#HTE

Tools & Craft #13: Coursework - Books You Can Learn From

I routinely get asked about what books I recommend for people trying to learn this or that. So I thought I would make a short list of the more important titles I stock in my store.

This list is about what I recommend for the first book I would give to someone on a specific subject. A lot of great books aren’t on this list. For example To Make as Perfectly as Possible is a great, great book, and I learned a lot from it, and eventually everyone should read it eventually, but it’s not a beginner’s book.

Joiner And Cabinet Maker. My book (sort of). The only book, ever, to teach woodworking from the pre-industrial age. The original text is from 1839, I wrote the historical commentary, Chris Schwarz built the the projects in the book and give a modern perspective on the construction which is very valuable. I might be biased, but the original 1839 text makes this one of the most important books on using and learning handtools I know of; it has the only narrative lessons I know of that teach woodworking and it is a very entertaining way of learning basic joinery. If you build the three projects in the book you will learn all the important skills of joinery and basic cabinetmaking.

By Hound & Eye: A Plain & Easy Guide To Designing Furniture With No Further Trouble. I recommend this book to counter a major skill deficit I constantly see: The inability to articulate a design, where you have it in your head but can’t draw it out. This book isn’t about capital-“D” Design, but instead covers the nuts and bolts of classic proportions, geometric construction, and finally putting together a workable design. I have always considered myself an experienced designer and a lot of the book for me seemed like review. But getting back to basics, and refreshing and practicing basic layout skills, helped me reconnect with the vocabulary of design.

The Essential Woodworker is a fairly short book that tries pretty successfully to distill all the important basic hand tool operations into a simple set of instructions. I am very glad to see it back in print and it’s a great book for learning about using hand tools from a modern context.

Whittling and Woodcarving I have owned a copy of this book since I was a boy. The projects range from trivial to really complicated. From the 1930’s it’s a great way for someone who is pretty tool friendly to start to learn to whittle and carve really cool stuff.

Woodworking in Estonia. This cult favorite was actually pirated and translated into English by the CIA in the 1960s! This new, authorized edition still has the same great info on green woodworking. Estonia still had an active greenwood tradition even after World War II, and the author traveled around Estonia documenting how people did this sort of work; it’s not a how-to, but a record of what people did, the tools they used, and how the work fit into the context of life. I am mostly interested in the tools, but the whole book has always been useful because it puts stuff in context. The text is a bit academic, but I’m thrilled by the insights provided by his sources.

Our reprinting of Paul Hasluck’s Carpentry and Joinery Illustrated brings back the most important book every written on traditional architectural woodworking. If you are remotely interested in the subject as a builder, restorer, or architect, this book is a real must have. This edition has a new introduction by Roy Underhill.

Dictionary of Woodworking Tools is the starting point for understanding the world of woodworking tools and the nuances that differentiate tool by their use and trade.

For purely mercenary reasons I’m only listing books we sell. There are a lot of great books out that that I would normally recommend, or that we used to stock, but they are out of print at the moment. Bernard Jone’s The complete woodworking is one of these books—and we hope to bring it back in print shortly.

Other good books we don’t stock—usually because either deep down I think another book we do stock is better, or because the book is so heavily discounted by our competitors a small vendor like ourselves cannot afford to tie up inventory in such a low margin item.