No Tools? No Problem

...eate a stool by hand . . . or better said by teeth. Not wanting to use any tools, he harvested wood by venturing up into New York’s Adirondack Mountains and rocked a dead Birch tree until if finally fell over. He then shaped the soft wood by slowly and methodically rubbing it with his hands, scratching it with his fingernails,, and chewing it with his teeth, in much the same way one tackles corn on the cob. “I got a few splinters along the way, bu...

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Essential System #7 – Repair Kit and Tools

...ncy geniuses Stephen Box and Enci gifted us with a category-busting set of tools that, get this, fit within a tiny 30g (1.5 oz) Altoid tin! Believe it or not this pocket size Altoid tin contains the following items: 1 inner tube piece – a section of a bicycle tire that can be used as a tourniquet, bandage, or slingshot 1 boot lace – always handy to have a section of string 1 saw wire – you can cut wood with this sharp wire 2 finger rings 1 can ope...

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On the History and Uses of the Router

...st inspired me to increase my familiarity with my router. Of all the power tools in my small shop, the router is probably the one that most needs a jig. It’s also, perhaps, one of the more difficult tools to learn how to use. There are subtleties of feed direction, handling and bit choice that aren’t covered in the short manuals they come with. Around our humble bungalow, I’ve launched a home remodeling holy war on malfunctioning drawers and bad I...

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Misadventures in Laser Cutting

...weeks to cut by hand. Getting the right balance of concept, materials and tools is, of course, one of the central struggles in making art. Printing on Wood After completing my print block I had some extra time in the lab so I thought I’d see what it looks like to simply etch in wood. First I tried an image of our cat Buck, one on birch plywood and the other on a scrap of quarter sawn white oak. With some more tweaking in illustrator I probably co...

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