Doug Berch

Woodworker Qing made elaborately carved wooden bell stands.
When others saw the completed bell stands, they were startled and thought they must have been created by supernatural beings.
The Marquis of Lu saw one of them and asked: “What special art (artistic skill) do you have to be able to do this?”
He replied, “Your humble servant is [...]

Many instruments with flat tops and backs actually have some slight arching built into them. The arching ads stiffness and strength to the thin top and back.
On guitars the soundboard must not only create the sound of the instrument but it also must resist the tension of six strings. Traditional dulcimer designs usually employ the [...]

The other day I was thinking it would be nice to have a small and accurate table saw. I have a portable contractors saw that works well but I wanted a tool that had the feeling of solidity that only cast iron provides. An aluminum table might be great for a picnic but it feels [...]

This morning I posted about some wood I was going to resaw. Some of the wood shown in today’s earlier post has been resawn as well as a few other boards.
Some of the boards needed to be flattened before they could be resawn. For the ones with a lot of twist I prefer using a [...]

Most of the work I do involves light trimming, fitting and the shaping of parts. I prefer paring chisels for the precision, reach and control they offer.

I was lucky enough to find a few old Buck cranked and straight paring chisels at an antique mall a few years ago. These chisels are great for shaping [...]

I have mentioned before that I prefer working with hand tools. There are a number of reasons for this. A hand tool becomes an extension of my hand when working and I feel more intimately involved in the work. I get a sense of feedback from the wood and the tool letting me know what [...]

Many years ago I was playing a friends homemade fretless banjo and a young boy who was listening asked if I could also play a “real” banjo.
I told him that the banjo I was playing was real and if it wasn’t how could I possibly be playing it?
His response was something like “You know what [...]

Most photographs of craftsman’s benches in woodworking magazines look like they were staged. There is usually a plane or chisel, a discrete shaving or two, a project in a recognizable stage of construction and a level of cleanliness adequate for performing surgery.
I think my bench looks more like what most woodworkers and luthiers typically [...]

I fret dulcimers after the instrument is completely assembled. Some dulcimer makers fret the fingerboard before gluing it to the soundboard and have good results but I prefer to true up the fingerboard once I know the fretboard won’t move or warp during the construction process.
I use a long sanding block to sand the [...]

No, this is not about sanding hands. It’s about using your hands to sand.
There isn’t much new to say about hand sanding. The basics of sanding are very simple. Each progressively finer grit leaves scratches finer than it’s predecessor. Finer grits are used until the scratches left are no longer noticeable. In general one [...]