Exercises | Common Woodworking

Angled Cuts

Note: This angled cuts exercise will allow you to practice controlling the saw and the direction of cut.

Arches- Stop Cut Method

Note: This exercise will help you to remove large amounts of material using the stop cut method. It requires accurate reading of the grain and a sharp chisel.

Bench Plane Setup

Note: This exercise will get you familiar with the parts of the plane and where they go. To see the video on putting the plane together, click here.

Cutting with Crosscut and Ripcut

You will need:

Gluing Up a Table Top (and Other Wide Boards)

Ensure all your boards have been trued and are square, to see how to do this, see our Truing Stock guide.

Preparing Your Wood

Preparing your wood is also referred to as truing your stock.

Round Rod

For this, you will need:

Roundovers

Note: Roundovers are used on edges that have the potential to wear, splinter and break with use. Rounding these edges or corners gives you a more solid and resistant structure. Here a plane works w...

Setting Hinges

Note: Before setting your hinges, if there is more than one, check them over to ensure there are no major discrepancies in sizing between the two. Whereas some hinges are made to tight tolerances, ...

Spokeshave Control

These exercises will work on your control of the flat-bottomed spokeshave and establish good patterns for continuously reading the grain:

Using Registration Faces

This exercise will focus on using two registration faces to mark around your wood which will help when you need to crosscut wood to length, which requires an accurate knifewall on all faces to prev...