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Feature Articles: 23 Comments | Add a Comment

Ramps for the Handicapped

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Volunteer work: good for the community and good for the soul

One of my first memories, in the early 1930s, when I was 4 or 5 years old, was of our mother taking care of a neighbor woman, Eula Hughbanks, who had tuberculosis. TB was more common in those days, with little hope for a cure, especially for poor people. The nearest medical care of any kind was 30 miles away. Such care might as well have been on the other side of the world for most of us, as few had an automobile. So people did what people have always done, especially in hard times—they took care of one another. Read the full article…

DesignING Class: 235 Comments | Add a Comment

The Misused & Confused Chair Rail

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How high should we install chair rail? Ask most carpenters and they’ll either say 36 in., 32 in. or they’ll measure the back of a chair and tell you to lay it out so the chair won’t scar the wall. Well, I’m sorry to say, that unless your ceilings are 16-ft. tall, 36 in. is way too high for the chair rail; and letting the back of the chair set the chair rail height is like letting the size of a rug decide the size of a room. In most cases, it just doesn’t work! Read the full article…

Book Review: 8 Comments | Add a Comment

Book Review: Traditional American Rooms

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A resource for classical details

I apologize. I read this book more than a year ago and wanted to write a review but never made the time, and I should have. Sure, we’re all busy and short of time, but the truth is, if something is important to you, you make the time, even if it means sacrificing something else that isn’t as important—at least for a little while. And that’s often what it takes to read a good book. This is one I recommend highly to anyone interested in classical architecture and the design of traditional American homes. Read the full article…

Feature Articles: 26 Comments | Add a Comment

Grinding Custom Shaper Knives

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Learning to make your own tools is a step up for the serious woodworking carpenter

Most of my work is at the high-end of the New England custom home market. For the jobs I do, in Boston brownstones that even today sell for several million dollars, there are no off-the-shelf parts—everything is completely custom, or an exact reproduction of work done in the 18th or 19th centuries. Read the full article…

DesignING Class: 21 Comments | Add a Comment

Glass Elegance

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The Art of Etching Glass with Sand

What’s a story on etched glass doing in a carpentry magazine? Good question. I don’t know the exact answer. All I know is that every aspect of construction interests me, and when I met Donna Burrows and visited her studio, I knew that other readers would be interested in seeing what I saw. Maybe it’s something about craftsmanship. Read the full article…

Feature Articles: 42 Comments | Add a Comment

Working with Melamine

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Melamine can be a viable option for many projects — with good conscience and no apology.

I remember reading an article about melamine years ago. The author was very apologetic about the topic because he knew he was addressing woodworkers who had a disdain for the material. Melamine has a rap sheet alright; it is looked down upon by both fabricators and consumers for its imitation wood grain and particleboard core. However, like it or not, it does have a place in the world of cabinetry. And that place is not always located at the bottom of the food chain. Read the full article…

Feature Articles: 36 Comments | Add a Comment

A Coffered Ceiling & Media Room

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Concept to completion: Having vision is half the battle

Like a lot of high-end jobs I work on, I’m sworn to secrecy about the clients. All I can say is, this job was on a pristine 7-acre waterfront property on Long Island’s Gold Coast, overlooking Connecticut and the Long Island Sound. The main house is about 7500 sq. ft. of new construction. It’s a to-die-for spot—the view was breathtaking. Even working on this job was incredible. The funny part is how I landed the work. Read the full article…

Feature Articles: 26 Comments | Add a Comment

Photographing Your Work

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Taking process pictures on the job or in the shop

There’s something about photography that’s related to carpentry, I just can’t quite put my shutter finger on it. But I know a lot of photographers who are carpenters. I think it has something to do with using tools. After all, a camera is just another tool: in order to use one, you have to know how it works. Read the full article…

Wood Shop: 36 Comments | Add a Comment

Jobsite Work Table

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Ever wish you had a work table that could handle all your jobs?

When I first started out over fifteen years ago, I would use anything I could find as a table. I’d lay plywood on the ground, I’d set plywood on wood blocks, and, finally, I grew up enough to use sawhorses. But most of the time my “table” was never big enough for the project I was working on. And it was never efficient. Read the full article…

Interior Trim: 5 Comments | Add a Comment

Miter Saw Fundamentals

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Learn to swing your saw without visualizing the mitered corner

I used to close my eyes and visualize which way to swing my saw, especially if I was mitering a tricky corner. When I first started using a miter saw, there was a time I’d cut the wrong miter. And on tricky corners, even after years of experience, I still got them wrong nearly as often as I got them right. Read the full article…