Product Review

Frame-and-panel construction is a fundamental strategy in woodwork, because it can accommodate woods inevitable seasonal expansion and shrinkage. In this DVD, Graham Blackburn tackles the basic frame. He explains the functions and design opportunities of stiles, rails, and muntins and shows you how to combine them into a frame. He also shows you how to think out the proportions of the frame parts and their relation to the panel they contain. Working with both classic hand tools and common woodworking machines, Blackburn joins his frame members with mortises and haunched tenons. He shows you how to get a perfect match between the mortises and the grooves that take the panel, and also demonstrates drawboring -- a traditional method of making tight joints in a frame, without glue. Blackburn discusses the benefits of various shapes to make your panel -- wider versus taller -- and orientation of the grain. He demonstrates how to feather, rabbet or raise the panel, and he shows you the merits of different design possibilities such as double-fielded panels, centrally beaded or reeded panels, carved and even painted panels. This video is a compilation of two Video Workshops: Frame and Panel 1: Making and Joining the Frame and Frame and Panel 2: Panel Raising.