Kerf Kadet” knife, this version is like its older brothers with the addition of a tungsten carbide blade. Why a carbide blade? … Read more »

The post Test Drive: Carbide Marking Knife from Czeck Edge appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Honestly, I’ve tuned so many dang metal planes in my lifetime that I’ll never worry about having enough iron in my diet. They might mine my carcass for the mineral when I’m dead. For me, it has always been an analog process: Do it by hand with inexpensive supplies. Today I spent the day tuning … Read more »

The post Tuning Bench Planes at Vesper World Headquarters appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.