Getting Started With Woodworking
One of the hardiest trees but not very well-known in the western world is the neem tree. Native to the Indian Subcontinent it can also be found in Africa, the Caribbean and parts of South and Central America today. Neem (Azadirachta indica) also goes by the names nim and margosa. This wood is related to … Read more
If you are into woodworking, you will know the value of a clamp. They are versatile tools that hold a workpiece in place temporarily. We use clamps in so many places – in woodworking, carpentry, metalworking, construction, and a variety of other areas. Clamps come in a variety of types and sizes, and the names … Read more
When we use clamps while woodworking, one of the prime questions that arise is regarding the required tightness of a clamp. The basic answer to that question is that a clamp doesn’t need tremendous pressure. If it is to hold glued joints together, then it needs enough pressure to hold the two surfaces together until … Read more
To the layperson, woodworking consists of cutting boards and planks and assembling them into something useful. Others on the other hand may consider it as a medium of expression and creativity. When we look at these two aspects of woodworking, you may wonder under what category does it fall? An art? A Craft? A trade? … Read more
Teak oil is not an oil extracted from the teak tree or the wood. Although teak wood contains a high degree of natural oil, it remains within the wood for most of its life. Teak oil is a mixture of different oils and solvents. We commonly apply it to teak wood, which is why people … Read more
Although you can use metal drill bits for wood if you’re in a pinch, we don’t recommend it. Metal drill bits are typically made from harder materials designed to cut through metal. While this can make them effective at drilling through wood, it can also cause them to splinter or tear the wood if not … Read more
One of the most common questions we get from frustrated readers is why wood splits when driving in a nail. You have probably experienced this before – the nail is all lined up and you hit it directly with the hammer but the wood splits right down the grain causing a nasty crack in the … Read more
Out of all the woodworking shop equipment, a drill press is probably the handiest. But as helpful as it is, we could conclude that a drill press could be the most underutilized item on your shop floor. There are so many amazing things you can do with a drill press, given the right accessories and … Read more
Handling wet wood is always a tricky situation. When we call wood “wet” it doesn’t mean that only the surface of the wood is wet. In this post, we refer to wet wood as wood that has not had a chance to fully dry after harvesting the timber from the tree. Whether the intended purpose … Read more
It’s always the woodworker’s conundrum to procure wood that is dry enough to work with. A freshly-cut tree can show a moisture level of 80% or above. It is too high a moisture level to work comfortably with. Another issue is the possibility of the wood getting deformed as it dries at a later stage. … Read more