Warning - Japanese Woodwork by Gideon Ellis

[27saxophone]

I was sorely disappointed by this. It was advertised on Amazon as:
"Everything you need to know about the origin and history of the beautiful art of Japanese woodworking
A complete list of all the tools and equipment you'll ever need and how to use them to make Japanese woodworking a breeze.
How to pick the perfect sharpening stone for keeping your cutting edges and blades as sharp as possible."


It is none of these. It is 42 pages of large font double-spaced text (with no illustrations), that could by my estimate have been condensed into 5 A4 pages with space at the end. There is nothing in here you could not obtain from skimming public domain blogs; and it specifically does NOT give you either a complete list of tools, nor does it advise on picking the perfect sharpening stone. I have not seen such an egregious example of misleading advertising since I watched late-night second-hand car commercials.

I don't have the credit to write this review on Amazon, and I'm not going to waste the postage sending it back. I'll keep it as a reminder not to trust Amazon.

Better luck to others.

[woodPixel]

?? Returns are free....

[dschumy]

I would imagine that returning it, would cost money, because the book is likely not damaged. Amazon is infamous for selling dodgy products - it is typically a very risky purchase no matter what you buy there. Even brand new automotive tools, made by known reputable brands, are often factory rejects, that some how end up on Amazon (instead of being trashed), without any mention by sellers that they're clearly rejects, that customers discover once they inspect them. Automotive tools are just one example of dodgy items sold on Amazon. Also be wary of any of Amazon's subsidiary companies, like Abebooks - there's similiar bad stories systematically happening with that website.

[woodPixel]

I think this is a very harsh judgement.

Amazon, as a company, are pure evil in many ways, but dumping factory seconds isn't something I've seen or heard.

IF they do, they are ruthless on on vendors who do dodgy crap and punish them severely.

The returns policy is straight forward: One returns it by doing a RA. A label is emailed and you post the item back.

The REAL evil is that these return items aren't (generally) checked - they are binned. Literally tossed into dumpsters*. Its obscene.

If one were to return clothing as it was not right for you, the wrong colour or you simply didn't like it... bin. IF you don't want the drill you bought?.... its returned and tossed. A perfectly good item is chucked.

There was a major furore in England over this. There were videos showing dozens of bins full of treasure from that day alone, at ONE Amazon centre. They now apparently auction these off and some people then resell the things on eBay/Gumtree etc.



On bad vendors - Amazon are very harsh. They charge back those returned items to their accounts AND the item isn't restocked. It can quickly break a vendor that is slightly dodgy. Anyone pulling a swiftie is mashed very quickly. Unfortunately the system is exploitable by vendors who know its weaknesses and are in-and-out in a week. Amazon are trying to do something to kill these vendors.


* the core reason is the socking system employed by amazon is a FIFO and "zero structure" system. Each shipment received is given a linear number and put next on the shelf, right next to the items that immediately proceeded it. It is very simple. The downside is that there is no "restockability". Singleton items waste time, space and effort. (I am happy to elaborate more, as I devised an identical system years before Amazon used it. It is fast, efficient, and offers a visual stock-take capacity. All businesses should use it).