# Hewn Shop Notes

> Hewn Shop Notes are practical woodworking notes: joinery, finishing, glue-ups, wood movement, sharpening, hardware, repair. Each was drafted by an AI writing system from Hewn's craft corpus and is published with that said on it. None has yet been read by Hewn's founder or checked by an outside reader; each note says so.

Each note is at https://hewn.build/shop-notes/<slug>, and the same note as Markdown at https://hewn.build/shop-notes/<slug>.md, with a cite line on top.

## Notes

- [The Pin](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pin.md): Don't re-measure the pin board. Transfer directly from the tail board: it's already the measurement.
- [The Fit](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-fit-74.md): Fitting dovetails by chalk transfer: pare only the marked high spots, repeat the cycle, and stop when the joint closes under hand pressure.
- [The Dado](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dado-75.md): How to cut dadoes that hold shelves straight, including the one-third depth rule, fitting by hand pressure, and stopping the dado before a show face.
- [The Rabbet](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-rabbet-76.md): How to cut, size, and fit rabbets: and why the rabbet-and-dado combination is the workhorse of case furniture.
- [The Bridle](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-bridle.md): The bridle joint: same geometry as a mortise-and-tenon, opened up at the end. Layout, cutting, fitting, and the three ways it fails.
- [The Box Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-box-joint-78.md): Box joints hold by glue surface area, not geometry. How to lay them out, cut them, and avoid the three ways they fail.
- [The Spline](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-spline.md): Why miters need splines, how to cut and size them, and the one grain rule you can't get wrong.
- [The Pocket Hole](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pocket-hole-80.md): When pocket holes are the right call, when they're not, and why the argument about them says more about us than the joint.
- [The Finish Nail](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finish-nail.md): When to use finish nails vs. mechanical joinery, how to pick the right gauge, and how to make the hole disappear.
- [The Countersink](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-countersink.md): Countersinking screws properly, and making the fill-or-plug decision before the screw goes in.
- [The Dry Run](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dry-run.md): Why a full dry run with real clamps catches the tolerance cascade that bench-testing individual joints never will.
- [The Glue-Up](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-glue-up-84.md): How to run a glue-up without panicking: working time, staging, wet checks, and squeeze-out handling.
- [The Flatten](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-flatten.md): How to flatten a panel after glue-up: diagnose with winding sticks, fix with planes and scrapers, check with your hand.
- [The Sand](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-sand.md): Grit progression for furniture sanding: why you can't skip grits, when to stop, and how raking light tells you what your hand can't.
- [The Raise](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-raise.md): How and why to raise the grain with a damp cloth before water-based finishes, rather than sanding it out after the first coat.
- [The First Coat](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-first-coat.md): The first coat isn't about building film: it's a penetrating seal and the most honest read of your surface you'll get until the final coat.
- [The Build](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-build-89.md): How to build a finish coat by coat: between-coat sanding, recoat timing, knowing when to stop.
- [The Final Coat](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-final-coat.md): How to apply the last coat of finish, and why cure time and what happens after application matter more than the application itself.
- [The Iron](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-iron.md): The plane iron is a cutting geometry, not a blade: bevel angles, sharpening, cap iron setting, and reading the shaving.
- [The Set](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-set.md): How to set up a bench plane before the first shaving: the two-minute sequence that separates clean cuts from chasing problems.
- [The Pass](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pass.md): How to move a hand plane across a board without rounding the ends or tearing the grain, and how to read the shavings as you go.
- [The Skew](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-skew.md): Skewing a hand plane changes its cutting geometry: when to use it, when it won't help, and the three ways it goes wrong.
- [The Edge](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-edge-95.md): How to read a hand plane's edge condition in real time and know when to resharpen.
- [The Grain](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-grain.md): How to read grain direction before the first hand-plane pass, and what to do when the grain fights back.
- [The Surface](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-surface-97.md): Two tests that tell you when a hand-planed surface is ready for finish: raking light and fingertip: and why the plane produces a better finish surface than sandpaper.
- [The Sharpening Session](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-sharpening-session.md): Full sharpening sequence for a bench plane iron, from back flattening through strop, with system choice and session shape.
- [The Scraper](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-scraper.md): When and how to use a card scraper, how to turn its burr, and how to read its shavings.
- [The Practice](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-practice.md): Ten posts in this arc.
- [The Cherry](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-cherry.md): Full species portrait of cherry: lumber yard selection, sapwood exclusion, movement math, bench behavior, and finishing for natural color development.
- [The Hard Maple](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-hard-maple.md): Hard maple as the species that tells you whether your tools are sharp: hardest of five primaries, blotching traps, finishing choices, and the BC species-ID problem.
- [The Bigleaf Maple](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-bigleaf-maple-105.md): Bigleaf maple as a local BC species: how it differs from hard maple in hardness and movement, how to plane its figure, how to finish it, and where to source it.
- [The Plan](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-plan.md): A plan is someone else's decisions written down. Your job is to read the argument, not just the dimensions.
- [The Cut List](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-cut-list.md): Why a cut list is a list of promises rather than a shopping list, and how to check actual stock against it before anything hits the saw.
- [The Gap](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-gap.md): Why the reasoning behind a plan's dimensions matters more than the dimensions themselves, and how to find it.
- [The Species](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-species.md): How to evaluate a species substitution before you cut anything, and the four checks that separate a conscious swap from a costly one.
- [The Sequence](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-sequence.md): Build sequence is not in the plan; it is read out by tracing access closures backward from the finished piece.
- [The Dimension](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dimension.md): How to tell which dimensions on a plan are targets and which are fits, and why measuring the actual part before cutting the receiving part solves most joinery headaches.
- [The Tools](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-tools.md): Every plan assumes a shop; how to work out which tools a plan assumed and when a tool substitution becomes a redesign.
- [The Floating Top](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-floating-top.md): Three tabletop attachment methods, why each works, and what happens when you skip the physics.
- [The Material](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-material.md): How to assess whether your lumber will actually produce the parts the plan requires, before the first cut.
- [The Adaptation](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-adaptation.md): Adaptation is the deliberate work of translating someone else's plan into your own build context, with a pre-build sequence and a threshold where it becomes redesign.
- [The Design](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-design.md): Design isn't decoration. It's the layer of decisions that determines whether a correctly built piece earns its place in the room.
- [The Proportion](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-proportion.md): The proportion rules furniture makers actually use for tops, overhangs, legs, rails and cases, and why the golden ratio is not one of them.
- [The Leg](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-leg.md): The leg decides whether your furniture looks planted or heavy. Taper, rake, splay, section, and placement: what each does and how to read them before you cut.
- [The Case](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-case.md): Case furniture is a box. The design problem is making it stop reading as one: base treatment, face frames, reveals, and horizontal division.
- [The Top](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-top.md): How to design a tabletop as a proportional decision, not a dimensional afterthought: overhang, thickness, edge treatment, and the shadow line.
- [The Surface](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-surface-121.md): Surface design is the last decision you make and the first thing anyone sees: grain figure, panel composition, sheen level, and color all read as design choices whether you make them deliberately or not.
- [The Detail](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-detail.md): Edge treatments, reveals, hardware, backs and feet are where furniture crosses from built to designed.
- [The Eye](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-eye.md): The last seven posts weren't a design course.
- [The Vocabulary](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-vocabulary.md): Design traditions are decision systems, not aesthetic preferences. Learning one vocabulary deeply is how individual design choices cohere into a whole piece.
- [The Mortise](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-mortise.md): Why the mortise is proportioned the way it is, what the one-third rule actually protects, and the three ways a mortise joint fails before it ever sees a load.
- [The Tenon](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-tenon.md): A dimensionally correct tenon can still fail: because fit is a condition, not a measurement. Here's what each surface does and what to check before glue-up.
- [The Fit](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-fit-126.md): Fit is a condition, not a measurement. The palm-pressure standard, the four-shoulder test, dry-fit discipline, and why glue doesn't close a gap: it preserves it.
- [The Dovetail Argument](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dovetail-argument.md): The dovetail resists tension without glue: here's the angle, baseline, and fitting sequence that makes it work.
- [The Dovetail](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dovetail-127.md): The dovetail is a tension-resistance mechanism, not a difficulty credential; what it resists, where that matters, and how to read a clean baseline.
- [The Dado](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dado-128.md): The dado doesn't fail dramatically: it fails quietly, through three specific mistakes you make before the first cut.
- [The Rabbet](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-rabbet-129.md): The rabbet solves three caseware problems with one geometry, and the common mistake is cutting it to nominal instead of measured thickness.
- [The Lap Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-lap-joint.md): The lap joint: three variants, one depth rule, and the one thing that kills it (a floor that isn't flat).
- [The Box Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-box-joint-131.md): When a box joint is the right call, when it isn't, and how to keep the jig from ruining your parts.
- [The Bridle Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-bridle-joint.md): The bridle joint trades concealment for visibility: and that trade has a cost you need to plan for before glue-up.
- [The Housed Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-housed-joint.md): The plain dado locates a shelf. The housed joint locks it. Here's the geometry, the fit standard, and when each version earns its setup time.
- [The Pocket Hole](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pocket-hole-134.md): The pocket hole is a shear joint. Use it for shear. Don't use it for withdrawal or seasonal movement: and stop apologizing for it.
- [The Wedge](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-wedge.md): Three wedge joints: through-wedged, fox-wedged, tusk tenon: and the single critical dimension that keeps each of them from failing.
- [The Drawbore](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-drawbore.md): The drawbore is a self-clamping mortise and tenon: offset holes, a tapered peg, and the joint closes itself. No clamp required.
- [The Glue-Up](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-glue-up-137.md): Glue-ups fail in staging, not execution: stage everything before the glue comes out, check square after clamping, and leave squeeze-out until it gels.
- [The Grammar](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-grammar.md): Every furniture joint answers two questions, about the loads it sees and the failure mode it guards against, and answering them selects the joint.
- [The Edge](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-edge-149.md): What sharp actually means, how to diagnose it, and how to stop guessing at the strop.
- [The Plane](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-plane.md): The bench plane is a feedback instrument, not a mystery: setup sequence, cap iron adjustment, and shaving diagnostics that tell you what's happening at the iron.
- [The Chisel at Work](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-chisel-at-work.md): The four jobs a chisel does, how to match technique to each, the three rules of paring, a mortise chopping sequence, and how to read the cut surface.
- [The Chisel](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-chisel.md): Four chisel types and why they're not interchangeable. Back preparation as the one-time structural job. Angle selection by task. The chopping/paring distinction and how mixing them ruins work.
- [The Mallet](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-mallet.md): Why a wooden mallet works and a hammer doesn't: the physics, the types, and how to pick the right one for the job.
- [The Saw](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-saw.md): Task allocation for saws: track saw for rough breakdown, hand saw for joinery, and why the knife wall isn't optional.
- [The Square](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-square.md): Layout is where the work is won or lost. The combination square is four tools, the marking gauge is its necessary partner, and the knife wall is the step everyone skips until they stop skipping it.
- [The Workbench](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-workbench.md): The workbench isn't a tool: it's the holding system every other tool depends on. Get the mass, the vise, the dogs, and the height right, or you're fighting the bench instead of the wood.
- [The Clamp](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-clamp.md): Clamping decisions belong in the dry-fit, not the glue-up: and the right pressure is less than you think.
- [The Arc Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-arc-close-158.md): The edge comes first.
- [The Cold Shop](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-cold-shop.md): What cold does to glue, finish and stock in an unheated or intermittently heated shop, which operations care, and how to schedule the work by season.
- [The Tool Wall](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-tool-wall.md): A three-orbit framework for tool storage (bench, wall, cabinet), why French cleat beats pegboard, and what an unused tool on the wall tells you.
- [The Sharpening Station](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-sharpening-station.md): A dedicated sharpening station reduces friction enough that sharpening actually happens when it should: not forty minutes too late.
- [The Lumber Stack](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-lumber-stack.md): How to store lumber so it is ready at the bench: where the stack lives, how to sticker it, how to mark every board, and why not to mill early.
- [The Finishing Area](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finishing-area.md): Finishing failures usually trace to shop conditions (dust, light and temperature) rather than technique, and this note sets out what a finishing zone needs.
- [The Dust Solution](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dust-solution.md): The shop vac is not a dust collection system.
- [The Power Tool Relationship](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-power-tool-relationship.md): Power tools do dimensioning and hand tools do fitting, and knowing where one hands off to the other is what makes a shop fast.
- [The Shop Arc Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-shop-arc-close.md): Eight posts.
- [The Brief](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-brief.md): How to run a commission brief: the five things to learn before leaving the client, the promises not to make, and what to confirm in writing.
- [The Material Conversation](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-material-conversation.md): Have the wood movement conversation with your client before you start cutting. Five minutes now prevents a confused phone call twelve months later.
- [The Budget](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-budget.md): How to price a commission as a whole job: hidden friction time, a separate design fee, and a real deposit.
- [The Sample](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-sample.md): Why a finish sample on the actual species matters more than the drawing, when to make one, and how to show it so the client decides before the build.
- [The Delivery](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-delivery.md): The one-page document that should travel with a delivered commission: species and source, finish and care, wood movement, and the maker's contact details.
- [The Commission Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-commission-close.md): Seven posts in this arc.
- [The Archive](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-archive.md): Craft rules are compressed history. They survived millennia because not following them produced failures. Before you shortcut one, understand what it was preventing.
- [The Shakers](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-shakers.md): The Shakers didn't invent good proportion: they refused to bury it under decoration. That reasoning process is worth more than any style guide.
- [The Rebellion](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-rebellion.md): The Arts & Crafts movement got the ethics of materials right and the romanticism about hand-work wrong: here's what actually survives as a working principle.
- [The Japanese Room](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-japanese-room.md): Japanese joinery wasn't about virtuosity: it was an engineering response to a different problem. The thing that transfers to Western woodworkers isn't the joints. It's the question behind them.
- [The Books](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-books.md): What Moxon, Roubo, and Krenov each preserved: and the gap that text still hasn't closed after three centuries of trying.
- [The Studio](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-studio.md): Maloof, Castle, and Krenov each made the same material work differently: and the line between mastery and expensive frustration is whether your complexity earns its keep.
- [The BC Shop](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-bc-shop.md): BC has no furniture tradition like Shaker or Arts & Crafts: but it has boat builders, bigleaf maple, and Okanagan heat cycling. Here's what that inheritance actually means at the bench.
- [The History Arc Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-history-arc-close.md): What knowing the history of furniture making gives a builder, and what it cannot: tested reasoning behind the rules, but not the calibration that only practice earns.
- [The Finish](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finish.md): Choosing a finish is a design decision made before the first cut: what penetrating and film finishes each do, where shellac fits, and how the choice changes the build sequence.
- [The Surface](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-surface-183.md): Surface preparation decides most of a finish result: scraper versus sandpaper, the grit sequence, grain raising, the raking-light test, and the defects no finish can hide.
- [The Oil](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-oil.md): What penetrating oils actually are, why the label lies, how to apply them correctly, and why balled-up oily rags burn shops down.
- [The Film](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-film.md): Film finishes compared (shellac, lacquer and polyurethane), the three ways they fail, and a practical default system for a small shop.
- [The Stain](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-stain.md): Dye vs. pigment: two different mechanisms, one word on the label. How to handle blotch-prone BC species (cherry, soft maple, alder) and why the test board is not a recommendation but the job.
- [The Wax](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-wax.md): What paste wax does and does not do on a wood surface, when to use it alone or over another finish, and how to apply and maintain it.
- [The Topcoat](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-topcoat.md): Choose your topcoat by working backward from the failure mode: use case, species, shop conditions, and skill level in that order.
- [The Finishing Sequence](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finishing-sequence.md): Finishing decisions come before sanding: a complete sequence for a hard maple hall table, from system selection through documentation.
- [The Finishing Arc Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finishing-arc-close.md): A summary of the finishing sequence, from choosing the finish category through prep, oil, film, stain, wax and topcoat, and why the finish reveals every earlier decision.
- [The Upholstery](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-upholstery.md): Upholstery is construction rather than decoration: frame, foundation and cover are three unequal layers, and the fabric is the last decision made.
- [The Frame](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-frame-192.md): Frame assessment before upholstery: four areas to check, four conditions to recognize, and why the frame determines whether the job works.
- [The Foundation](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-foundation.md): The foundation layer: springs, webbing, foam, batting: is what determines how a piece feels and ages. Get it right before touching the fabric.
- [The Fabric Decision](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-fabric-decision.md): Upholstery fabric is chosen by durability, real use, construction type and only then color, with notes on pattern repeat yardage, customer's own material, and leather versus fabric.
- [The Build](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-build-195.md): The upholstery build sequence: strip completely, assess the frame, build the foundation properly, and put the cover fabric on last, working center-out.
- [The Fit](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-fit-196.md): Fitting upholstery fabric is a precision operation: grain alignment, pattern matching, welt bias-cut, and the dry-fit check before the first staple.
- [The Season](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-season.md): Temperature minimums for upholstery work in a BC Interior cycling-heat shop, and how to schedule around them.
- [The Upholstery Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-upholstery-close.md): Here's how most upholstered chairs end up mediocre: someone picks the fabric first.
- [The Yellow Cedar](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-yellow-cedar.md): Yellow cedar is the BC softwood that outperforms its reputation: better stability than most hardwoods, Class 1 durability, and clean workability if you know one prep step.
- [The Douglas Fir](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-douglas-fir.md): Vertical-grain Douglas Fir is a legitimate furniture material that most BC woodworkers have dismissed because they only know it in framing grade: here's what changes when you ask for the right stuff.
- [The Repair](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-repair.md): Why repair teaches what new builds don't, the three failure types (structural, surface, seasonal), and why diagnosis comes before any tool.
- [The Diagnosis](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-diagnosis.md): Four questions to answer before any furniture repair begins, plus how to document the piece and test the finish before taking it apart.
- [The Glue Line](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-glue-line.md): How to identify old glue, prep the joint surface, and reglue correctly: because bad surface prep is why most glue repairs fail again.
- [The Finish Repair](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finish-repair.md): How to identify an existing finish with three solvent tests, when to strip versus spot repair, and the repair sequence for each finish type.
- [The Inherited Piece](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-inherited-piece.md): How to repair a piece that arrives with no history: fix structure and function, match the existing surface, keep what is irreplaceable, and document what you find.
- [The Repair Arc Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-repair-arc-close.md): Repair is reading backward from failure to cause: and it's the certification exam for everything else you know.
- [The Design Language](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-design-language.md): A design tradition is a question system, not a surface style. Knowing the questions lets you make the decisions coherently.
- [The MCM](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-mcm.md): MCM is the dominant client vocabulary: here's what it actually means, what the proportions require, and the one mistake that kills it.
- [The Shaker](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-shaker.md): Shaker furniture isn't a visual style: it's a two-question discipline, and most people applying the 'Shaker look' skip the discipline entirely.
- [The Scandinavian](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-scandinavian.md): Scandinavian design vocabulary treats comfort as a primary design argument: form follows the body, not the material or the function: and the aesthetic is available to you without Wegner-level compound curves.
- [Five Traditions, Five Questions](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/five-traditions-five-questions.md): Five furniture design traditions, MCM, Shaker, Arts and Crafts, Scandinavian and Wabi-Sabi, read as decision systems, each answering one governing question.
- [The Bend](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-bend.md): Steam bending physics, species selection for BC Interior, box setup, four failure modes, and when lamination is the honest answer
- [The Box](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-box.md): How to build a simple steam box, choose a steam source, and run a steam-bending session, including adjustments for a cold BC Interior shop.
- [The Form](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-form.md): The form determines the geometry of every steam bend: build it wrong and the bend is wrong, no matter how good the steam session goes.
- [The Part](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-part.md): Steam bending blank preparation: why sessions fail before the blank enters the box, and what to check before it does.
- [The Windsor](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-windsor.md): The Windsor chair as the integration test for every skill in the corpus: steam bending, turning, hand tools, compound angles, and finishing all at once.
- [The Arc Close](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-arc-close-223.md): Steam bending is wood movement used as a capability, not just endured as a constraint: and the Windsor bow proves it.
- [The Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-joint.md): A joint answers a structural question: the four questions to ask before choosing one, the four joint families, and how to read a failed joint.
- [The Mortise and Tenon](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-mortise-and-tenon.md): Why the mortise and tenon is the dominant furniture joint: mechanical argument, proportions, cutting sequence, fitting, and what failure looks like.
- [The Dovetail](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dovetail-226.md): The dovetail resists tension: that one fact determines where it belongs, how to cut it, and why it fails.
- [The Dado, Rabbet, and Groove](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dado-rabbet-and-groove.md): The dado, rabbet, and groove do most of the work in cabinet construction: here's what governs the specs, where movement becomes critical, and where the family belongs.
- [The Hybrid Joints](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-hybrid-joints.md): Three joints that borrow from two structural families: bridle (open M&T), box joint (geometric finger), sliding dovetail (housing with tension lock): and why each one exists
- [The Butt Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-butt-joint.md): The butt joint has zero inherent mechanical resistance: all its strength comes from reinforcement, and reinforcement can be matched precisely to load.
- [The Joint Selection Protocol](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-joint-selection-protocol.md): The joint is the answer to a question.
- [What Finish Is](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/what-finish-is.md): Penetrating vs. film-forming finishes: two families, four jobs, and why picking wrong is a category error, not an application error
- [The Oil Finishes](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-oil-finishes.md): Oil finishes are four distinct products with different chemistry and different jobs: knowing which one you have is the whole game.
- [The Waxes and Shellac](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-waxes-and-shellac.md): What paste wax does and why it must be the last coat, and how shellac works, including dewaxed shellac as a universal sealer, pound cuts and its limits.
- [The Film Finishes](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-film-finishes.md): Film finishes build on top of wood, not inside it: here's what that means for repair, intercoat adhesion, and which product to reach for.
- [Surface Prep and Application](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/surface-prep-and-application.md): Surface preparation before finishing: reading the surface in raking light, stopping grits by finish type, grain raising, pore filling, washcoats, between-coat sanding and the finishing environment.
- [Stain, Dye, and Color](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/stain-dye-and-color.md): Pigment and dye color wood by different mechanisms: getting that distinction wrong is where most color problems start.
- [The Finish Selection Protocol](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-finish-selection-protocol.md): A four-question protocol for selecting the right finish system: in order, with worked examples.
- [The Glue-Up](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-glue-up-238.md): A glue-up is four decisions in sequence: and by the time you're reaching for clamps, three of them are already made.
- [The Adhesives](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-adhesives.md): Four adhesive families: PVA, hide glue, polyurethane, epoxy: and a four-question selection framework. Choose the adhesive before you cut the joint, not after.
- [Surface Preparation for Glue](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/surface-preparation-for-glue.md): The four things a glue surface must have before adhesive goes on: freshness, moisture match, contamination-free, and fitted: plus the dry-fit that confirms all of them.
- [Sequence and Staging](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/sequence-and-staging.md): How to plan a complex glue-up: break it into sub-assemblies that fit the glue's open time, stage everything beforehand, and check square and flat before each stage advances.
- [Clamping](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/clamping.md): Clamps hold pressure: they don't fix bad prep. How to read squeeze-out, choose the right clamp, and stop before you wreck the joint.
- [The Glue-Up Protocol](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-glue-up-protocol.md): Five-phase glue-up protocol with gates at each phase: the decision system that makes a glue-up repeatable and recoverable.
- [The Hardware Layer](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-hardware-layer.md): Hardware is the last craft decision in a build and the one most likely to undo everything else. Two questions, four families, one governing principle.
- [Hinges](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/hinges.md): The four hinge families and how to choose between them: selection logic before installation technique.
- [Drawer Slides](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/drawer-slides.md): How to specify drawer slides by family, extension, load rating and gap, why the drawer box is built to the slide gap rather than the opening, and the installation sequence.
- [The Drawer Box](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-drawer-box.md): How to build a drawer box correctly: material, joinery, bottom capture, and height: when every dimension is derived from a decision made before the first cut.
- [Catches, Stays, and Shelf Pins](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/catches-stays-and-shelf-pins.md): How to choose and install door catches, lid stays and shelf pins, and when each piece of hardware goes in relative to finishing.
- [The Installation Sequence](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-installation-sequence.md): Hardware installation has a sequence: two phases separated by finishing, then assembly order within Phase 2. Get the order wrong and you're repairing finish.
- [The Hardware Protocol](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-hardware-protocol.md): Hardware failures are almost always specification or sequence failures: here's the four-question protocol that closes those gaps.
- [The Pull](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pull.md): Pulls are a spec decision before they're an aesthetic one: hole spacing is fixed, face length is the variable, and getting that backwards is how you end up filling holes.
- [What Sharp Is](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/what-sharp-is.md): Sharp is geometry, not ritual: two flat surfaces meeting at a precise angle, and everything else follows from understanding that.
- [The Back](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-back.md): Why the back of a chisel or plane iron causes most sharpening trouble, how to test it for flatness, flatten it once and keep it flat.
- [The Bevel](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-bevel.md): How to hone a bevel correctly: hollow grinds, freehand technique, microbevels, and stropping, with a complete 6-step session protocol.
- [Janka Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/janka-doesn-t-mean-what-you-think-it-means.md): What the Janka hardness test actually measures, the three failure modes it does not predict, and how to match a species choice to the real failure mode.
- [How Many Clamps](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/how-many-clamps.md): How many clamps a glue-up needs: the pressure target and the spacing rule, why extra clamps do not starve a well-fit joint, and why cauls protect narrow edges.
- [What 0.1mm Buys You](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/what-0-1mm-buys-you.md): You are planing a curly maple panel with a sharp iron and it is tearing out anyway.
- [Screws Into End Grain Don't Hold](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/screws-into-end-grain-don-t-hold.md): Why screws driven into end grain lose holding power, how density and pilot-hole size change withdrawal strength, and how to move the load into face grain or a mechanical connector.
- [Stop Arguing About 25 or 30 Degrees](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/stop-arguing-about-25-or-30-degrees.md): Why the primary bevel angle controls only edge clearance and durability on a bevel-down plane but sets the cutting angle on a bevel-up plane.
- [Why Two Stones Are Enough](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-two-stones-are-enough.md): The two-stone setup always looks like the budget version.
- [What Actually Dulls Your Plane Iron](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/what-actually-dulls-your-plane-iron.md): The edge quit halfway through the board, so you blame the steel.
- [What the Strop Is Actually Doing](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/what-the-strop-is-actually-doing.md): You finish on the strop.
- [Why Maple Blotches and Oak Doesn't](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-maple-blotches-and-oak-doesn-t.md): Why maple blotches under pigment stain while oak takes it evenly, explained by pore size, and three ways to stain maple evenly.
- [The Dovetail Angle Is a Look, Not a Strength](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-dovetail-angle-is-a-look-not-a-strength.md): Every dovetail tutorial hands you the same rule.
- [Your Finish Looks Different in the Customer's Kitchen](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/your-finish-looks-different-in-the-customer-s-kitchen.md): You finish a walnut top under the warm bulbs of the shop.
- [Why the Old-Timers Used Nails in Chairs](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-the-old-timers-used-nails-in-chairs.md): Why a nail that bends outlasts a stiffer screw in sideways, repeatedly loaded joints like chair rungs, and when the screw still wins.
- [You Can't Sand In a Shine](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/you-can-t-sand-in-a-shine.md): Why gloss comes from the finish rather than finer sandpaper, the two meanings of depth, and why a rich black cannot also be dead matte.
- [The Polyurethane on Your Shelf Isn't Polyurethane](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-polyurethane-on-your-shelf-isn-t-polyurethane.md): How brush-on oil-based polyurethane differs from two-part polyurethane in cure, humidity tolerance and isocyanate respiratory hazard.
- [What Sanding Does Before the Finish Goes On](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/what-sanding-does-before-the-finish-goes-on.md): Why to sand a planed surface for tooth under a film finish but go straight to oil under a penetrating finish.
- [Why Oil Makes the Figure Jump](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-oil-makes-the-figure-jump.md): Wipe a rag of oil across a board of curly maple and the figure wakes up.
- [Why the Scraper Gets In Where the Plane Can't](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-the-scraper-gets-in-where-the-plane-can-t.md): Why a card scraper cuts by compression and so avoids tearout on figured grain where a plane, which cuts by splitting, cannot, plus why a real burnisher matters.
- [The First Coat on End Grain Is a Filler](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-first-coat-on-end-grain-is-a-filler.md): Why the first coats on end grain act as filler, and how to seal end grain first while handling raised grain and checking.
- [When the Wood Poisons the Finish](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/when-the-wood-poisons-the-finish.md): You oil a teak bench.
- [Which Wood Goes Where in a Mixed Joint](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/which-wood-goes-where-in-a-mixed-joint.md): In a mortise and tenon of two species, make the lower-movement wood the tenon, and change the glue when the orientation cannot be safe.
- [Why Shellac Stops the Bleed](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-shellac-stops-the-bleed.md): You spray a clean waterborne finish over white oak.
- [Satin Won't Stay Satin](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/satin-won-t-stay-satin.md): Why sprayed satin polishes to glossy wear spots on used tabletops, and the two honest options at the sample stage.
- [If It Gives You a Rash, It'll Wreck the Oil](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/if-it-gives-you-a-rash-it-ll-wreck-the-oil.md): Why woods like cocobolo and the rosewoods that sensitize skin also stall oil finishes, and what to do instead.
- [The Plate Was Never the Problem](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-plate-was-never-the-problem.md): Why finish damage on a tabletop comes from grit and small points of contact rather than heavy objects, and what wax actually does.
- [Why Old Drawer Boxes Outlast New Ones](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/why-old-drawer-boxes-outlast-new-ones.md): Why paring a dovetail baseline rounds the corner and multiplies the fatigue life of a drawer box compared with a sharp router-cut corner.
- [The Case-Side Dovetail That Pops in Summer](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-case-side-dovetail-that-pops-in-summer.md): Why deep hardwood shelves in case-side dovetails should be glued only at the front few inches to survive seasonal movement.
- [The Drawer That Binds in Summer](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-drawer-that-binds-in-summer.md): Why a drawer that binds in summer does most of a joint's fatigue damage, and how species pairing and fitting season prevent it.
- [The Check in Your Chair](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-check-in-your-chair.md): How summer dehumidification limits checking in a chair, and what to do at each check depth.
- [At Sixty-Five Percent, Your PVAc Goes Soft](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/at-sixty-five-percent-your-pvac-goes-soft.md): Why standard PVAc glue turns rubbery and creeps at high humidity, and which glues hold instead.
- [Re-Glue in February, Not July](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/re-glue-in-february-not-july.md): Why a cracked solid-wood joint should be inspected in summer but re-glued in winter, and when a check needs no repair.
- [Finish Repair and Refinishing](https://hewn.build/shop-notes/finish-repair-and-refinishing.md): Before you fix a finish, you have to know what it is: three diagnostic tests, the spot-repair vs. full-refinish decision, and the re-coat rules that actually matter.