ON THE COVER – Five Fun Ways to Form Wood: West Australian furniture maker David Howlett discusses basic techniques such as bandsawing and spokeshaving, and introduces more advanced kerf cutting, steambending and laminating methods.
Kauri Tool Chest: With its dovetailed carcase and four liftout trays, this elegant tool chest can solve your hand tool transport and storage needs in one! Great diagrams and step-by-step descriptions make this a highly enjoyable project to make. Story by Andy Groeneveld.
Radial Edge Frieze: Follow Damion Fauser’s detailed description of how to make a radial matched veneer edging and you’ll build skill as you learn to create a highly decorative treatment for a tabletop.
Joinery With Handplanes: Troy McDonald continues his exploration of the usage of traditional hand planes, including shoulder, skew rebate, router, side rebate, plough and dado planes. For small and one off jobs, handplanes such as these offer efficiency and accuracy.
Laser It!: We sent Philip Ashley the Epilog Zing 24 laser engraver and cutting machine to review and he absolutely went to town with, engraving everything he could lay his hands on. He also cut several items, including fit-together stool components.
Recycled Silky Oak Table: Some old doors that happened to be made of the most beautiful silky oak inspired Raf Nathan to design a piece that made the most of it. With his detailed plans, you too can build a contemporary dining table with breadboarded ends, splayed legs and a matched decorative inlay on the top.
Sharpen in Five Steps: “If you want to get good at sharpening you have to just do it”, says wood guru Robert Howard. But to back this up he has written a pared-back how-to of five steps that will get your edges to the sharpness you need.
Glow in the Dark Light: Andrew Potocnik is a wood artist known for his creativity. When we sent him some glow-in-the-dark resin additive to experiment with he predictably came up with an illuminating result. His project should inspire you to make your own luminous wall-mounted light.
Making Ideas: US furniture designer/maker Kelly Parker describes her sure-fire technique for coming up with designs as well as ways to explore, test and prototype them.
Evolution of a Jig: Darren Oates regularly incorporates curves into his work. This issue he shares the improvements he has made to his jigs over the years.
Complexity Concealed: Craig Thibodeau hails from California, USA and has written for Wood Review. This issue we explore the inner workings of his latest creation, a table with automated functionality, not to mention secret compartments and drawers.
Digitally Remastered: Now in his sixth decade of creativity, Wendell Castle continues to innovate as he harnesses CNC machinery to sculpt his furniture designs.
Floralegium: Two special cabinets with botanical intarsia panels were made by South Australian wood artist Gray Hawk to house rare prints of Joseph Banks’s Floralegium.
What’s the Rub: Sometimes it pays to go back to basic principles, explains internationally renowned woodturner and author Richard Raffan.
Tested: Supermax 19-38 Drum Sander, Bosch PBD40 Bench Drill, Epilog Zing 24 Laser Machine, Mora and M-Stein Spoon Carving Tools, Thirlwell Marking Gauge, Osmo Polyx Oil, Sandi Hands Sanding Gloves.