Blog
A daily story for people who want to build something of their own.
True stories, practical lessons, and honest ideas for weekend woodworkers. One new story leads the way; the archive keeps growing below.
The carpenter who built clocks with wooden wheels, and then solved longitude
A self-taught village carpenter, a clock of oak wheels, and the wood that needed no oil.
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More from the Blog
Stories about the people, places, and techniques that make woodwork worth starting.
Village carpenters in Romania raised wooden church towers 54 metres tall, without a single drawing
Stacked beams, wooden pegs and shingle roofs, raised by village carpenters in northern Romania.
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The carver who made wooden flowers so thin they look like paper
Found carving by candlelight in 1671, he became the king's master carver.
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A joiner's son from Yorkshire drew 160 pieces of furniture, and a whole style took his name
Born the son of a Yorkshire joiner, he put 160 furniture designs in one book in 1754.
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A log hotel with a lobby 76.5 feet tall, built through one Yellowstone winter
Logs cut by hand, dragged in by horses, and a lobby 76.5 feet tall.
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A small Norwegian town built an 85.4 meter tower out of glued wood
An 18 floor tower on a frame of glued wood, raised four floors at a time.
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How Alvar Aalto bent birch into an L and made Stool 60
An architect, a carpenter and a bent birch leg that still holds up a stool.
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A cobbler's son who trained as a cabinetmaker and designed over 500 chairs
From a small town workshop to the Wishbone chair, still woven by hand.
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The Kyoto temple stage that has stood on wooden pillars since 1633 without a single nail
A wooden stage on a cliff in Kyoto, rebuilt in 1633 and joined without nails.
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He started cabinetmaking school in 1957, then made his own wooden planes
A former boatyard worker who came to cabinetmaking late and taught hundreds.
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Grandpa Ben has made toys from scrap wood for 40 years
Store toys kept breaking, so a Wyoming grandpa started making his own from scrap wood.
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The painter whose wood outsold his paintings, and the stair that seems to float
A painter started carving frames and ended up building a stair whose steps seem to float.
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He started by carving frames for his paintings, then built a studio for 40 years
A painter picked up carving tools and ended up building a landmark studio by hand.
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A wooden church in Norway is still standing after 800 years
Built from timber around 1180, Borgund Stave Church still stands. Here is how.
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This Wooden Pagoda Has Stood for 1,300 Years
Its center post was cut in 594. Here is why this wooden tower is still standing.
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At 51, He Built a Log Cabin With Hand Tools. More Than 50 Years Later, It's Still Standing.
He peeled the logs and carved the hinges himself, then lived there for 30 years.
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He Built His First Furniture From Salvaged Wood. Two Presidents Later Owned His Rocking Chairs.
Sam Maloof furnished his own home first. Then the world came knocking.
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22 Wooden Domes and No Nails in the Walls: The Island Church Built in 1714
A 37-meter church of logs, and a legend about one axe thrown into a lake.
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