Links to published works

I have updated this page of published works for your reading enjoyment.

Make, fix and create...

putting reality in learning.

We all love fiction and making stuff up and take some pride in our creativity, but enough is more than enough when it comes to learning. Kids know the difference between things that are made up for the amusement or to control them, and reality based education may not be as popular, but adheres more closely to truth, and offers efficiency because it leads to kids being able to do real things.

I was alerted this week to an article in Mortise & Tenon by Edward Bouvier that relies on my published materials.  ‘A communal legacy; Handcraft as part of a holistic education’ lists an editorial I wrote for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette  in 2022 as part of its source material. It is nice that the message continues to get out.

There can be little more lovely than that which nature provides. The trees shown are elm, dogwood and cedar, with dogwood providing the reds at center.

Make, fix and create...

Awakening passion in teaching

In order for teachers to awaken our children to their great potential as learners, we must provide for the awakening of passions in our teachers as well. That requires a change in the structure of schools, allowing flexibility, allowing creativity and experimentation. It requires allowing teachers to move beyond the set curriculum to explore areas of awakened interest and passion. It requires hiring teachers with the expectation that they will give their best, and then establishing a framework of trust that allows them to deliver.

Make, fix and create...

Rotary dial

My niece and nephew sent me a photo of toys that I had made for them at a much earlier time. Remember when we thought rotary dial phones would be with us for the ages?

respect for all labor

Instilling a respect for all labor. From Otto Salomon

"Words alone will not inspire this respect; hence we conclude that the best way to instill into children a true and proper respect for rough, honest, bodily labor is 1st. By introducing such work into schools of all grades, in order that all classes of the community may engage in it.

and 2nd. By the teachers taking both pleasure and pride in doing it themselves, as well as delight in teaching it intelligently to others. For what the teachers appreciate, the children usually appreciate."

I wish that the billionaires of today had received such educations. Perhaps it will come again.

Calculation of wood width as it dries.

 A useful tool is offered by https://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl to help calculate the amount of shrinkage that will take place in wood as it ages. Determine the moisture content, the species of wood, whether it is flat sawn or quarter sawn, the target moisture content and the dimensions and it will tell you final dimensions.

I am making matched solid wood doors that meet in the middle and need to determine the initial width that they should be cut. The calculator will not be exact.

Make and buy local

Insight into the world of furniture making is offered by this article in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/world/asia/malaysia-trump-tariffs-furniture.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wU8.Fauy.3O12GHjGlkGl&smid=url-share I have offered this link so that you can read without being a subscriber.

On the other hand there are makers in our own communities and while multinational investors may be concerned with tariffs and all there are direct reasons to invest in our own communities and each other. 

We are smarter when we apply our minds and hands in the making of the things we need. We are better communities when we have invested in each other. We have stronger families, better schools, safer communities when we have applied ourselves in the making of useful beauty.

I am in the process of selling a few hand made things, that I've placed for sale on Esty,(https://www.etsy.com/shop/dougstowe/) and shipped to the Arkansas Craft Gallery in Mountain View. I have also been making tables that are for sale. One of them is shown the photo.

How is this table different from what you might find in your mail order catalog? It is made from solid wood using a type of joinery that lasts for generations. The top is made from a single piece of wood that was grown here, on the same property upon which it was crafted. It is one-of-a-kind. It is locally grown and locally made.

Make, fix and create...

Oversized finger joints

Today I'm making oversized finger joints as shown to form the sides, top and bottom of a small wall-hung cabinet. The joints are formed by ripping the stock to uniform width and then gluing back together with the boards offset from one another.

It's a technique that I first introduced in my book Rustic Furniture Basics. https://amzn.to/4htXiPR

Make, fix and create. 

New Cherry hall table

I just finished this cherry hall table and am ready to move on to a new project.  When faced with troubling times, proceed to do unquestionably good things.

Make fix and create. 

Fresh sample boxes.

Finishing a 3 day class at ESSA, my students and I managed to near finish a number of boxes as sample for student work. Mine are shown in the photo and include 1 box with mitered corners and floating panel top, one finger jointed box tapered hinged lid and two mitered boxes with spalted white oak lift off lids. 

A class photo with all the student made boxes will come later in the day. My boxes will require additional sanding and finish. The woods you see in the photo are cherry, walnut, white oak, and cedar.

Make, fix and create...

gluing and clamping legs together

I have glued and clamped the leg and apron assembly for a cherry hall table and will sand and attach the top tomorrow.

Make, fix and create...

Viking chest class

With two days of Viking chest class complete at ESSA (essa-art.org), students have their chests assembled, sanded and stained while they work for two days with Dale Custer in the forging studio to make the hardware consisting of hinges, hasp and handles.

Students have learned a lot and done great work. On Saturday I'll be at studio stroll to discuss the project, and do a quick demonstration. On Sunday I'll be with the class to finish up.

Make, fix and create...

Loose tenons

I'm continuing to make a cherry hall table and am using "loose" tenons to form the joints between parts. A "loose" tenon is not actually loose when fully assembled but is formed separately, allowing me to form mortises in both parts and the tenons glued in place to join both parts. It forms a strong, lasting joint.

As you can see in the photographs, this technique allows parts to be cut to exact length and then joined with less complicated measuring and cutting involved than a convention tenon that's cut and shaped at the ends of the stock. The loose tenon stock is milled to exact size, then rounded at the edges on the router table and after being cut in lengths will be glued in place.

Make, fix and create...

Cherry tabletop

With white oak tables complete I've had so much fun that I'm making one from cherry. The top is shaped using a saber saw, and plane after two wide boards were planed and glued to dimension. Next come the legs. 

This one will also be for sale.

People need to be informed of the value of having tools. We are transformed by them. Each is an expression of power to shape and express. 

We're not powerless consumers but makers and crafters. We'll not look to Wall Street for the redemption of the middle class, but  to ourselves and each other..

Make, fix and create...

Finished but for additional coats

Work for sale. Deliverable within Northwest Arkansas.  

I have finished the hall table and need to move it out of house and home to make room for another, as I enjoy making them. Contact me if you're interested in owning work of this nature. All solid wood but for the screw clips attaching the single board top.

Other works of useful integrity are available.

Make, fix and create...

Ready to attach the top

I have nearly completed the hall table as shown.

A reader said that he'd read my book "Wisdom of Our Hands" and as a beginning woodworker wondered which of my box making books might come next. I mentioned "Basic Box Making" by Taunton Press because the DVD done in association with it is offered free on my YouTube channel here:  https://youtu.be/8xlz9ekl3JE

In fact, you could do as some of my friends have done and watch one by one, through whole playlists including small cabinets and rustic furniture. Then enjoy the contents working with projects for kids. My friends left the channel on, even when their attentions were drawn away, just to build the hours. Thanks!

Make, fix and create... 

a quick tutorial

Form finger joints, but unlike a conventional finger joint, index the stock from both sides, stopping in the middle. 

Use a marking gauge to place an index mark for removal of the finger that will impede the completion of the joint. 

Then use a chisel to remove it, chiseling in on the marking gauge line from both sides. 

The joint will fit together as shown. In order for this technique to work, the parts must be rip sawn to the same width.

Make, fix and create...

upside down

Turned upside down I can measure the trial assembled hall table for the last step before adding the lower stretcher. I'll form tenons on the ends of the stock before final assembly and the leg units are permanently glued. 

Now that I've glued the legs to the aprons and added the lower support stretcher, the next steps will be to make a finger jointed drawer, maple drawer slides, a drawer front and finish.

Make, fix and create...

Assembly

I am in the process of gluing and assembling components of a hall table. Shown is the drawer support and apron assembly that will allow me to make a trial assembly of the whole table and to take accurate measurements of the lower tenoned support that runs left to right. 

What you witness are my own attempt of authenticity... Applying my time in pursuit of my ideals.

Make,  fix and create...

routed aprons ...IRL

I've routed the aprons for a hall table and am ready now for sanding, then assembly. I used a sign maker's router bit with a tiny bearing to be able to closely follow the sawn profile. https://amzn.to/3HONkev

Make, fix and create...
 

In Real Life

Being out of touch with internet slang I had to go to google to learn the acronym IRL means "in real life." Fortunately I'm not far from ideal life or being "in" it, as I have my woodshop and tools to turn to, and I have little use for what they're selling. Most of that will be useless, broken or in the landfill because of diminishing interest in a matter of months. So paying for it will not fit your needs or mine despite how attractive and addictive it appears. 

Take this lesson to heart. The things you make exist as skills in your own heart, hands and mind and nearly all else is some corporation trying to take advantage of you and your resources.

Today I have planed the stock for the table aprons and begin forming tenons on the table saw. The first step is to cut the shoulders of the tenons using the table saw sled as shown. The stop block makes certain that each cut is the same distance from the end of the stock. This is not AI. It's real life, and join me in some. It's infinitely rewarding.

Make, fix and create...

Tapered and marked for mortises

I have tapered and marked the legs for mortises. Cutting mortises will be the next step, and as they are done in pairs, left and right, the marking is a careful task.

I have continued to read Mike Rose's book, Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker, https://amzn.to/47szxo9 and it should be noted that in addition to this book, Rose was a noted authority on writing. And for some, the urge to write emerges when one has something to say. Looking at a blank paper in sixth grade while the teacher stands over you expecting you to perform won't do.

We do not all mature at the same pace and many have discovered their inclination to write when they've matured enough to have something meaningful to say. While the teacher stands there putting the pressure on, relax.

Make, fix and create...

Keeping busy

Keeping busy in the woodshop is part of my physical therapy from having had a stroke on December 1, 2024. 

I work for a while and then go back to sit and rest... Then go back to work until I feel tired. 

The white oak was harvested here on our small wood lot  and stored in my barn to dry. I had to cut it down to 14 3/4 in. to pass through the planer, then shaped it, routed the edges and sanded to 120 grit.

Next come legs, aprons, mortise and tenon joints and a drawer. It is all slightly larger than the hall table I made last week and will fit nicely in an office or home. The wood is particularly lovely. Wide, free of defects and lovely.

There are those who do not experience the creative joy that making entails. Surely we can have the machine and imported labor do things for us, and be diminished by it.

Or we can make other choices.

Make, fix and create...

Making a sycamore sculpture

Make, fix and create...

A reason for woodworking in school

A reason for woodworking:

In the early days of manual arts Uno Cygnaeus in Finland sought a means of extending the Kindergarten method into the upper grades in his creation of folk schools. How-to was clear in that Froebel's distinction between "gifts" and "occupations" should be informing us in the decisions we make about education today. 

The gifts, including sets of blocks and other creative devises were used by the children then put back in their boxes unchanged. The idea of the gift was to change the understanding in the heart and mind of the child, to incite curiosity about learning, and observation of life.  

Occupations were the materials that were changed and no longer available to the box from which they came. Woodworking and other crafts were the occupations Cygnaeus had in mind. We should adopt that same understanding of technology. Kids can learn from their devices, but if they don't do anything tangible as a result of learning, then their learning is what educators once called, "one-sided". What goes in, must come out, and not only through testing but through the making of beautiful and useful things.

The occupations were to give children creative, transforming power through which they, too, were transformed.  The distinction between Froebel's gifts and occupations was based on the recognition that education was not just what went into the child in the form of lessons and information, but must  also be  balanced by what comes out of the child in the form of tangible expression, in which each child discovered ways in which they could participate directly in community life.

Make, fix and create...

Happy labor day

People should read Mike Rose's book "The Mind at Work:Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker." It was published in 2005 and I offer it as a classic. He was inspired by his mother (a waitress), his uncle Frank (a welder) and his own highs school experience to reevaluate the relative intellectual  content of various professions and trades and the social stratification that results from the colossal misunderstanding of intellect and how it evolves with the assistance of the hands. https://amzn.to/3I1sAQu

Make, fix and create... offset the growing impact of artificial intelligence by doing something real.

Sculpture

Sculpture has a higher perceived value than more practical things but allows you to express things that some folks might miss. For instance a crafted wood object may fail to convey the craftsman's relationship with wood. Though it might be there, it might be missed or misunderstood, as wood is seldom regarded with the reverence it deserves.

This piece of simply done "sculpture" may not be valued by some. There is the speed at which it's done, but the message is simple and easy to understand. We fail to value all the wonderful things wood does for us, and we fail to protect the forests from which it comes. It's twisted, it is torn.

I took a piece of ash, too wide to pass through the planer and used the bandsaw to cut it into two narrower parts before planing.

I then used the compound miter saw to trim the ends, allowing them to rest stably on a base. After a base is made, I will use a rotary chisel to texture the inside edges and ends. An oil finish will bring the wood to life.

My thanks to arborist Larry Lowman for the wood. The cherry base was added. A friend asked me what I would do today. It brought me joy to have done this. Follow your own bliss.

Make, fix and create...

tapered legs, gentle curved top

I've applied the first coat of Danish oil to protect and bring out the natural color of the wood. Gentile curving top, slender, tapered legs. Table is nearly complete,

Make, fix and create...

Danish oil comes next.

I will apply a coat of Danish oil and then a wipe on polyurethane top coat for long lasting protection.

Make, fix and create...
 

finger jointed drawer

I've made a finger jointed drawer using an interesting technique that begins indexing from both sides of the board and meeting in the middle, thus allowing a drawer guide to be added between fingers. A drawer facing will be added to hide the joints when the drawer is closed. As far as I know, this is a unique feature of my work.

I share this because it might be useful to others.

It is ironic that it has been so difficult for educators to understand the necessity of hands on learning and all the additional learning hours that students will apply when their passions are engaged. 

Essentially, folks learn for the fun of it, and schooling can deprive us of that learning by taking the fun out. 

Matthew Crawford wrote the book "Shop Class as SoulCraft" without ever having attended one. But he did use lines that I had shared through my blog as the epigraph of chapter one of his first book, and in the concluding chapter of his second. 

In Schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged. --Wisdom of the Hands blog post of October 16, 2006

Make, fix and create...

Partly assembled hall table

I've glued up the leg assembly for the hall table and will make the drawer next. Then I will finish routing the top and apply coats of Danish oil.

Make, fix and create...

As was common at the time...

As was common at the time, as I was registering for high school, the guidance counselor asked me and my mother whether or not it was intended that I would go to college. With my mother insisting Yes, I was placed on the college prep track and rarely saw some of my friends again, that were "destined" for the trades. They took one set of classes, those being wood shop and auto mechanics, while I and other college bound freshmen were placed on a completely different track. And so it went. While schooling might help bring us together, each seeing value in each other, it, instead set us apart.

We live in a divided nation in which children mature at various paces and some are sequestered from the use of their hands in the exploration of the world while being told that they are the best and  brightest, set apart for learning more advanced and abstract things, and while some erroneously are informed by their placement that they'll never measure up or be capable of more advanced thought. Little could be further from the truth.

I repeat. Not all mature to the same things at the same time. All need to be afforded the opportunity to grow at their own pace. And all schooling should be hands-on, and thereby enriched.

Make, fix and create...

Looking at things upside down and backwards

Looking at my upside down table reminds me of the technique that Gaudi used to visualize his unfinished Church of Colònia Güell and the Sagrada Família.

https://dataphys.org/list/gaudis-hanging-chain-models/

Make, fix and create...

Upside down

I am in the process of making a hall table with drawer and it is currently upside down to measure the final  length of the cross stretcher that will stabilize the legs. It is made of white oak harvested on our property and dried in the barn.

It is assembled with mortise and tenon joints. 

Make, fix and create...

Skilled trades

Skilled trades should be included in every person's educational opportunities: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/where-the-future-of-stem-will-be-built-from-2025-onward-02b1fdb6abfa and would help us face changes from AI and other disruptions.

Make, fix and create...

Cherry...

I have a box nearly done, using a lid done many years ago, showing the difference between "new" cherry, freshly planed and old cherry allowed to age in the light. The difference is profound and noticeable here. Also shown is the simple design feature that allows the lid to open as though it is hinged. It simply falls into a groove at the back and sides, and then is held by that groove until deliberately closed. 

It is a technique I first used in my book, "Simply Beautiful Boxes" and available in digital reprint here: https://amzn.to/4morM7q

Do not worry about the color difference between old cherry and new cherry. Cherry is  a photo-reactive wood that will quickly age and catch up.

Make, fix and create... 

3 things

At our local cemetery they've cut a few trees, some of which will be sawn into lumber like this pine, over 30 inches in diameter. Good lumber. In my shop I've fitted a box to an inlaid lid, and created a lift tab for easy opening. Yesterday my wife and I attended demonstrations and a lecture on woodworking. 

Jerome Bias is a black craftsman who uses woodworking to bring his people's history into better focus. Held at the community of Canehill, AR, it was informative and entertaining. https://www.winterthur.org/jerome-bias/ 

There is a long tradition of black craftsmanship that should be better known.

Make, fix and create...

Mitered finger jointed box

As part of my ongoing effort to finish unfinished products in my shop, I am making a box to fit a lid crafted during the filming of my book,  The Taunton Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making. https://amzn.to/4mJiHWm  It involves the use of shop made inlay. The box is made with a mitered finger joint, also illustrated in the book.

Make, fix and create...