Rebates With a Shoulder Plane
I was staring at a piece of walnut last Tuesday, the kind of grain that makes you want to hold your breath, and I realized I was about to ruin…
Read more
Packing a Table for a Van
There is a specific, nauseating sound that occurs when a heavy timber joint meets a poorly fitted corner of a cardboard box—a dull, hollow thud that tells you everything you…
Read more
A Stopped Chamfer Done Cleanly
I was staring at a walnut tabletop last Tuesday, a piece I’d spent three weeks perfecting, when I realized the edge looked utterly lifeless. It was a blunt, square affair…
Read more
Taking on Someone to Help
I remember sitting in my studio ten years ago, staring at a pile of incorrectly dimensioned walnut offcuts and feeling a profound sense of dread. I had just realized that…
Read more
The Final Check List
There is this pervasive, expensive lie in our industry that quality control requires a high-tech laboratory or a digital sensor suite to catch what the eye misses. People treat it…
Read more
Simple Is the Most Difficult
I was staring at a pile of scrap walnut in the corner of my studio yesterday—one of those “failed” iterations I can’t bring myself to throw away—and it hit me…
Read more
Where Machines Help and Where They Do Not
I was staring at a stack of CNC-milled walnut joints last Tuesday, the scent of burnt sawdust thick in the air, wondering when we decided that efficiency was the same…
Read more
The Discipline of Leaving It Alone
I was staring at a prototype for a walnut lounge chair last Tuesday, surrounded by the usual graveyard of “better ideas” that never made the cut. There was this one…
Read more
Buying a Machine That Pays for Itself
I have a shelf in the back of my studio dedicated entirely to “the mistakes”—a graveyard of expensive, over-engineered power tools that promised to revolutionize my workflow but ended up…
Read more
Four Tapered Legs That Match
I was staring at a piece of walnut last Tuesday, my hand hovering over the marking gauge, feeling that familiar, cold knot in my stomach. I had spent three hours…
Read more