Home

Biography

Tables, Chairs

Cabinet Furniture

Beds, Built-ins, Other Work

Exhibitions, Galleries, News

Articles

Links

Services and Charges

Teaching and Student Work

Contact

Top of Page

Top of Page

Richard Jones Furniture

Articles

A small selection of my online articles is listed below. I will add new ones as I create them.

Estimating for Furniture Makers: is the price right? Estimating custom furniture making is a difficult task. I have spent over thirty years refining my system. My 'guess-timating' really started to become effective estimating when I began to base my method on a system outlined in a three page CoSIRA document I acquired, I think, in the early 1980s. Some longer serving furniture professionals who perhaps dimly remember that old CoSIRA document, may recognise its genetic fingerprint buried deep within my methodology described here in this 3.7 MB PDF file .

'The Gathering, 2009', June 27. Members of the Designer Makers Organisation of the United Kingdom (DMOU) met at ercol furniture's premises in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire to listen to guest speakers, network, etc. I have compiled two reports of the conference. To download a 4.7 MB printable PDF version click here- it opens in a new window A low resolution HTML version is here.

Edge Joints and Appearance Considerations for Solid Wood Panels. A discussion of edge joinery in solid wood panels taking into account a limited selection of wood movement and appearance considerations.

Microwave Oven Drying of Wood. Sometimes it is useful to establish very precisely the moisture content in a piece of wood. The oven drying test is the standard by which all other methods of measuring wood moisture content are judged against. This short article describes a method of oven drying using the microwave oven instead of a regular oven.

Flattening Veneers. Click here for a printable 320 kb PDF document that opens in a new window. Alternatively click here for a low resolution (11 kb) HTML web page. The same information is in each version and describe methods for flattening rippled and contrary veneers prior to cutting and taping edge joints and/or gluing them down onto a prepared ground.

Laminate Springback. A short and small PDF document, less than 50 kb, providing some formulae I've gathered over the years that attempt to accurately calculate the springback you can or might expect if you do laminated bends in wood. I don't give any of them much credence, but I believe it's useful to be aware of them.

Drying Faults in Pictures. Photographs, and a little text, of some of the common drying faults found in wood and a graphic of the drying stages wood goes through along with the faults that can develop. This graphic is quite large and may take a little while to download for internet users on slower connections, eg, dial up. I apologise in advance for any inconvenience.

Using Drafting Tape to Join Veneer Edges. Is this a technique you can use? A report on an experiment I conducted using drafting tape and masking tape to join the prepared edges of veneer prior to gluing the veneer down using a heated hydraulic press.

A Lesson in Sharpening. I swear with my hand on Ernest Joyce's holy book, the 1970 British third edition of The Technique of Furniture Making (issued prior to the sacrilegious reworking of the tome by Alan Peters (sic) that appeared with the shocking inclusion of, well... pictures in colour) that every word in this story about my induction into the 'Dark Arts' of chisel and plane sharpening is the truth. No wonder other woodworkers cannot sharpen their tools correctly-- they were never taught properly, nor do they know the correct handshake and ceremonies practiced by those of us in the Guild of Master Sharpeners.

An Unusual Polishing Technique for Open Grained Woods. A white oak table top with a blue grey background and green grain filler.

Graduate Drawer Cabinet hosted by WoodCentral. When I made this cabinet I simply called it cabinet 73-- I hadn't thought of a name for it at the time.

The Double Twisted Dovetail. How to mark it and cut it, again hosted by WoodCentral

A Drawer Making discussion. Looks at some of the technical issues of traditional drawer making. Hosted by a forum called Quittin' Time that I'm afraid I haven't visited for quite a long time.

Ripping long boards on the table saw. Authored by Barb Siddiqui. I was asked to add comments on techniques she discussed. Hosted by WoodCentral.

Richard Jones: Professional Furniture Maker. I was interviewed for the 'Today's Woodworker' section of Woodworking.com. At the time I was running my business full time and based in Houston, Texas.

The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth. Shortly after I moved to Texas in 1993 I was offered the post of Workshop Manager at The Children's Museum of Houston. As a recent immigrant it gave me the chance to find my feet in the city and make connections for the future. My main responsibility during this employment was managing the construction of a matching pair of this travelling exhibition.

I have written articles on woodworking subjects for many years. I enjoy writing for its own sake, and I also enjoy photography so it was a natural fit to combine these two interests with my profession as a furniture designer and maker. A further bonus, apart from the small additional income writing generates, is the chance to help other woodworkers develop their knowledge and skills.

I don't know why it happened but the very first article I wrote sold immediately to the first magazine I sent it to for editorial consideration. I had three or four more articles already written, or very nearly complete at that time, and this immediate success encouraged me to try selling those as well. They too were taken up almost straight away; some articles and other contributions to magazines sold so fast I lost track of who had purchased the rights to what. The consequence of this was that I unknowingly and mistakenly sold the same small contribution twice to two different publishers on the same continent within a month or two of each other, which is very bad form in publishing circles! I have never repeated that error.

All but one of the articles I have created have sold, sometimes two or three times to different publishers on different continents at different times. I guess I have just been lucky, and for some reason that I can't fathom, magazine editors like something about the way I write.

Published Journal/Magazine Articles

2009, October, How to Price Your Work for Profit, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 158
2006, December, Estimating for Furnituremakers. Is the Price Right? Woodwork, Issue 102
2004, August, Air dried vs. kiln dried: Notes from two continents. Woodwork, Issue 88
2004, March, Every rod tells a story, 2, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 86
2004, February, Every rod tells a story, 1, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 85
2003, December, A lot of front, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 83
2003, October, Walnut Whim, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 81
2003, July, Finishing in a Nutshell, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 78
2003, June, Oaken Sheen. (Colouring and polishing open grained woods) Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 77
2003, April, Finishing Open Grain: Two Woods, Two Approaches, Woodwork, Issue 80
2003, April, Bedded Bliss, Part 3, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 75
2003, March, Bedded Bliss, Part 2, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 74
2003, January l, And so to bed… Part 1. Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 72
2002, December, Building a Bed, Woodwork
2002, October, Designing a Bed, Woodwork
2001, October, Dining Table and Chair, Woodwork
2001, April, A Graceful Chest of Drawers, Woodwork
2000, First of its kind, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 41
2000, Small-scale dining, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 40
1999, Made to exhibit, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 25
1999, Extension Table, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Issue 24
2000, June, On the edge, The Woodworker
2000, May, Cut and dried?, The Woodworker
2000, January, Mortise and Tenon Primer, The Woodworker
2000, February, Dovetail Primer, The Woodworker
2000, March, Cabinet 73, The Woodworker
2000, February, Cabinet 73, The Woodworker
2000, February, Graceful Hall Table, Woodworker’s Journal
2000, January, A lesson in sharpening, Woodshop News
1999, At the cutting edge, The Woodworker, Volume 103, issue 8
1999, Selling yourself, The Woodworker, Volume 103, issue 6
1999, August, Catching the rip with big sliders, Woodshop News
Date unknown, Twist and rout, The Woodworker, Volume 103, issue 4
Date Unknown, Desk Job, The Woodworker, Volume 103, issues, 3 and 4
1999?, Routing dovetails, The Woodworker, Volume 103, issue 3
1998? Dovetails of the unexpected, The Woodworker, Volume 103, issue 2
1998, August, Double-twisted dovetail, Woodshop News