Medieval wood riving is a slow, methodical business. But it's amazing what you can get done with axes and hammers.

The movie describes an attempt to split a thirteen meter long log of pine tree. The riving was done by radial cuts. The original was founded in the spire of the church of Hardemo southwest of Örebro city in the province of Närke. The church was built approximately between 1180 – 1220. These rafts are produced from the log by a method which never been documented before. One side of the rafts is raw sapwood which is rare in churches from the Middle age. All woodworking are done with tools that are modelled on archaeological findings. The felling and riving of the tree are performed with a few axes and tools.

Amazingly relaxing video. Read the rest

In the north of Burgandy, France, a group of history buffs are hard at work building a castle, from scratch, using traditional building methods and materials--and they've been at it for TWENTY YEARS. The project is supported entirely on the backs of donations and hard, dedicated, manual labor.

Incredible. Read the rest

Woodworker John Malecki created this amazing river table with a massive piece of gnarly claro walnut and a lot of elbow grease. The end result is worth all the effort. Read the rest

People who need custom furniture in the future may be able to feed the design into a program and then have robot-assisted carpentry do the rest. Read the rest

Frank Howarth has "been into spheres lately."

I have woodturned an 8 ball from a chunk of walnut that has been kicking around the shop for about a decade. I first turned a sphere from the walnut. I originally was thinking of making it into a Death Star but then we came up with the idea of making it into an 8 ball. I cut the white of the 8 into the walnut sphere on a CNC router. A large part of this project was figuring out how to hold the sphere on the CNC table securely. Then I cut the white of the 8 from a piece of maple to fit into the sphere. I then continued turning the sphere and made the 8 flush with the surface. I used walnut oil for the finish.

Watching Laura Kampf build a poplar projector box is an education in 1) excellent craftsmanship and 2) tools I must now get. The way dovetail jointing is illustrated is particularly fascinating: in 5 minutes of well-shot arty youtube cinema I feel I learned more than a dozen talky howto videos where the content is buried somewhere after a minute of intro music, five minutes of "HEY GUYS" rambling, and nine more fooling around in the shop. Don't miss the sketchbook! Read the rest

André Roubo's series on carpentry called L'Art du Menuisier mentions a polissior, a small device made of broom straw for polishing wood. In the two centuries since Roubo's book, the device had faded from memory until a couple of years ago, when Don Williams recreated one from an illustration in Roubo's book. It turned out to work amazingly well. Read the rest

Japanese joinery is a kind of practical discipline of puzzle-boxes, in which precise, clever wooden interlocks are used to made secure joints without glue or nails. Read the rest

I've seen variations on pipe-and-wood bookshelves but this set (and howto) by Reddit user's bobatsfight is a terrific accomplishment! Read the rest