When building Arts and Crafts furniture that requires a top, I always find myself wondering which tabletop fastener to use. To be historically accurate, in most situation, I should probably be using figure-8 hardware as Gustav Stickley did on many pieces; but the woodworker in me enjoys making wooden buttons. To help with the selection, making, and installing of tabletop fasteners, one of Woodcraft Magazine‘s Senior Editors, Paul Anthony has written a great article that lays out the how and why of wooden buttons, Z-clips, and Figure-8 hardware. It appears in the June/July (Vol. 6/No. 35) issue of Woodcraft Magazine, and now in my “Book of Knowledge;” More on that later…

This past weekend I had the pleasure of hanging-out with Wood Magazine’s Jim Heavey. I first met Jim Thursday night-he was the headliner at the Washington Woodworkers Guild of the National Capital Area’s monthly meeting. Jim gave an excellent talk on how to select, apply, and care for finishes. To his credit, Jim is one of those rare speakers who can walk into a room full of woodworkers with no slides or visual aids– just a couple of finish samples, and keep a crowd captivated, and on their seat edges all night long; which is exactly what he did. Read the rest of this entry »