My blog at Popular Woodworking- Sketch Your Way to Better DesignsOne of my best woodworking tools is one I don’t write about much: my sketchbook. It’s an inexpensive spiral-bound thing I get at the grocery store, right by the romance novels. It’s always in my bag when I travel, and it’s on my lap when I’m “encouraged” to watch “Project Runway” with my lovely wife. I keep a mechanical pencil clipped to its metal spirals an […]
- The Workbench X-FilesDuring the last decade I’ve amassed hundreds of images of early workbenches as part of my research into pre-industrial woodworking. Inevitably, some of the images don’t make a lot of sense and now populate a folder named: X-Files. These workbenches are from paintings and their features might be the result of a painter who doesn’t know much about woodworking. […]
- All Hail the Versatile Doe’s FootThe doe’s foot – a block of wood with a “V” cut into it – is one of the most versatile and cheap appliances for your workbench. I have an article about this little gizmo coming up in the next issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (look for it in the November 2017 issue, or perhaps subscribe). I work with a lot of odd-shaped parts, especially when I build cha […]
- Dugout Chair Part 5, Ready for SculptingAfter sculpting the backrest of this dugout chair with a chainsaw, I noticed two things. One, the chair is about half the weight when I started. I can move this thing around by myself with some grunting. Two: It’s now a rocking stump. Yup, after removing a lot of waste from the front of the chair, the stump began to tip backward on its own, rocking nicely on […]
- Sketch Your Way to Better Designs
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Category Archives: Grandpa’s Workshop
Pépé Clothaire’s Tool Chest
This is an excerpt from “Grandpa’s Workshop” by Maurice Pommier. The darkest corner of Pépère’s shop both fascinates and frightens me. It is full of spiderwebs and dust. It is there that Pépère keeps the tools he doesn’t use anymore. … Continue reading
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‘Grandpa’s Workshop’ in Chalk and Asphalt
Graphic designer and woodworker Tom Buhl reproduced an illustration of “Grandpa’s Workshop” for the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival, and it is quite cool. You can see more photos of the painting being made here. See more … Continue reading
Posted in Grandpa's Workshop, Personal Favorites
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The Mad Chef Abuses Fine Belgian Beer
Editor’s note: Normally, we would not post a blog entry such as this, where a writer abuses a fine Belgian ale. But because this is Brian Anderson, who happily translated “Grandpa’s Workshop” for all of us, I am willing to … Continue reading
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The Mad Chef’s Milk Paint gets a Shellacking
Despite word from Tibet from my milk paint supplier that Agnes the yak was busy assembling her hope chest and flirting shamelessly with a certain strapping young specimen of yakhood, I decided that I needed to take the bull by … Continue reading
Posted in Grandpa's Workshop, Mouldings in Practice
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A Six-board Chest – a la Français
Well, actually it was more like a 12-board chest, but they were 2-meter-long skinny tongue-and-groove floorboards that I glued together, so I guess it still counts. I have ended up using quite a bit of the tongue-and-groove pine, either 3/4″ … Continue reading
About that Odd Tool from ‘Grandpa’s Workshop’
It is not often that my love of tool geekery and word geekery coincide. But over several posts about “Grandpa’s Workshop” and the besaigue (bisaigue) there have been some questions about the tool and how to pronounce the word. It … Continue reading
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A Visit to Grandpa’s Workshop
“Look, it’s Jean-le-Vert!” Grandpa’s Workshop is real, and we visited it last weekend in Normandy. My wife and I and two girls spent a long weekend in Normandy. It is a beautiful region, known for its timber-framed longhouses with reed … Continue reading
Posted in Grandpa's Workshop
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