Latest Articles

If you are looking for some good, clean fun, soap carving may become your next obsession. Carving instructor and author Janet Bolyard uses inexpensive soap and some handmade tools to teach basic carving skills in a less intimidating way than traditional methods. With a new book out in September – “Complete Guide to Soap Carving” – Janet has made it her mission to encourage soap carving and inspire creativity in young and old alike.

On this edition of Woodworking Adventures, we’ll take a look at the woodturning lifestyle of Barry Todd. What and who inspires his creations; who he learns from, and how he pays it forward.

We teamed up with Eric Gorges over at A Craftsman's Legacy to bring you a new series about learning woodworking.

Dave and I had just sat down for our usual bagels, coffee, and conversation at the local diner. He was looking pretty good, considering his recent treatment for a tenacious form of brain cancer detected a few months earlier. This tough old ex-Navy pilot didn’t talk about it much though, and I sometimes wondered if his illness shook me more than him.

Whether you pay much attention to what the “experts” predict, color surrounds us every day. Which colors we might expect to see in 2019 interior design and home décor is anyone’s guess, but here are what a few industry experts are forecasting and how you can incorporate these trends into your home.

“When you have challenges or disabilities, the world becomes a lot smaller. Woodturning opens it up. You come out with a pen or a key ring. It gives you confidence. It empowers you. You think, ‘If I can do this, I do something else too.’” Andi Sullivan speaks from personal experience. Read how she is shining a light in the woodturning arena. 

The 2018 American Association of Woodturners (AAW) Symposium held in Portland, Oregon, in June continued to offer the 10- to 18-year-old generation and the visually challenged opportunities to learn woodturning, with support from a dozen woodworking sponsors, including Woodcraft.

With a little bit of walnut and maple, you can craft a cutting board that’s sure to be a big hit with any football fan. Cutting the cross stitch slots in the joining halves of the football blank involve a technique that is similar to making finger joints, and the nifty trick for bending and applying the maple stripes allows the walnut football shape to expand and contract without restriction. Now let’s give this project a proper kickoff.

At the JD Lohr School of Woodworking, we use this hall table project as a vehicle to teach fundamental approaches to furniture making. By building this piece, you’ll learn a slew of great techniques that will give you a jump start in your woodworking education.