Last updated: October 18, 2026
This page explains how WoodworkIt chooses topics and researches, writes, checks and updates its content.
Our purpose
We publish guides about woodworking projects, tools, materials, techniques and workshop setup for hobby woodworkers, from first project to a well-equipped home shop. Our guides focus on explaining tools, wood and finishing materials, core techniques and shop safety for home woodworkers.
How we choose topics
We cover the questions our readers need answered to make a decision or finish a task. Each topic gets one main guide, so we do not publish several near-identical pages on the same question.
How we research
- We base our guides on tool manufacturers’ manuals and specifications, finish and adhesive manufacturers’ technical and safety data sheets, the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook, and workplace-safety resources such as OSHA and NIOSH.
- We separate facts, estimates and opinion. Facts and figures link to their source; estimates state their assumptions; opinions are labeled as our view.
- Where a guide covers safety, we link to the official source rather than restating it as our own advice, and we place warnings where readers will see them.
Research-based and hands-on content
Most of our guides are research-based: they compare published specifications, manuals and official guidance. If an article is based on our own hands-on use of a product, it says so and describes what we did. We never present research as personal experience.
What we do not do
- We do not invent test results, scores, star ratings, statistics, testimonials or reviews.
- We do not promise results, savings or performance that a source does not support.
- We do not publish hand-typed prices or “deal” claims, because they go out of date quickly.
- We do not accept payment, free products in exchange for coverage, or sponsored placements in our guides.
Safety-sensitive topics
Power tools, blades and bits can cause serious injury, and wood dust and some finishes are health hazards. Our guides do not replace the manufacturer’s manual for your tool. Use the guards, eye, hearing and respiratory protection the manual specifies, and never remove a safety device.
Affiliate relationships
We earn commissions from some links, as explained in our Affiliate Disclosure. Commissions never decide which products we include or how we describe them, and articles with affiliate links say so before the first link.
Updates and corrections
We review guides when products, specifications, rules or official guidance change, and we show the date a guide was last updated. Errors are handled as described in our Corrections Policy.