Welcome to my woodworking blog. I’m extremely new to this blog thing so please bear with me as I begin to develop the site. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find useful information and some entertaining stories about my woodworking adventures here. Please feel free to comment on any of the posts I make. The more we share ideas here, the more everyone will benefit. That is, after all, why I am creating this blog. I want my woodworking students, and woodworking enthusiasts from all over the world, to learn from my experience as a professional furniture maker. I also want to share in the vast knowledge available from all those other woodworkers out there. So, please make yourself at home and enjoy the blog as it develops. I’ll begin posting some project and skill posts in the near future. Thanks for visiting.
What you’ll find as you wander through this blog is that I have a unique way of looking at woodworking. I like to keep things simple and straight forward. This is the reason the blog is called “Parings”. I’m going to whittle away all the mystery, hype and nervousness most woodworkers feel as they begin to expand their skills. I’m not here to promote a particular machine or hand tool. Sure, I’ll do some tool and machinery reviews but my only bias comes from seriously looking at the quality of the tools not from some endorsement. If a tool manufacturer makes a great tool for a job, I’ll let you know. If you can make your own tool that will do the job just as good for practically nothing, I’ll not only tell you, I’ll show you how to make the tool.
I’m going to create posts that are directly in line with the way I’ve built furniture for the last 30+ years. It’s also the way I’ve taught all my apprentices and, now it’s how I teach my students. This is serious, no nonsense, earthy woodworking. Did I mention that it’s a whole lot of fun? I’ve had more than 30 years of fun building some of the most incredible pieces of furniture anyone has ever had the opportunity to make. Let’s see if we can make some more, together.
Chuck Bender
Tags: General information by Chuck Bender
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In this series of posts, I’ll show the step by step construction of a New England Oxbow chest. You’re probably familiar with a serpentine (the face of the piece is concaved on either side and convex in the middle) but you may not have seen an oxbow, or reverse serpentine chest. In a reverse serpentine, the outer portions of the case front are shaped in a convex fashion while the center is concaved. This may sound a little confusing, but stick with me and it will all make sense. [Read more →]
