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Generally yes, but if necessary you can do it "by the numbers" and pre-make the components. In that case I generally allow 0.5mm for a single thickness of top quality suede and that's always worked out pretty well for me.

That's a really lovely project Mike, it's pretty special to be working with timber that's older than the pyramids! =D>

Nice job Andy. The common problem with this type of "open" design is that it's prone to racking, but you've incorporated enough robust joinery to effectively prevent that. More subjectively, the timbers that you've chosen work together well, at least to my eye! Hope this has given you the...

Every year I make Christmas gifts for my best furniture clients, I look for something that showcases the highly figured timbers I specialise in and also uses up some of the off-cuts which are otherwise just expensive waste. This year I've gone for tea light holders. Here are a couple of...

The Bridge City block plane looks to have some interesting and (for some woodworkers) relevant features. A double ended iron, with a different angle on each end, is such an obvious benefit it's surprising it's never been offered before. And the "skids"concept, for thicknessing small components...

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your concern but I'm hale and hearty, working on some great furniture commissions as well as yacht fit outs and lots of other woodworking jobs. If you're actually making stuff and need help then just drop me a PM. If you're in the South Hampshire area you're...

There are loads of different tricks for patching burr veneers. But the fact is you'll probably have to do some remedial work on the majority of burr veneers you use, so either go into the job prepared for that...or stick to plainer veneers! Tiny pin prick holes are often filled by the moisture...

A large part of my business is making waney edged dining tables and desks. The slabs I use are generally too big to pass through my 610mm wide planer. Consequently I do most of my flattening with a traditional wooden jack, and that also holds true for super hard tropical slabs and slabs that are...

Nice job Mike! Saw horses are a great opportunity to practise hand tool joinery...and for traditional angled saw horses they're a great opportunity to practise laying out the job.

Who was it, from this forum, that made a Hans Wegner chair? Was it Derek Cohen, or Chris Tribe? Or maybe both! Anyhow, this months Furniture & Cabinetmaker reports from Bonhams New York furniture auction. Four (from a set of eight) Wegner chairs made in 1971 sold for $10,700, and four "Cowhorn"...

When I set up as a full time furniture maker I decided not to build my workshop with a spray booth, I also anticipated that dining tables would be a fair percentage of my output. Consequently I invested a lot of time in testing and evaluating different finishing options. Here's a typical test...

It's not often I'll disagree with Andy T but I guess this is one of those rare occasions. Polyvine water based Pu provides virtually no protection against red wine or fruit juice, permanent staining from a spillage occurs in around a minute. It gives good water and abrasion protection however...

When it comes to learning how to work wood the internet sounds like a great solution, but in truth it often falls down. Let's take this forum as an example. Sure, there are some very knowledgeable people who will share their experience. But there are also plenty of BS artists who have never...

+1 For the great majority of woodworking hobbyists moulding planes are a complete waste of time and money. Less than one in ten of the vintage moulding planes that I've seen are in a fit state to use. The remainder have shrunken or warped stocks so that the cutting edge bears little...

This year is an especially good year to visit because they have a record number of furniture schools exhibiting. That means an enthusiastic amateur can see the kind of work that is being produced by students. In my opinion the main reason so few hobbyist woodworkers get anywhere near their true...

You never lift a planer or a planer/thicknesser by the tables, doesn't matter if it's cast iron or aluminium, you just don't do it. A saw table tends to have a top that overhangs less than a planer, so it may be safe to lift by the top, but to be safe the lifting straps should be as close to...

That's unlikely to work for you. 6mm ply is almost always less than 6mm, so starting with a 6mm groove means you can't escape a sloppy, rattly fit. Furthermore, sanding ply with ultra thin face veneers (in some cases just 0.2mm!) isn't good practise. For first class work you should think in...

The key is a freshly sharpened cross cut saw on a good saw with a moderate feed rate. Cross cut will probably mean ATB but why not just experiment, in my experience sharpness trumps pretty much everything!

That's an interesting question. I also have a Felder, and it does have a scribing blade fitted, but I don't always use it. I always assumed a scribing blade was the best solution for veneered boards, but then I spent some years training at the Barnsley workshops and, despite also having...

Remember, plywood is sold in nominal sizes, so the one thickness that 6mm plywood will never be is actually 6mm! Seriously, even on premium ply I've found thickness variations within a single sheet let alone between sheets. Forget ever cutting a standard groove for ply, you need to work from the...