Woodcraft Magazine February/March 2021 (99)

Vaughn McMillan’s first exposure to woodworking was at the age of six, when his grandfather helped him build a simple cheese board as a gift for his grandmother. With the guidance of a great shop teacher, he learned woodworking basics in high school. He also credits much of his woodworking education to magazines and friends he has made through online forums. He enjoys turning and making small projects like the Quilt-pattern Cutting Board on page 24. His award-winning work has appeared in art shows and galleries in Southern California. A retired technical writer and editor, he lives in Albuquerque, NM where he plays guitar and performs regularly with his band. Working in a shop that’s a veritable woodworking museum, Craig Bentzley, has been restoring antiques and building furniture for nearly fifty…

Woodcraft is proud to announce a robust accessibility menu for its website woodcraft.com. This new widget makes navigating our website easier for some, and for others, possible for the first time. That includes folks who are visually and hearing-impaired, people with motor and cognitive disabilities, and an aging population reckoning with muscle weakness, memory loss, and the many other consequences of senescence. To activate the service, simply scroll to the bottom of the website and click on Accessibility Options in the lower right. A menu will pop up, as seen here. Click the option that fits your needs. The site will immediately jump to action. From there, you can scroll through the menu to customize the settings to make the site work even better for you. We’re excited by this…

I appreciate working in my shop this time of year, when the frenzied gift-making that overtakes the holidays is in the rearview mirror. I like the calm, the re-centering. Clearing my bench. Clearing my mind. No banshee-wail from the dust collector or whir from the air filtration unit. My saws and routers are quiet. It’s time to reset the shop after the wreckage left in the wake of a holiday-project monsoon. I sweep the floors, tuck away my tools, and organize stray hardware. Now’s a great time to resharpen my chisels and planes, clean my bits and blades, and tune-up the machinery. I even find joy in emptying the dust collector, taking out the trash, and replacing filters. Hey, it beats sanding. But when the dirty work is done, and I don’t…

We love hearing from readers! And there are all kinds of reasons to get in touch with the crew at Woodcraft Magazine. Check out the details below. General information: 4420 Emerson Ave., Suite A P.O. Box 7020 Parkersburg, WV 26102 800-542-9125 Share a slick tip to win cash or a prize. Here’s your chance to help someone become a better woodworker and get rewarded for the effort. Published tips become the property of Woodcraft Magazine. Email us at tips@woodcraftmagazine.com and put “Tips & Tricks” in the subject line or visit woodcraftmagazine.com, and click on Contact. Important: Please include your phone number, as an editor may need to call you if your trick is considered for publication. Have a tough woodworking question? We’ll do our best to find the expert and provide the answer. Email us at editor@woodcraftmagazine.com and put “Expert Answers”…

Colorado cabinetmaker Mike Farrington began our conversation by telling me he wasn’t comfortable around people. Despite this introversion, the hour that followed was filled with friendly conversation, woodworking insights, and philosophical tidbits often cloaked in his distinctive dry wit. Despite an aversion to woodworking instruction on social media, Mike produces videos for his eponymous YouTube channel that have gained him a broad following. While he demonstrates diverse abilities in the videos, his preferred styles stand at opposite ends of the spectrum — simple shaker and complex Kumiko. Even the music he listens to in his shop and recommends at the end of each of his videos runs the gamut from classical to classic rock to rap. If he wasn’t a woodworker, he would be a musician, he jests while acknowledging…

We are saddened by the loss of Mansfield “Bob” Bascom, who died on October 26, 2020, at the age of 96. Bascom was Wharton Esherick’s son-in-law and biographer. He was also the co-founder, along with his wife, Ruth Esherick Bascom, of the Wharton Esherick Museum in Paoli, PA, and was instrumental in preserving Esherick’s artistic legacy. His legacy, and that of Esherick, will live on in the museum, which recently announced a $10 million endowment gift from the Windgate Foundation. Bascom learned of the gift a few weeks before his passing. For more information, visit whartonesherickmuseum.org.…