The Renaissance Woodworker

Let’s dispel some myths. Growth rate and strength have no correlation. Well…mostly. Talking wood strength in this episode and it’s a dense subject.

Latest episode is up about Yellow Birch. Also talk about stress wood and sap wood content of Walnut.

Great question from y’all helped make this a great episode that will make you take a second look at Pine. This is a fascinating genus and a MASSIVE industry segment. New episode out wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you think these Loblolly pines judge their pressure treated brethren on the path below them? Maybe they have questions? What about you? I’m doing an episode dedicated to Pines. Let me know if you have a question for the show.

Wenge is my favorite exception to the rules about lumber and technical properties. Also discussed in this episode: burnishing, faux figure, and growing conditions that change working properties.

It’s the season for marquetry. Christmas used to be lathe season for me and now my lathe is lonely and my fret saws are happy. Seasons of woodworking eh?

New vid dropping on the YouTube machine. All hands on deck tools no AI thumbnails or dancing monkeys (I tried for those but they only come out to bigger channels). Just me trying to teach some woodworking using physics.

The Physics of Woodworking I'm back with another tease from The Hand Tool School vault of lessons. This is a small taste of a live "Office Hours" session where I explain what is actua...

New YouTube thing today. Another dip into The Hand Tool School vault. This is also the class I taught to a whole BUNCH of woodworking guilds during COVID.

https://youtu.be/cjthHpDUfoU?si=pdDpim8iugWFV3pZ

New episode out today. I catch up on email and answer a bunch of questions from log buying to burning wood for exterior use. Thanks for the questions.

Another video on YouTube? What is happening? This time a sneaky little trick for grain reading. https://youtu.be/o59EtTR1B3k?si=xBMIVnIUCqVqW485

Did you know it’s Black Friday? I was clueless until I went for a bike ride and while waiting at a stop light I was told I could save 30% on gloves by a guy twirling a sign. So yeah let’s jump on this bandwagon!! To be fair my hands were cold

I’m opening up the vault and sharing some of my favorite tips from The Hand Tool School videos…on YouTube! I hear that’s a thing so figured I should try it 😂

Thanks to all the members of The Hand Tool School who make it such a fun place to hang out and talk woodworking and design. To share projects and ask questions. Happy thanksgiving…or Thursday to all my non American members

The featured species this month is the American Elm. I talk about a lot of different Elms and how they all work together in short, get some it’s a lovely wood.

I’m pleased to drop today’s episode because I get to fanboy with the hosts of . This is one of my favorite podcasts and it has taught me so much. Alex and Casey are good people and I loved talking to them about trees and even played a game of treevia! Go subscribe to their show and follow them, you won’t be disappointed. Thanks gentlemen for the great show.

Today’s episode is all about our new featured species: Bald Cypress. Plus some questions about the White Oak market, processing logs by hand, splitting table tops and Amaranth: what is it?

Check this out! Such a great day. Highlight of my year.

This episode was born out of a Facebook discussion. You know the ones. “I got screwed by so and so lumber yard with this crap wood”. Let’s stop buying wood using non descriptive units and grades and actually ask for what you want.

Hardness? Shearing strength? Yep we are revisiting all those technical numbers and applying it to the wood we work. This is an information dense episode!

Sticker shipment time! Thanks to all the supporters of the show and the nice messages regarding these species stickers. I’m loving making them. Although I’m at that awkward point where I can only buy them in quantities of 50 and I had buy more as I just crossed the threshold and will end up with 45 or so extra. If you are on the fence about becoming a Patron now is a good time 🤣

Lumber retailers! Is there not a better way to mark your stock without using stickers that don’t peel off cleanly. I just spent 45 minutes removing no fewer than 3 stickers per board and trying to scrub away the adhesive with solvents. Planing will help but when the board is already S2S’d I’d rather not rely on that. Honestly isn’t there a better way?

Mahalo! Episode 108 is live and I’m going back to my birthplace to discus Koa. Check it out

Pre-Race meditation means identifying trees around me cause I’m that much of a wood nerd. Waiting to start the 3M challenge this weekend and at first I thought this was Black Locust…until the thorns tipped me to Honey Locust. Invasive buggers and you will find them everywhere. The thorns bite but they have been used as pegs and nails in the past. Much like Red vs White oak, the Honey Locust isn’t an exterior wood while the Black Locust is.

Just published episode 107 where joins me to talk about how important air drying is.Just Like finish prep and a quality finish, you can’t get a good KD board without proper AD time and conditions.

I was traveling so I didn’t have time to post here. In case you missed it episode 106 dropped this week and I feature my favorite species, Black Walnut. Stickers for Patreon supporters will start mailing next week.

Episode 105 is out today with my guest from to talk about customer service at the lumber yard.

Dados in plywood with hand tools. It’s no different than any cross grain work. A deep knife line and here some blue tape to hold fragile face veneers in place. The hardest thing is cheap plywood and the knots and voids you stumble across as you sink the dado. But as with all woodworking (say it with me) SHARP FIXES EVERYTHING

Episode 104 of the Lumber Update dropped this morning. I talk more about kiln drying and how you need moisture to dry lumber. Unless you want firewood.