In restaurant kitchens, you are likely to see plastic cutting boards used. They are color-coded and used for a specific cutting purpose: vegetables on one, raw chicken on another, cooked chicken on a third, then fish, raw meat, cooked meat, …
These are the days of manufactured this and engineered that. We see plant-based burgers and sausages at the market, engineered to look, feel, and taste like meat. It doesn’t stop there, though, as news recently has included stories about manufactured …
As a woodworking fanatic with perpetually stained hands, I’ve experimented with every type of wood under the sun. Red oak’s intricate grain has always tempted me, but I could never get the deeper stains to penetrate properly. After too many …
Venturing into the realm of luxury woodworking, you might wonder what makes certain woods command sky-high prices. I’ve encountered the allure of these rare woods firsthand. I’ll explore the world’s most expensive wood types used in furniture, from the striking …
We know that wet wood should not be worked with until it becomes dry wood. Wet wood will eventually shrink as the moisture content leaves it, and any joints we’ve created with wet wood will lose their strength and stability. …
For those of you who were fans of Seinfeld (I am one), perhaps you remember the episode when the four stars went to the shore, spending the weekend both swimming and sunbathing. Kramer stole lobsters while Jerry and George went …
Have you ever used a piece of birch wood (solid wood) in a woodworking project? Or are you more familiar with birch plywood, whether all birch or with a birch top veneer? If you have used solid wood in a …
We like oak wood and use it occasionally in our woodworking projects. Oak wood is a popular choice for many different types of projects because of its strength, durability, and beauty. Here are some good uses for oak wood: Key …
We have mentioned before that we are not wood carvers, but we have friends who are. When we have questions about carving, we turn to them and follow their advice. In order to answer the question of this article, we …
Most of us are familiar with cedar wood and its various uses. Perhaps we use aromatic red cedar to build a clothes closet or put a cedar block or a bag of cedar chips in the closet both for its …
Cedar wood is known for its bug-repelling properties, and several varieties are commonly used in woodworking projects where this benefit is desired. Each of these cedar wood types has unique qualities, but they all share the natural ability to repel …
We’ve written about aspen wood in a past article when we determined whether aspen was a hardwood or a softwood. It was in that article that we first used the word “dendrologist,” which at that time was a new word for …
We recently wrote an article about painting cedar wood white. While we wonder why anyone would want to since cedar is a beautiful wood on its own, we had been asked, and so we answered. Everyone walks their own woodworking …
A while back, we wrote a piece about poplar wood and asked whether poplar is stronger than pine. We will not repeat our answer here, but we did provide some helpful information about poplar in the woodworking shop. That piece …
It may seem like such an obvious statement that you should only work with dry wood when making furniture. Yet, wood can feel dry to the touch while still being wet inside, and your sense of touch will be affected …
When I was a coffee drinker, I remember using white vinegar to clean the coffee maker every couple of weeks. It worked well and was the only reason I bought it, as I do not consider it a good vinegar …
While we have moved away somewhat from default staining our woodworking projects, turning instead to wood oils or products like Rubio Monocoat, we still will occasionally use a wood stain as part of finishing the project. Stains come in a …
We’re so lucky to have so many different kinds of woods available to us to work within our shop. Supply chains have recovered somewhat from the disarray caused by the COVID pandemic, and lumber yards and specialty wood shops both …