Wood Working News and Notes discovers great woodworking articles from around the web! Here are the “best of the best” for this week, including a solemn but funny Veteran’s Day post, an awesome wheel-in-the-leg solution to a mobile workbench, an astounding build notes and pics collection by John Fry, and Popular Woodworking’s runners up for Best Tools of 2009!
Enjoy!
The Dogs of War
A solemn but humorous appreciation of Veterans Day… “A few years back there were two kids in my shop class acting up during the minute of silence at 11 o’clock on Remembrance Day. So I assigned them each a five hundred word research essay.”
Read the first line of the essay carefully – I had to read it twice before I smiled ;)
Chop, Drop and Roll
“This week, reader Phil Donehower of North Carolina sent me photos of the mobile base he installed in the legs of his French-style workbench. I think his idea has real merit and might help spark some neurons in your own noggin.”
Tilde Table Created by John Fry
“This commissioned project is a coffee table ensemble that is designed to sit in a seating alcove created by a very large “L” shaped couch on two sides and a large chair on the third. It is made from selected white maple solids and veneers on Baltic birch plywood substrates and it is definitely on the artsy side. It stands 18” tall and with any of the two round tables nested in the “tilde”, it fills a zone of 26” by 52”.” AMAZING WORK. AMAZING BUILD NOTES. Go check them out at WoodWorkersZone and then go visit John Fry’s site: ChiselandBit.com ==>
Best New Tools of 2009: The Runners Up
“…we thought we’d share the list of tools that were finalists but didn’t quite make the cut. These are all great tools, and if we had room in the magazine, I bet they would have also been on our list of “The Best New Tools of 2009.””
When Arts and Crafts Joinery Becomes Decoration
“A large part of the appeal of Arts and Crafts style furniture is the apparent lack of decoration. The project currently on my bench, a reproduction of a Gustav Stickley No. 70 music cabinet and a detail I’ve borrowed from similar pieces is the reason for using the word “apparent”. I’ve always liked this little cabinet, it’s just under four feet high, and only 20 inches wide. The detail I borrowed, mitered mullions on the door, and the idea of plain, unadorned furniture is hard to reconcile. As I worked on the door last week, I came to realize that there isn’t any practical reason to put a glass door on a cabinet to store sheet music, and joining the parts of the door this way is just showing off.”
La. educators turn to trades to cut dropout rate
“Beginning next year, a lot of Louisiana high school classrooms could look like Wes Sebren’s: equipped with welding gear, safety goggles and circular saws.”
Devin’s Knife Block – Viewer Project
“This week, we have another set of “themed” posts. I recently created the Popular Woodworking knife block as a Guild project, and I received a few emails from folks who either made knife blocks before or were inspired by the project. This particular one was submitted by Devin.”
A Fascination With Old Tools
“Antique woodworking tools, machines, and methods hold a real fascination for many woodworkers. Viewing or collecting these old pieces can be an interesting hobby, or a great way to understand earlier methods for the craft you practice today. This lens is not meant to be a teaching tool, but simply a reference page to point you to some of the many resources where you can learn about the older tools and ways of woodworking.”
Seriously, I Can’t Believe I Watched it Either, But…
“So I clicked on the link and it took me to a video episode of a Canadian HGTV design show, The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price (yeah I know). Apparently Ambrose is on a mission to become a designer without the formal training, simply learning as he goes. In this episode he tackled the world of furniture design.”
Previous Roundups:
Woodworking Roundup: Pumpkin Scroll Saw Pattern, Speaker Plans, Denim Pine??!!
Woodworking Roundup: Favorite Shop Sounds, New Old-Growth Mahogany, Concrete Jigs and MORE
