Category: Open Wire

Today, Chris and I are taking turns behind the wheel and at the keyboard (one person per job at a time, of course); we’re headed to Wisconsin to celebrate a dear friend’s birthday. You can help us while away the travel hours with your Open Wire questions.

As always, simply post your woodworking questions in the comments below (brevity is appreciated), and we’ll do our best to answer them. Comments will close at around 5 p.m. Eastern, or when we run out of internet, or when we reach our destination – whichever comes first. So if you have a question, I’d recommend not waiting until the last hour today – there are swathes of our journey that might be out of cell service.

– Fitz

p.s. No, we are not really driving CATBUS; we need to get there in one day.

We’re delighted to have Matt Bickford, author of “Mouldings in Practice” (and he’s working on a book on making moulding planes!) on Open Wire today to answer your woodworking questions. (And he knows a lot more about making high-style furniture than do Chris or I – so now’s your chance!)

Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field, and Matt will do his best to answer it. And know that concision is much appreciated. Comments will close at around 5 p.m. (Or today, at 9:16 p.m….oops!)

– Fitz

This Saturday’s Open Wire will be hosted by Matt Bickford, owner/planemaker at M.S. Bickford, which offers reproductions of 18th-century-style British moulding planes.

Matt is the author of “Mouldings in Practice,” and he worked with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks to release a DVD with the same name. Both the book and DVD illustrate the process of creating moulding profiles using a simple set of tools. He is currently writing a new book for Lost Art Press detailing the process of making the various tools that he offers.

Open Wire will go live at about 7 a.m. for questions (post them in the comments), and Matt will stop in as his time allows to answer. Comments will close at around 5 p.m. Eastern.

We just finished up the chair class with students selected by Chairmakers Toolbox, and we are both inspired and exhausted. Building eight stick chairs in five days with limited tools is no joke. But working with a group of chair-crazy enthusiastic young woodworkers gives me hope for the future of our craft.

So today I am happy to sit on my tukus and answer Open Wire questions. Type your question about woodworking into the comment field below. Megan and I will try our best to answer it. Apologies if our answers are brief and not surrounded by the usual pleasantries. Saturdays are a lot of typing.

So here we go.

Comments will close about 5 p.m.

— Christopher Schwarz

This weekend is the calm period before our class with The Chairmakers Toolbox next week. The wood in the above photo? Y’all paid for that with your contributions. The money you donated will also feed them all week. And there was extra cash ($2,700) left over, which was donated directly to The Chairmakers Toolbox. So thank you.

So onto today’s Open Wire, which we hold almost every Saturday. Type your question about woodworking into the comment field below. Megan and I will try our best to answer it. Apologies if our answers are brief and not surrounded by the usual pleasantries. Saturdays are a lot of typing.

So here we go.

Comments will close about 5 p.m.

— Christopher Schwarz