Thread: Recommendation for In-depth Woodworking book for a Galoot

Hi Thummie,
This book isn't on your list but you might pick it up around the traps second hand.
It is The Woodworker's Bible by Alf Martensson. Published by A &C Black, London 1979, ISBN: 0-7136-2685-2
It is well illustrated with lots of good quality photographs (b&w) and could be just what you are looking for.
Regards
SG

Hi T,
My birthday to recently, shouted myself to Tage Frid from FWW the set includes a DVD which is an interview style presentation a demos of his techniques, just great. The other aspect is this set is a how to on a wide range of tasks. Yes Tage uses power tools a lot but what interests me is the combination is intended to improve the process not detract from the joy of handtools.
Word of caution make sure you airmail otherwise you'll be a year older before you get it

Cheers
Mike

Any thing by Bern E Jones is hard to pass by.... If you can get a coppy.
I managed to get a blokes " second best coppy" at some cost.

I have lots of WW books and the best ones are the old ones...... some of the new ones are prety good too.

Old school based texts are excelent.

If you can get some Bern E Jones.... do it you wont regret.

cheers

Originally Posted by thumbsucker

Hi - My birthday is coming up and I am getting a book, my choice, so I am looking for a book with a focus on Construction Design and Joinery with a galoots perspective. I am relatively new to woodworking, and I have scoured the web, and even joined finewoodworking.com to get access to their articles, interesting but not much great detail.

The devil is in the detail.

I have been practicing dovetail, finger, and M&T joints on scraps, using nothing but some marking tools, a saw and some chisels, with some mixed results. Often I am simple struck by my lack of detailed knowledge. Like what is the best way of doing x at point b.

I need a book that show how to joint an apron to a leg in detail, carcass construction, how to clean up dovetails and finger joints and keep all the angles correct and square step by step, etc. etc. The focuses must be on the smallest detail.

At the moment I am trying to apply the motto "An ounce of practice equal's a pound of theory".

I am hoping to find a book that will give me the next best thing to having an experienced master craftsman by my side. A course book, with leason may even be nice. Also I am a galoot largely but space constraints and by my hatred for noise and dust and by my rather silly obsession of keeping my fingers attached to my hand, and my hand attached to the rest of me. So a book that focuses on hand tools, not routers, band-saws, table-saws etc. etc. is a must.

I have searched amazon and found a list of possible books:

• Encyclopedia of Furniture Making: Books: Ernest Joyce,Alan Peters - Some say it is to old - but maybe in my case it could be a good thing
• Modern Practical Joinery: A Treatise on the Practice of Joiner's Work by Hand and Machine, for the Use of Workmen, Architects, Builders, and Machinists: by George Ellis
• Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking: A step-by-step guidebook to essential woodworking techniques (Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking): Books: Tage Frid - allot of power tools in this one I have read.
• The Practical Woodworker (Paperback) by Bernard Edward Jones - This book was originally published as eight volumes in 1920.
• The Complete Woodworker (Paperback) by Jones Bernard (Author) - another very old book
• Then their are the Roy Underhill books - wich one is the most applicable to me I do not know.
• The Complete Manual of Woodworking (Paperback) by Albert Jackson (Author), David Day (Author)

Or maybe I should be going for very narrow books that are only on one topic. This one looks very detailed.

• The Complete Dovetail: Handmade Furniture's Signature Joint (Paperback)

However it would mean buying a book on carcass construction only and another on M&T only.

I have read a Krenov book that I loved, but not practical in detail. The David Charlesworth books are good but more ideas then a how to on fine furniture making.

This is my short list if anyone knows of better or can give me any pointers to the suitability of these books I would be most grateful.

Whilst not a book I found this site recently and it has a few how to's ,with good images .
Hopefully it will develop further with more how to's

FWIW, I reckon that Joyce's book should be in every woodworkers book shelf.

Suggestions above sound good, for what you describe you couldn't go far wrong having a look at this DVD on Build a Shaker table by Kelly Mehler. It takes you through step by step from selecting the wood to the final finished table and covers everything from making the legs, top, mortise and tenons and a lot more. Nothing better than actually seeing it done.

I bought it a while ago and still go back to it for a look every six months or so.

Originally Posted by soundman

If you can get some Bern E Jones.... do it you wont regret.

I'll second that.

By the sound of it you have already been hiting the book shops for some browsing - lucky you in Melbourne have 'the Technical Bookshop' which pulled out of Sydney a couple of decades ago.

THe FWW 'Complete Guide' series are pretty good, the first ones more than the later ones (missing & mixed up pictures, mixed up text). The one on joinery is the best, even tho' it repeats a lot of techniques - the organisation is based on what structure you want to build, then gives ways to achieve that, rather than giving the techniques once and referring back to them.

A really nice little book is Rodale's Illustrated Cabinetmaking - no photo's, just line art, exploded diagrams of lots of furniture, suggested scaling for all sorts of stuff and only a brief but pretty complete discussion of joinery techniques. Rodale is an imprint of Reader's Digest, so there is a bit of North American bias.

Originally Posted by javali

I'll second that.

The Practical Woodworker (Paperback) by Bernard Edward Jones looks like a real good deal.

Thanks. I am getting my hand on Encyclopedia of Furniture Making: Ernest Joyce,Alan Peters thanks to a kind benefactor.