pboeckh

When I was just a young lad my grandfather, perhaps hoping to address my father's lack of manual dexterity, also put together a toolkit.
Handsaw, screwdrivers, hammer, folding ruler and a pretty good selection of nails and screws.
He only erred slightly by then giving to my older brother.
Big brother went to to learn the fundamentals of big business by retailing the screws and nails to me.
Although he now has an MBA, I certainly got the better end of the deal.
I became a highschool shop teacher.

Tom-

I'm sure this will yield a great article one day, however you have to admit that your basic premise is all wrong.

To ask "Do you work in a small shop?" is to ignore one of the most basic truths of woodworking.

Practically speaking you can never have too many clamps, tools, work surfaces, nifty jigs or pieces of amazing figured wood for that next project.

So clearly everyone must try to do what they can with what meager shop space they have been alotted in life.

Lighten up people!
It's great that you may have already glued a couple of boards together yourself, but understand that much of the FWW readership are newcomers who rely upon the magazine as a source of quality information.
There will always be more than one way to do a woodworking task. It is terribly arrogant to assume that one's method is the only way. Often it is all about problem solving a specific solution and/or making do with what you have. I'd wager an awful lot of woodworkers would be quite happy to have a large arsenal of Pony pipe clamps.
I recall reading something about how Sam Maloof used to very graciously show people his way of doing things without having to resort to putting others down.
Nice.

Fascinating.
And so sad.
To have enjoyed such intial success, be bankrupt within five years, and then having some of those same pieces commanding as much as half a million dollars a century later.
Not that what "the world thinks" should be the only way we value our contributions, it is nonetheless hard not to be impacted by it.

Thanks for the look Gina.

Peter Boeckh

Kudos Gina for Fine Woodworking's honesty.
I don't think I have ever been accused of political correctness however, usually more the opposite.
I don't know whether to feel insulted or honoured.

Nice presents 'round the tree, Betsy.
But what you failed to address is the authenticity of the tree itself.
Please assure us all that Fine Woodworking would not stoop to using a plastic tree as the photo would suggest.
Perhaps an excursion into the snow covered forest with Clark Griswold would be in order to properly understand about slippery slopes.

Peter, the Grinch

Nice job Eric
And remember - happy wife, happy life.

Peter

The case must be mortised as well.
It's simply the proper way to do things.
You can argue of course its technical merits: stronger, holds alignment forever, etc.
However, the reality is, that it is simply the proper way to do things, for when you open that door and see/feel the hinge leaf just sitting on the surface even a non purist can tell that something is wrong.
Building fine furniture is rarely about finding the easiest way.
Nor should we seek out ways to make things overly "prescious"
Somwhere in that dangerous middle ground is the right way to do things and often it is about meeting the expectations of a shared consciousness, tradition if you will.
And that is the real reason why we mortise cases, cut dovetails by hand, and a host of other things that keep the really important traditions alive - like woodworkers rarely earning what they are worth.

I try to make the bed every morning in less than sixty seconds. My personal best is 27 seconds.
mind you the other half usually then remakes it!)

From your earlier posts I understand that zone lines are where different fungi set up defences against one and other. Therefore although quicker it doesn't seem like introducing through the end grain is going to produce a lot of zone lines - just coloring. Would it be better to rub a bunch of different fungi on the surface of boards if your purpose is a lot of lines?

Very elegant work Craig. Any problems with twist in your curved doors? About how many hours did it all take?

Beautifully executed work Dennis as are the projects shown on your website