This podcast series is a look at furniture building from a veteran maker, designer, and author. The episodes are practical, philosophic, witty, and irreverent. Gary was a former contributing editor at Fine Woodworking Magazine, and founded The Northwest Woodworking Studio, A School for Woodworkers, in Portland, Oregon in 1997. He has no illusions about the value of this work in today’s culture of fast and furious and disposable. Making art, building furniture, is work that is useless and beautiful, and necessary for those who produce it. Creativity feeds the soul like nothing else can.
This podcast came out in Season One. During a short summer break, please listen to this story of not paying attention and the cost.
A recorded DESIGN: Open House chat about Intention with John Eisemann, choral master, and Gary Rogowski, furniture maker. Two very different perspectives on considering the creative process.
Encyclopedia of Furniture Making Ernest Joyce Cabinetmaking for Beginners Charles Hayward Understanding Wood Bruce Hoadley Sharpening Leonard Lee Hand Applied Finishes Jeff Jewett A Reverence for Woo…
Tear-out when hand planing can be a frustration. There are simple techniques you can use to change the cutting angle of your blade or your chipbreaker. These will eliminate tear-out in the nastiest o…
This is a fascinating chat with Matt Howard, CEO of Sawstop Saws. They have blade technology that shuts off a saw before it can cut through a finger. Crazy and interesting stuff.
At The Northwest Woodworking Studio, we offer a school of thought and practice in the skills of design and woodworking.
The very act of building/ creating/ making furniture is an act filled with implications about you and your goals.
Front end load your design work and you will feel better at the back end when you finish a piece. Sketching, full scale modeling in cardboard, and quarter scale models are enormous aids in discoverin…
I know plenty of pad sanders. But I’d trade them all away for a sharp hand plane. Hand planes can be time savers when it comes to smoothing surfaces. They also fight that perfectionism that pad sande…
Wood doesn’t just sit there. It’s alive. It moves, it changes dimension, it colors over time. Learns some essential facts about wood so you can choose your wood for your next project with more inform…
Everyone starts at the beginning. Yet our expectations rarely match our skills then. The hardest thing is to be patient as we learn.
This April Fool’s Day lecture is on the value of working out with your woodworking.
Brian Boggs is a chairmaker, artist, designer, and engineer extraordinaire. He is also quite a philosopher on the nature of work and workmanship, the value of excellent work, and how tooling affects …
Practice is what brings us first to competency and then to mastery. Listen to some stories of discipline that allowed practitioners to work through their own limitations. Quality doesn’t have a short…
The scraper is a small wonder. It is capable of cutting in most any direction without tear-out. How to get one sharp can be frustrating. Listen to one simple tip that will change your method and make…
An interview with Ron Hock of Hock Tools, maker of plane irons and knives. This is a fascinating discussion about starting a business, metallurgy, and the rise of civilizations.
Drilling and screwing a box together. What could be simpler? But it often turns out to be a test of your patience, your dexterity, and your ability to forgive yourself.
All block planes are not created equal, even ones with sentimental value.
Thomas Lie-Nielsen and Gary chat about tools and hand tools specifically. What drives his company to build quality tools in a throw-away society? And what is the value of Quality?