Woodworking, as a boomer hobby and a centuries-old craft, has hit the Web in a big way. You'll find everything from kits and plans to commercial woodworkers offering their wares and hobbyists and artists who simply want to share the beauty of their creations.
Jake's Chair is devoted to the Adirondack chair, an American original with an enduring tradition and an interesting history. Jake's versions of the Adirondack chair and footstool are here, in full color. He explains how the chair came to be and gives detailed instructions on how to build one from plans you can download for free from this page. The 450K download includes full instructions, plans, and the full contents of the home page. If you're looking for a good woodworking project, this site is a must.
Neanderthals, among woodworkers, are the devotees of hand tools and traditional methods. But even the Neanderthals have a home page in this world. The Electronic Neanderthal
bills itself as "the home of Traditional Woodworking Resources on the Web." You'll appreciate the artistic use of color, with pictures of tools to designate areas such as Events, Organizations, Tool Sources, Wood and Material Sources, Books, Lore, Places to Visit, and Woodworking Web Sites. The Tool Sources section is a standout, with an attractively presented listing of places from which you can order old tools, both by e-mail, and the more traditional mail order. Each listing has a note as to what it offers and in some cases the price range of its offerings. Wood and Material Sources is a list similar to the tool list for wood, hardware, and other supplies, except that it's mail order only. Places to Visit is a short list of museums for old tools. You'll see a large number of links to other woodworking sites on the Web with a short description of what you'll find on each.
The Enchanted Forest
is the work of Gordon Dunphy, a woodturner and sculptor. Rich graphics make this page extremely slow-loading, about 12 minutes at 14.4 bps. If you can stand the wait, the pictures of his work are beautiful. And that's all you'll find here except a short biography of Mr. Dunphy. For woodturners the site is a must-see. For others the wait may be too long.
Harry's Woodworking Page is a personal home page. He has nothing to sell. He's showing the pieces he has designed and built. The pictures are all in color and the designs are very interesting. You may want to do something similar. Some of the pictures are arranged so that by clicking on them you can download larger, higher-resolution images. Because of all the pictures, this page is a slow, but worthwhile loader.
Steve Postma is a furniture maker from Boston. He builds custom furniture in contemporary and traditional designs. A page of color thumbnail pictures of his work take you to full-screen images. Each picture is titled and the piece explained and priced. Mr. Postma also explains his method of working and how long it will take for an ordered piece to be built. This is a site well worth visiting even if you're not in the market for some new furniture. If you're a woodworker it will give you some goals to which you can aspire.
Triangle Woodturners of North Carolina is well-presented, though the opening page is mostly text. It features links to a dozen pages of photos of members' work, some in color and some in black and white. The images are fairly large and show good detail. You pay the price in loading times, of course. You'll also find seven articles on turning techniques that woodturners at least will find interesting, Finally there are some links to other arts and crafts sites that go well beyond woodworking.
Wood Working on the World-Wide Web is a well-done page with links to most of the woodworking sites on the Web. It has some interesting original material as well. It is being continually updated with new material. If you want to explore woodworking on the Web, this is the site to use as a base for most of that exploration. An extensive index to Woodsmith Magazine, one of woodworking's bibles, will be helpful to many. You'll find more more links here to other woodworking sites than anywhere else on the Web.
Woodcarvings by W.F. Judt is an attractive page, well designed and easy to read, offered by a woodcarver living in Alberta, Canada. He is an artist in relief woodcarving and states that he accepts commissions for such work. He also teaches summer classes and there is full information on that subject. One page shows 11 of his works in color and while it takes about 4 minutes to load at 14.4 bps, the works are well worth your attention. He is constructing a page of articles on relief carving techniques. All in all, these are very interesting pages even if you're not a wood carver.
The Woodworking Catalog describes itself as a collection of information useful to woodworkers. And it is. Unlike most information pages, it's very attractively presented. Each of the sections includes a list of companies furnishing the type of items stated, followed by an extensive list of links to other woodworking sites.
Steve Balter, Fine Furniture Maker, has constructed an interesting and well-designed site. Steve designs and builds very fine furniture. He is soliciting orders for custom furniture. Some examples are shown in small photos, but larger images are available by clicking on the smaller one and downloading. The larger images are 40K or less. This page would be easier to read if the type, some of which is in italics, were larger.
Chairs, Inc. has considerable information about Adirondack chairs, both complete and in kit form. The company is also in the business of selling and servicing new and used commercial seating and tables.
Jeff Cooper Woodworking is from a designer of sculptural furnishings, mainly for children's rooms. This page shows color photos of some of his work, which is quite interesting. He tells how some of the pieces were made and tells how to commission him to do work for you. There are no links to other sites.
Liberon/star Finishing Supplies
focuses on the arcane side of woodworking, complete with secret ingredients and elixirs. This is the place to look if you want finishing materials of any kind for all types of wood. You'll find an extensive listing of these materials and you can order them by e-mail. There are also good articles, hints, tips, and guidelines on furniture and wood finishing, as well as some links to other woodworking sites.
While some woodworkers are blessed with local lumberyards with great selections of interesting wood, many of us must shop by mail. Lumber for Woodworkers is a list of lumber companies around the country that sell unusual wood of all kinds. The site lists contact information as well as some indication of what type of wood each sells. One of the companies, Quality Woodwork & Supply, has a link to its home pages, which are well worth looking at.
Good Woodworking
offers only the Contents page of each issue of this British magazine, although it talks about the magazine and lists many back issues. Oddly, you can't yet buy these back issues, though you're offered the chance to subscribe.
New England Wood Carvers is mostly about Robin Trudel, president of this group. You'll see numerous pictures of his carvings, and many are offered for sale. There is some information about the group, but not a great deal. Some of the links to other woodcarving sites are interesting, some are not. All in all, if you like carvings you will find this site interesting.
Paul's Woodworking
is another personal home page. Paul Lalonde has nothing to sell. He is showing his work, and nice work it is. There are many pictures, all in color and arranged so that larger versions can be downloaded. Paul has divided his pictures over several pages so that no one page takes very long to load. If you want to see all of them, however, it will take some time. Lalonde also lists links to other woodworking pages.
The Sawdust Gallery builds fine furniture and fine wood interiors. At this site, Dale Rocco shows numerous pictures of his work. Thumbnail images take you to full-screen photos. The work is very interesting; the site is not particularly so. There are no links to other woodworking sites.
General Woodworking Information is straightforward but uninspiring. It lists a number of articles on different aspects of woodworking, all by different people. How expert these people are in what they write about is not mentioned. An extensive list of woodworking suppliers is supplied, along with contact information and inventory, but none of them can be reached by e-mail. The list of links to other woodworking sites is pretty good.
Whirligigs is a strictly commercial site. It offers full-sized plans and instructions for making five different whirligigs. These, shown in color, are the only interesting things on the page. The five plans come in a single package and can be purchased with an order blank furnished on the page. You'll also see the standard list of links to other woodworking sites.
Wood Business Cards, a commercial site from CAG Company, lets you choose from among 99 different woods for your business card! It lists all the woods from which cards can be furnished. Clicking on the wood name brings up a good-sized color photo of the wood, at the expense of download time. Ironically, you can't order the cards over the Net or even via e-mail.
Woodweb
sports an opening page that's not liable to entice you to venture further, but if you push on you'll find considerable information for operators of commercial woodshops. It's good information but poorly presented. Most readers will be bored before they're halfway through.
Wood Products, part of a woodworking catalog, is a mere list of companies that offer all kinds of wood parts and services. The list includes contact information, but nothing else.
Falcon-Wood is an under-construction commercial site for antique tools. It offers pictures and desciptions of each tool. It promises to eventually offer tools for the user, collector, and decorator. The page loads rapidly and is in black and white, but the pictures are not very clear. It has no links to other woodworking sites.
Jon Zimmer 's Antique Tools is a commercial site that's well-organized, but unlikely to be of interest to anyone but collectors of antique tools. The slow-loading Tools For Sale page pictures a number of antique woodworking tools, with description and price. The Books For Sale page is the same idea, with a few books on old tools. A Links To Others page offers three links to nothing in particular.
CabinetsPLUS is the home of a company that started as a cabinet shop but has recently added hardware for homes and businesses. The site offers the hardware and stock cabinets for home and shop as well as designs for the same that it will ship via e-mail.
Music Stands
is the home of Lark in the Morning, which offers music stands either finished or in kit form. It's not possible to tell how attractive they are because the blurry pictures are in black and white.
The MacLachlan Woodworking Museum might have been an interesting site, but it's dull. A color picture of the museum, a few black-and-white pictures of the inside of the museum that show very little, combined with a heavy block of small-type text make this site not worth the trouble to look at.
Woodworking Photo Gallery lists the photos of eight pieces of furniture. You can't preview them, you just click on the names for download. You don't know what you're getting until it's on your hard disk. The question is why you'd want to.
George W. Ziegler
designs and builds Mission Style furniture. Four different pieces are shown in color. Except for one, the pictures are too small to really see the detail. It's hard to understand just why the page has been placed on the Web.
by Ken Sadler