During one visit to an art school, I saw a lot of things. But it was the French fry boxes that made my head hurt.

Scattered throughout the school were student works that clearly were furniture (i.e. you could sit upon them). Others clearly were art (they were just for looking at). But there were some pieces of work that defied categorization. In fact, at some point I started asking myself: "Hmmm. Is that thing art or garbage?"

Out by the loading dock was a weathered plank of wood propped up against the wall. It had some pieces of wood rudely attached to its backside. Was this a low bench? An art installation? Or a piece of trash waiting to be taken to the curb?

Out by the school's fountain was a pile of grease-stained White Castle French fry containers.

"Ah," I said. "Clearly this is garbage."

But once I got closer I saw the containers were attached. Was this a White Castle wind sock?

I find that pieces of so-called "studio furniture" can be a challenge to appreciate and enjoy. They challenge our perceptions of form, material and function. Truth be told, I quite like the stuff on the whole. I have several books from The Furniture Society on studio furniture and its makers that I always enjoy reading and browsing through.

But it would be foolish to think that studio furniture is a modern invention.

Though you might disagree with me, I think a piece of studio furniture has the following components. It is a piece of furniture that is both designed and built by an individual. And that person is trying to create a new style of furniture that stands apart from other historical forms.

James Krenov was likely the most famous of these makers. Art Carpenter, George Nakashima and Sam Maloof were all what I would call "studio makers."

And if you look at the history of furniture, you'll find studio furniture makers there such as Charles Rohlfs. Check out the quote from him on this page. How about William Morris? Nope. He wasn't a builder. Thomas Chippendale? I think yes. Thomas Sheraton or George Hepplewhite? Again, I think yes.

That got us to thinking: Who in history would be the earliest known studio furniture maker? We need a name (not just "caveman") and they have to be a known designer and builder.

— Christopher Schwarz

Congratulations to Randy Klein and his family for their portrayal of Norm Abram at all phases of his life, from a small mischievous boy up to a full-grown bearded woman (just kidding about that, Mr. Abram).

The Kleins won via universal acclaim for several reasons: Convincing an entire family to do something this crazy, and the looks on the kids' faces. We suspect the kids are all up to no good and we're glad to see safety glass on the whole lot.

The Kleins win a "New Yankee Workshop" coffee mug that is autographed by Norm Abram himself. Abram signed the mug for Publisher Steve Shanesy. Randy Klein has three choices: keep the mug as-is, rub off Steve's name or Randy can change his name to "Steve." We're also going to throw in a two-year subscription to either Popular Woodworking or Woodworking Magazine – just because we can.

We've posted some of our other favorites in a Flickr slideshow, which you can view here. Below are some of our favorite runners-up:

OK, we're suckers for kids dressed like Norm.

Three generations of Norm! Excellent.

This footwear isn't so good for the shop – no steel toes.

— Christopher Schwarz

Add this to your favorites: George Walker has launched a new blog on furniture design that will supplement his column that will appear in every issue of Popular Woodworking starting with the February 2010 edition. Both the column and the blog are called "Design Matters."

Walker is the host of the excellent DVD "Unlocking the Secrets of Traditional Design," a short and information-packed introduction to the world of using simple proportions to draw pleasing furniture.

We were so impressed with Walker after meeting him that we asked him to write a regular column for Popular Woodworking. He agreed. We also suggested that a blog might be a good way to amplify his points in his columns. And he agreed again.

Walker's first post, "Good Eye," suggests why people tend to like frame-and-panel doors with a bottom rail that is wider than the top rail. It's definitely worth reading.

— Christopher Schwarz

When woodworking magazines publish plans for a reproduction of an antique, we show you the details you need to construct a facsimile. We give you part sizes, joinery details and tips on how to perform the major operations in a modern shop.

But rarely do we give you the social, communal and historical context of a piece. We never try to investigate the original maker's intentions, or discuss his or her relationship to the neighbors, family or village.

So as a woodworker, it was both alarming and thrilling to read Robert Tarule's 2004 book, "The Artisan of Ipswich" (The Johns Hopkins University Press). This slim volume tries to capture the essence of everything important to 17th-century joiner Thomas Dennis as he built a chest for a client one November in his shop.

In this remarkable book, Tarule, a professional joiner, historian and former curator at Plimoth Plantation, takes a bird's eye view of one example of Dennis's work – a 47"-long lift-lid chest in oak with beautiful low-relief carvings. He begins the book with a bit of personal history to explain what led him down the curious path to reproducing 17th-century pieces for a living.

With his bona-fides established, Tarule begins to spin the tale of Ipswich, Mass., from its first mention in the historical texts to the time that Thomas Dennis settled there from England. Tarule's insights into Colonial Massachusetts are surprising (if you had a particularly sanitized view of Colonial history from school, as I seem to).

What you quickly realize is that one of the most important things in 17th-century America was access to wood – for fuel, tanning, fences, construction, cooperage, wheewrighting and joinery. In fact, wood turns out to be a sort of currency among the artisans. And the right to cut wood was the source of lawsuits, fines and revenge.

And so Tarule delves deeply into the topic of wood (oak, in particular). He contrasts how it grew and was managed in the coppices in England with its forms in the New World. And then he weaves the dendrology into the fabric of Ipswich society, explaining all the town's economic needs in terms of the wood.

As a joiner, Dennis needed particular kinds of wood for his work. So Tarule takes us into Dennis's head as he searches the forest for the trees he needs, and he and a helper split the wood and as he prepares it for the chest (now in the hands of the Ipswich Historical Society).

Tarule obviously spent many hours studying this chest to try to tease out Dennis's intentions. He uses every dimension, every knot and every stray tool mark to suss out how this chest was built and the mental processes Dennis employed to design the chest and organize the material to build it.

Because Tarule himself works this way (see his work at his Heart of the Wood web site), you can see that Tarule has faced the same decisions as he rived out the panels he needed for his own chests. And so the voice that Tarule gives to Dennis rings entirely true to me.

For the skilled woodworker, this book won't teach you anything about how to cut a tenon or a mortise, but it will show you how to change your methods to match the goals of a 17th-century joiner. The book won't give you precise part sizes that you can plug into your rip fence on your table saw, but it will show you how to use your material at hand to make adjustments as you go, and to sort out what is important and what is not.

But most of all, "The Artisan of Ipswich" will give you a deep appreciation for the work of 17th-century joiners and to see their pieces in a new light.

— Christopher Schwarz

After 21 seasons, "The New Yankee Workshop" is closing its doors, and its much-beloved host, Norm Abram, is going to focus on his personal projects and PBS's "This Old House," according to Russ Morash, executive producer and director of "The New Yankee Workshop."

"Norm has done this for 20 years, and he thought it time to step back and do a little less," Morash said in a phone interview. "And because the show was so tied to him, we didn't want to replace him."

There has been lots of speculation among fans of the show and the woodworking press that the show was looking for someone to take the reins when Abram left. But Morash said he didn't think that would be a good idea.

"Comparisons would be inevitable (between Abram and a new host)," Morash said.

The decision to stop production of new episodes of "The New Yankee Workshop" was a mutual decision between Morash Associates Inc. and WGBH Boston, Morash said. But that doesn't mean that "The New Yankee Workshop" is gone forever.

A spokesman from WGBH declined on Tuesday to comment on the matter.

The show's web site, newyankee.com, will continue to operate. And Morash foresees putting shows or segments from the show on the Internet in a "You Tube-like situation" so future generations could enjoy and learn from Abram.

Morash also noted that Abram may some day change his mind and want to crank up "The New Yankee Workshop" again.

"Who can predict the future?" Morash said. "He may want to do this again."

In the meantime, Abram will continue to work on "This Old House," and his own personal projects, both building furniture and improving his house.

When asked why Abram chose to stop working on "The New Yankee Workshop" instead of "This Old House," Morash laughed.

"'This Old House' is a much easier deal," he said. "Norm actually had to work on 'The New Yankee Workshop.' It was a lot of work. And I certainly respect his decision to step back."

With the loss of new woodworking programming from "The New Yankee Workshop," many bloggers and woodworking writers are wondering if the craft itself is on the decline or if TV woodworking shows are no longer viable.

"My own view is that broadcast is dead," Morash said. "That's my personal take on it. Newspapers are dead. And print is dying. The only hope is the Internet. And it's my hope that you'll see lots  of Norm on the Internet in the future."

And what about the craft itself? Is that swirling around the drain?

"No. There is a fundamental human need to build," Morash said. "People will always want to polish their craftsmanship."

The other question is what's going to happen to the shop itself, which is stocked with all manner of machines and hand tools. Morash said he's personally looking forward to some free time so he can build a few things in the shop. As for the long-term plans for the shop, Morash suggested that the shop could be put on display at the Smithsonian.

"It could be like Julia Child's kitchen," Morash said, "which I'm told is one of the most popular exhibits there. Who wouldn't want to visit Norm's shop?"

— Christopher Schwarz

Toolmaker Ron Hock has a new book coming out soon and a new blog – both deal with sharpening. I had the privilege of reading the draft of the book, "The Perfect Edge" (Popular Woodworking Books), earlier this year. I think Ron has broken some new ground, especially on the topic of abrasives.

Until the book comes out, I recommend you check out his new blog, called "The Sharpening Blog." He's got two posts up now, with more to come. His latest post is the biggest list of sharpening links on the Internet that I have ever seen. Heck, there is stuff there that I haven't seen.

Ron wisely also looked to the sites run by knife makers in his list. If you think woodworkers are nutty about sharpening, get strapped in for a whole new nut.

After scanning the list of links, I concluded that if you read every one of those pages you would end up more confused than anything. And that's why I think Ron's book will be handy for you. It's not preachy (Ron is probably the nicest guy in woodworking). But it is well-written and quite engaging.

And if you want to learn more about the book, check out this interview with Ron on our site.

This month I'm finishing up work on a new book called "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker" that is a bit unusual. You can read full details about it on my personal web site, but the quick over-the-back-fence summary is this:

A couple years ago, Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood stumbled on a virtually forgotten 1839 book that tells the fictional tale of a young apprentice and how he learns the skills to become a journeyman woodworker. We're republishing the original text, plus Joel is adding a chapter that will be a "History Channel"-style snapshot of England in 1839. I built the three projects featured in the book using hand tools and explored many of the techniques discussed in the book.

In the course of the book, Thomas, the young hero of the story, builds three projects: a packing box, a school box and a full-fledged chest of drawers. The projects are well-built and nicely proportioned. But what is more remarkable is the small tool kit he uses to build these three projects.

I kept a running list of the tools Thomas used throughout the book, and I am almost embarrassed now by the number of tools I have in my toolbox (no, I won't send my tools to you. I'm embarrassed – not crazy). For anyone who is interested in getting into handwork, I hope you'll find this list comforting.

Marking & Measuring Tools
Try square
Chalk line
2' Folding rule
Marking gauge
Panel gauge
Wooden straightedge
Marking knife

Saws
Handsaw
Sash saw
Dovetail saw
Bowsaw

Planes
Jack plane
Trying plane
Smoothing plane
Rabbet plane
Plow plane

Other Tools
Bench chisels
1/4" Mortising chisel
Mallet
Hammer
Nailset
Bradawl
Brace and bits
Turnscrew
File
Steel plate (for clinching and straightening nails)

Shopmade Appliances
Sawbenches
Shooting board
Bench hook

If I had to add any one tool to this list, it would probably be a router plane. It's also worth noting that the book doesn't really get into mouldings, so most woodworkers would want to add a few moulding planes as well.

Building these three projects with a limited set of tools was a bit like going on a primitive camping trip. I was happy to return to civilization and fire up the table saw, powered jointer and planer for my next project. But I'm also dreaming of the day when I get to work like that again.

— Christopher Schwarz

Don Williams is like a shark in a clown suit. He'll bite you in half while you are laughing.

During his presentation at Woodworking in America last weekend, I am quite sure that he destroyed the assumptions about pre-industrial woodworking of many of us in the room. And he did it with jokes, amazing slides and a smooth delivery.

His talk was far-ranging, and in the end it was like a Freakanomics lecture. He convinced me that 19th-century public health efforts are what ultimately led to the near-complete domination of machines in woodworking. But for me to explain that point would take more words than a blog entry should deliver. So let me just give you a taste.

One of the assumptions of many moderns is that powered woodworking machinery was an invention of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. That before that point, there were no machines and that woodworkers would go off to their shops and "commune with the wood" while they slowly crafted their masterpieces with hand tools, Williams said.

The truth, he said, is much different.

The first powered saw, a reciprocating up-and-down saw powered by water, appears in Augsburg, German in 1337. He showed us a photo of a reconstructed version of the machine, which they called a water-powered sash saw.

Gang saws that slice an entire tree into slabs in one pass appear in the 1750s. Circular saws were not invented by the Shakers, Williams said. He has evidence that circular saws were in use circa 1575, probably in Holland and drived by windmills. And circular saws were widely in use by the 1750s. (He showed us a Spear and Jackson catalog from 1791 that was offering circular saws.)

And Williams then took us on a tour of all the other major woodworking machines and their appearance in the historical record, including planers, jointers, drill presses, dovetailing machines, double-tenoners and on and on. All were pretty much up and running by the 18th century.

This small bit of his lecture was extremely helpful to me as a furniture maker. I'm making a reproduction of a Shaker side table from the White Water, Ohio, community and was completely vexed by the top of the table. I inspected the table completely for tool marks to try to suss out how the table was made. But some tool marks on the underside of the top led me to think that the top was a replacement. But the rest of the tool marks on the top suggested to me that the top was original and the joinery to attach it was done with a saw and rabbeting plane.

With Williams's scholarship, I think it's OK for me to reproduce the table as it is now. There's a good possibility that the lumber could have been sawn and planed by machinery.

And that was worth the price of admission.

— Christopher Schwarz, photo by Narayan Nayar

Southern furniture has always fascinated me, most likely because I've spent the vast majority of my life eating grits below the Mason-Dixon line.

For many years, Southern furniture was unknown or ignored until organizations such as the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts opened its doors. Of course, Southerners have always known about their furniture, but we've always been a little ashamed of it, as much of it was produced with abhorrent slave labor.

There are some great books on the topic, such as "Southern Furniture 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection," which is a fairly pricey tome but filled with great photos.

Recently I revisited two of my books on Charleston furniture while I was visiting my dad's place down there. These two books are widely available new, used and through inter-library loan (a great way to sample a book before you buy it). Here's a quick look at them.

"Charleston Furniture 1700-1825" by E. Milby Burton. This book was originally published in 1955 and was a groundbreaking work in its day. Burton, a long-time director of the Charleston Museum, had access to a wide range of documents and original pieces to assemble this book.

The book is as much a history of the town and its cabinetmakers as it is a book about the furniture. Fully half of the book is a survey of the different shops that were operating in the town at the time. Interesting, yes, but not too useful to the woodworker.

What is useful are the photos of the pieces themselves (which are unattributed to their makers) and some of the excellent discussion of some of the Southern woods used in these pieces. I really must get my hands on some red bay (Persea borbonia) to try some time.

There also are some nice hand-drawn elevations of some significant pieces of furniture, most likely that of Thomas Elfe. But there is precious little information on measurements and the like.

Also interesting are the close-up photos of the carving details. The rice leaf carvings on Charleston furniture are among my favorite details. A limited preview of this book is available on Google Books.

"Thomas Elfe: Cabinetmaker" by Samuel Humphrey. Written 40 years after Burton's work, this book is one of my favorites on Southern furniture. Humphrey is a woodworker, so the text, photos and drawings are all very useful. There are measured drawings of many of Elfe's most significant pieces, plus details of his famous fretwork pattern (which I really must make some day).

This book puts to rest any doubt that Elfe (plus his employees and slaves) were anything less than world-class builders and designers. Though Elfe is clearly influenced by Thomas Chippendale's work, his work has a distinct flavor.

If you are a die-hard enthusiast of Southern furniture, both books are well worth owning. However, if you had to choose one, pick up a copy of Humphrey's book and prepare to be charmed.

— Christopher Schwarz

This is just a quick reminder that the pre-sale price of $27.99 for our new “Handplane Essentials” book ends Friday night. After Friday the price will be $34.99 and the book will not be discounted again from us until January 2010.

Also good to know: This book is shipped free anywhere in the United States.

Last week I reviewed the printer’s proofs of the book, and we’re pleased with the quality. The paper is nice – like the paper we use in Woodworking Magazine – and the photo reproduction is crisp. We also reviewed the book’s hardbound cover, and the quality there is also excellent.

The book should be bound and in our warehouse sometime next week.

If you haven’t heard about the book, here are the details: "Handplane Essentials" aims to get you started using this iconic woodworking tool.

Inside is the knowledge you need to choose the right handplanes for your shop, set them up correctly and put them to use building furniture for a lifetime. “Handplane Essentials” contains everything you need to choose the right tool for your budget and project, take it out of the box, sharpen it and use it successfully. The chapters in this book have been compiled from more than 10 years of my writings on the subject of handplanes in magazines, trade journals and blogs.

And it's a sizable book – 312 pages. The hundreds of photos in the book have been sepia-toned, just like the photos in Woodworking Magazine. The book is hardbound, covered in black cloth with a copper embossing and a heavy full-color dust jacket. And – best of all – the book is produced and printed entirely in the United States. Here's what you'll find inside:

Basics
Learn what the different handplanes are used for. Decode their crazy numbering system so you can focus instead on what each tool does. And figure out what specific planes you need in your shop.

Sharpening
Learning to hone your cutters to a keen edge is the secret to getting your planes to work. “Handplane Essentials” shows you how to get this done no matter what sort of sharpening system you use now.

Techniques
Learn how to flatten individual boards, panels and even enormous tabletops with just a few bench planes. Learn to use specialty planes to cut grooves, rabbets and other joints.

History & Philosophy
If you understand historical practice, you’ll be a better handplane user – even if you choose to reject the traditional methods. Learn to pick a well-made old tool based on how it is made.

Reviews
Find out who makes the best high-quality tool, whether it’s a $50 plane from India or a $5,000 plane custom-made by a machinist in Scotland. I've tried them all.

Click here to pre-order the book from our store.

— Christopher Schwarz

When I was in Charleston, S.C., last week one of the tour guides said something about cabinetmaker Thomas Elfe that stuck with me.

"Most of his work is buried in the ground."

One of the primary jobs of early joiners and cabinetmakers was building coffins, and these projects have always fascinated me. Frank Klausz built plenty of coffins in his native Hungary. Chinese woodworkers make coffins out of one single log, like a dugout canoe. And they're illegal.

And one of our former illustrators, John McCormick, tried to go into business selling inexpensive pine coffins that functioned as bookshelves up until the time you needed them for your earthly remains.

And today the New York Times published an interesting story about the rise of home funerals and featured the work of a Maine woodworker who builds coffins that double as almost Ikea-like bookshelves. (Honestly, the bookshelves built by our illustrator years ago were uber-creepy. "Yes, I decorated this room in the Early Elvira Style.")

As I get older, however, the idea of building my own coffin appeals to me. I couldn't imagine paying $6,000 for a commercially-made highboy while I'm alive, so why should I ask my family to shell out those big bucks for a coffin after I'm gone?

Of course, I know what my wife will say.

"You'll never have it done in time."

— Christopher Schwarz

I need to correct a grave error.

In January I published a list of my favorite woodworking writers, but I neglected to include my all-time dearest – probably because her work should be shipped in a plain brown wrapper.

If you are Canadian, then you can probably guess who I am talking about: Mag Ruffman. She was the host of the "Anything I Can Do" show in Canada that featured wistful, gauzy shots of Ruffman driving through the country, taunting the viewer with ribald puns and sawing through boards in a romantic barn while working behind a Veritas workbench.

Oh, and she also played Olivia Dale in "Road to Avonlea," which ran for seven seasons on television.

Though some might say that technically Ruffman is a home-improvement writer, I say to that: But her writing is so titillating. Recently I read a selection of her book "How Hard Can it Be?" out loud in the office, which is why I'm now scheduled for some sensitivity training with our human resources department.

That book is truly one of the funniest books I own. It might be the only home-improvement/woodworking book with a nude bath scene (and thank goodness, really. I'm not sure we're ready as a society to see Norm Abram buck naked. Well, I know I'm not).

Here's a quick G-rated excerpt about building rustic furniture from her book.

You can start creating your own romantic idyll with a few twigs and 2 x 4s. In fact, this is a great project for those new to woodworking because it's "rustic," meaning that even if your results fall somewhere between monstrous and butt ugly, you still rock.

If people criticize your garden screen, laugh mockingly, and say, "It's rustic, man. It's a choice." Then try limping a little when you walk away, so they realize that things haven't always been this easy for you.

Ruffman's work on Canadian television actually was our inspiration behind our "I Can Do That" column in Popular Woodworking, which features projects you can build with hand-held tools and no workshop. And in fact, I put Ruffman on the cover of Popular Woodworking in February 2002.

She built us a potty cabinet (that matches her mouth…), and it is the single most entertaining story we have published in the magazine since I started work here in 1996. Reader response was tremendous. I received letters from readers who said they read the thing out loud to their entire family multiple times. I've tried to get Ruffman back in our pages a couple times, but our schedules haven't worked out.

So Mag, if you're out there and want some work, if your poutine funds are running low, drop me a line.

In the meantime, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of "How Hard Can it Be?" from a bookseller and check out her ToolGirl.com blog, which features some of her older projects and details on what she's building, fixing or writing about these days.

— Christopher Schwarz

"While plaining at my bench, my whole soul was enshrouded with a mantle of tribulation; but I kept on at my plaining, & soon it appeared to me that my plain began to go with less physical force or exertion on my part than usual. It moved more & more easily until it seemed that I had to hold on to the tool, in order to keep it from moving itself."

Look around your neighborhood. The next time you see a truck belonging to a contractor or cabinetmaker, there’s a good chance that the company uses a handplane in its logo.

Though the image of a plane is the mark of the craftsman, there are few craftsmen who really know how to use the tool. Has this knowledge been lost? Are the tools simply obsolete?

The truth is that neither statement is true. The handplane is the most advanced and cunning wood-cutting tool ever invented, and it has yet to be surpassed by anything with a power cord. After World War II, handplanes began to disappear from shops because we traded speed for skill and expediency for quality.

But now the pendulum is swinging the other way. Modern toolmakers have revived the planemaking industry and are turning out quality tools the like of which haven’t been sold for 100 years. Woodworkers are discovering that these tools are fast, satisfying to use and produce remarkably crisp work.

"Handplane Essentials" aims to get you started. Inside these pages is the knowledge you need to choose the right handplanes for your shop, set them up correctly and put them to use building furniture for a lifetime. “Handplane Essentials” contains everything you need to choose the right tool for your budget and project, take it out of the box, sharpen it and use it successfully. The chapters in this book have been compiled from more than 10 years of my writings on the subject of handplanes in magazines, trade journals and blogs.

And it's a sizable book – 312 pages – and printed on high-quality paper. The hundreds of photos in the book have been sepia-toned, just like the photos in Woodworking Magazine. The book is hardbound, covered in black cloth with a copper embossing and a heavy full-color dust jacket. And – best of all – the book is produced and printed entirely in the United States. Here's what you'll find inside:

Basics
Learn what the different handplanes are used for. Decode their crazy numbering system so you can focus instead on what each tool does. And figure out what specific planes you need in your shop.

Sharpening
Learning to hone your cutters to a keen edge is the secret to getting your planes to work. “Handplane Essentials” shows you how to get this done no matter what sort of sharpening system you use now.

Techniques
Learn how to flatten individual boards, panels and even enormous tabletops with just a few bench planes. Learn to use specialty planes to cut grooves, rabbets and other joints.

History & Philosophy
If you understand historical practice, you’ll be a better handplane user – even if you choose to reject the traditional methods. Learn to pick a well-made old tool based on how it is made.

Reviews
Find out who makes the best high-quality tool, whether it’s a $50 plane from India or a $5,000 plane custom-made by a machinist in Scotland. I've tried them all.

The book is now in stock. The cost is $34.99, and shipping is free.

To read more or place your order, click here. To download an excerpt of the book in pdf format, the link below.

2-CoarseMediumFine.pdf (3.16 MB)

— Christopher Schwarz

Before Mike Wenzloff became a professional sawmaker, he was a furniture maker. Before that he was in graphic design. Before that? An almost-minister. And before that? Fetus? Nope. Logger.

But through all those professions I have no doubt that Wenzloff has always been a  bit of a troublemaker. And when a professional journalist calls you a troublemaker, it is a high compliment.

So it is with particular pleasure that I announce to you that Wenzloff has launched a blog so he can spread his thoughts on saws, woodworking and who knows what else.

So please visit his blog. Leave a comment. Encourage him to write more. Wenzloff is one of those guys that once you get him started, you can just stand aside.

Visit the Sick Monkey Saw Works Blog here.

Read a profile I wrote of Wenzloff here.

— Christopher Schwarz

The 1830s marked one of the pivotal moments in the history of American furniture. As the country took its first steps toward industrializing, tastes in everything – from architecture to clothing to design – took a turn for the radical.

In fact, some historians say that this moment is when our world transformed from a culture based on wood to one based on metal (and later synthetics).

In the Autumn 2009 issue we visit this important decade to tie together several interesting threads of information that we think will make you a more thoughtful craftsman, designer and (perhaps) person. Here are some of the highlights of the issue. If you subscribe by July 3, you'll be sure to receive this issue in your mailbox.

The 1839 School Box
Thanks to some industrious digging by a book collector, we uncovered a fascinating work of fiction that chronicled the life of an apprentice joiner in 1839 England. The most intriguing part of the book is that it includes plans for three projects with detailed instructions. Build these three projects and you'll have an excellent foundation in hand joinery. In this issue, we present the school box featured in the book.

Review: Carcase Saws
Should carcase saws even exist? Peter Nicholson's 1832 masterwork "The Mechanic's Companion" makes no mention of saws that have a special crosscut tooth like the one featured on carcase saws. It seems that this saw was developed sometime later. We review the current crop of carcase saws and discuss the development of "fleam," which makes a rip tooth into a crosscut saw.

Working Across the Grain
Most woodworkers avoid surfacing a board across the grain, whether they are holding a belt sander, a sanding block, a scraper or a jack plane. Why is this? We probe into the history of this type of operation and tell you why you should take a cue from the 1837 Skinner patent for a veneer slicer.

Also in the Issue:
Shop Built Layout Tools
For centuries, woodworkers made their own squares and straightedges. We want to revive that tradition and show you how easy it is to make accurate, lightweight tools.

Finishing Recipes: Turpentine or Mineral Spirits?
Turpentine – made from tree sap – is the traditional thinner. Besides the smell, is there any real difference between it and mineral spirits? We investigate and share the inexpensive homemade finish we use in our shop.

White Water Shaker Village
We pay a visit to the mostly unknown White Water Shaker Village, which is in the beginning stages of restoration. We share photos of never-before-seen furniture pieces and probe the mindset of the builders of these circa 1830 structures.

Plus, Shortcuts, Letters and the Back Cover, which shows you some layout tricks you've never seen before.

To get four issues of Woodworking Magazine for $19.96, click here.

— Christopher Schwarz

The newest DVD from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, "Unlocking the Secrets of Traditional Design," is the most information-packed, lucid and mind-expanding 68 minutes of woodworking footage I've ever watched.

Using simple images, dividers and basic ideas, George Walker delivers a compelling crash course in how to develop furniture designs using basic shapes (squares, circles and rectangles), simple ratios and concepts such as symmetry, contrast and punctuation.

He also delves deeply into the so-called "column orders" that some architects and designers used to proportion their work. These five orders can help you scale the plinth, case or pediment of your work so the result is pleasing to the eye.

And while all these concepts sound like they are reserved for designing period furniture, Walker makes a strong case that furniture of any style can use basic shapes and proportions that will result in a harmonious composition.

To prove his point, Walker designs a chest of drawers on camera. The left half he designs in a period style; the right half he designs in what he calls a "studio" style of furniture. At the conclusion of his demonstration, I was completely convinced.

But before you can begin to design furniture using these concepts, Walker insists (and rightly so) that you should train your eye to recognize these shapes and proportions in other work and in nature.

And so Walker demonstrates how these proportions apply to examples of traditional furniture and shows you how to explore a photo or drawing using dividers so you can unlock the proportional system used by the piece's designer.

He then takes these same ideas of proportion and explores a piece of reproduction furniture that is clearly a masterpiece of harmonious design.

One of the best parts of the DVD (in my opinion) is when Walker explains the use of symmetry, contrast and punctuation in design – I've never seen it explained so well.

This is a DVD that bears repeated viewings. Walker presents a wealth of information. And though it is dispensed in a simple, easy-to-understand style, there is too much to take in during one viewing.

To help you digest the lessons, the DVD comes with an eight-page cheat sheet you can print out on the column orders (it will help to have that on your lap as you watch), plus a nicely done glossary so you can remember the difference between a die and a frieze.

And I would be remiss if I didn't also comment on the excellent production values of this DVD. It is a lot like watching an episode of NOVA on PBS, with lucid animations, nice set pieces with excellent props and some intimate time at the drafting table.

The DVD is $25 and is available from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you like this DVD and Walker's work, I have a bit of good news for you. Starting in February 2010, Walker will be writing a regular column on design for Popular Woodworking – a long overdue topic for us to explore in breadth and detail. Ah, and lest I forget the "full discosure" part of this e-mail: I have hosted five DVDs produced by Lie-Nielsen, but I have never received a penny from any toolmaker. All my proceeds go to charity (the EAIA and the Roger Cliffe Fund). And I have purchased all my Lie-Nielsen tools as well (no freebies here).

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After being in and out of print during the last several years, David Finck's "Making & Mastering Wood Planes" is finally available for sale again directly from the author.

This 192-page, full-color book isn't just for the person who wants to build handplanes based on the designs of James Krenov. I read this book when it first came out and was impressed by how much Finck focused on the mechanics of the tools – things that apply to planes no matter what materials they are made of.

Reading this book will help you understand what makes a plane work well. And building one of the planes in this book (using Finck's clear instructions) is a superb lesson in understanding handplanes. The simple act of making a plane will unlock tricks and secrets of the manufactured tools.

More than half the book is focused on using planes in your work: How to hold your stock. How to use the planes to dimension and surface wood. How to use jigs and aids to make your work more accurate. This section also applies to all plane users. Planes used for smoothing a carcase side work essentially the same – no matter if they are made of steel, bronze or wood.

When this book was in print, it was the primary book I recommended for people who actually wanted to use planes in their work. I had to stop recommending it when it fell out of print and became expensive on the used market. But now I can restate my affection for this title: If you like to use planes – and not just look at pretty pictures of them – this is a must-have book for your library.

Read more about the book (and buy it for $24.95) at David Finck's web site.

— Christopher Schwarz

Robert Giovannetti – aka The Tattooed Woodworker – has just posted a lengthy and insightful interview with Thomas Lie-Nielsen, the founder of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. I've known Thomas for a long time and I learned quite a few things from the article.

You'll get answers to these interesting questions:

1. Why the company stopped making the No. 9 miter plane in bronze.
2. What are the new tools on the immediate horizon for the company.
3. Which tool in his line-up is "the most underrated."

Check it out here. It's a good read.

— Christopher Schwarz


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Here at Woodworking Magazine, we plan each issue in the same way we build furniture – to last forever.

Every issue is filled with techniques that have been tested by our own hands and by time. Every project has classic lines so they'll look as good in 100 years as they do today.

And so you can keep this information forever, we bind the issues into a handsome hardbound edition that will protect and preserve these articles for years to come. We're just about to receive our newest book, which contains Issues 8 through 12, and we're offering a special pre-order discount.

If you order the "Woodworking Magazine Hardbound Edition, Vol. II," by April 30, the price is only $19.99. That's 20 percent off the regular price of $24.99. To get the 20 percent discount, use this coupon code: WWMGV220.

The 192-page book contains issues 8 through 12 exactly as published. The text and photos are printed on paper that's heavy and bright. The book is hardbound with a red cloth cover with the magazine's name stamped in gold. Plus, there's a full-color dust jacket.

Here are some of the highlights from these five issues:

• The Holtzapffel Workbench. This 19th-century cabinetmaker's workbench features a wooden twin-screw face vise and a quick-release end vise. It is an ideal bench for dovetailing and building furniture.

• How to Use a Handsaw. Most people have difficulty sawing because they are using the wrong tool and the wrong technique. We explain the differences among the saws and the 10 techniques we use for accurate sawing.

• Better Ways to Build a Chest. When people build chests, they usually make it harder than it has to be. We explain a traditional technique to build chests that requires less wood, less work and less fussing.

• Test of Sliding Bevel Gauges. Most bevel gauges stink because they don't lock down hard enough. We review new and vintage bevel gauges and find the ones that work best.

Be sure to order before April 30 to get the discounted price. To get the 20 percent discount, use this coupon code: WWMGV220. Click here to order.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you'd like to do a little time traveling on your lunch hour today, I've got just the ticket. Head over to Gary Robert's Toolemera Press site and download (for free) "Charles Hayward Looks Back To The Seamy Side."

No, you won't get in trouble with your boss or your spouse. It's very much rated G.

These articles from 1981 and 1982 are Charles Hayward's recollections of shop life in England before 1914. Hayward, the legendary woodworking editor and author, wrote and illustrated many of the classic texts that still serve me today, including "Woodwork Joints" and "Tools for Woodwork." (Both are out of print but available used.)

But before he became an author, Hayward was an apprentice and a professional cabinetmaker in a colorful shop that built new furniture, performed repairs and made new furniture look like really old furniture (yes, that's a nice way of saying he made fakes).

The shop was populated by all manner of amusing characters, which Hayward describes in great detail. Plus there's a drunken girl fight, dangerous machine shops and snooty butlers.

It's a fun piece to read and probably will make you glad that:

1. You were not born as Pongo the shop boy.

2. That you do woodworking as a hobby, and not as a career in 1914 England.

Download the article (in pdf format) by clicking here.

— Christopher Schwarz


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Robert Giovannetti of the Cherry Creek Woodworks blog (the guy with the Lie-Nielsen tattoo and a Schwarz-sized bench fetish) has done a nice interview with Ron Hock of Hock Tools.

Despite Ron's youthful appearance, I consider him to be one of the grandfathers of the recent explosion of custom toolmakers. Ron started his business by making plane blades for James Krenov's students. Then it grew into providing replacement blades for Stanley planes. In fact, one of the first things I did after I bought my first Stanley jack plane was to buy a Hock blade. It's good stuff.

In any case, you can learn lots about how Ron got started in the business and why he does what he does over at Cherry Creek. It's definitely worth a visit.

— Christopher Schwarz

Editor’s note: Joel Moskowitz is the owner of ToolsforWorkingWood.com, a long-time woodworker, tool collector and book collector. He has the largest woodworking library I’ve ever encountered. During the last few weeks, the magazine’s staff has been asking people for their lists of favorite woodworking books. The results have been very interesting – we’ve even encountered a few books we’re not aware of.

Below is Joel’s list. Well, actually a couple lists. Joel’s an over-achiever.

— Christopher Schwarz

Woodworking Books in Print

Here are some book lists. I know the second I send this off, I will think of other titles that should be included. It’s hard to limit yourself to 10 or 20 “Must Have Titles” on anything. Because I love books, I have hundreds of books in my collection. Some are a learning experience on every page, some are useless but popular in their day, and others are beautiful to look at, but turgid to read. The books listed below are at least a good place for anyone to start. I prefer information that isn’t dumbed down, so my favorites mostly are books that try to talk to me like an adult, expect I’m not an idiot and are comprehensive in professional technique.

This first list is of stuff in print that we mostly stock at ToolsforWorkingWood.com and I recommend to everyone.

"Whittling and Woodcarving" by E. J. Tangerman. My first book on woodworking and still one of my favorites. Best of all: Lots of the samples of carving come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are still on exhibit.

"The Encyclopedia of Furniture Making" by Ernest Joyce. I have an older edition but it’s a great overall resource on different approaches to making furniture the modern way. Great for figuring out the details of a design; that is, how to do stuff.

"Woodcarving Tools, Materials & Equipment (New Edition), Vol. 1" by Chris Pye. Pye is a great writer and a master carver. The book is a wonderful read, inspiring and systematic.

"The Marquetry Course" by Jack Metcalfe and John Apps. The best book on learning marquetry that’s in print at the moment.

"Modern Practical Joinery" by George Ellis. I recommend this book for anyone doing restoration on architectural woodworking. Not as good as Hasluck, but at least it’s in print.

"Modern Cabinet Work" by Percy A. Wells & John Hooper. A recent reprint; it’s not as good as Bernard Jones, but it’s worth having.

"Dictionary of Woodworking Tools" by R. A. Salaman. Anyone who is even remotely interested in tools should have this book.

"Illustrated Cabinetmaking" by Bill Hylton. A (relatively) new book. I think the drawings are great and it covers a lot of modern-built stuff.

"Japanese Woodworking Tools" by Toshio Odate. The only book on Japanese tools in English worth having. It’s a classic. It explains tons of stuff, and I’ve had a hardcover edition since it came out.

"How to Construct Rietveld Furniture" by Reter Drijver and Johannes Niemeijer. If you like modern furniture that’s easy to build, you can’t go wrong here. It features 1920s modern furniture from the original drawings of a great designer. Simple, classic stuff. The stuff is a lot more comfortable than it looks.

Out of Print and Odd Books

The following books are out of print or expensive, but I think they are some of the best around for their respective subjects. I’ve left off a lot of favorites that are better known, such as Andre Roubo’s works, and included books that I found important to me – even if they’re not directly woodworking related. (I could generate another, different list: the most important books in the history of woodworking. And another list: the most important books on historical woodworking practice.)

"Building the Georgian City" by James Ayres. A tour-de-force that puts the entire construction and woodworking of the period in context.

"China at Work" by Rudolf P. Hommel. Really interesting from an anthropological point of view.

"The Complete Woodworker, Vol. 1" and "The Practical Woodworker, Vol. 2" by Bernard Jones. Probably the best books on hand tool practice out there. A recent reprint is out of print, but easy to get. Volume 1 is essential. Volume 2 is nice to have.

"Notes from the Turning Shop" and "Further Notes from the Turning Shop" by Bill Jones. Fun-to-read books that are very inspiring and can teach you a lot about getting stuff done. Jones is the last of the professional ivory turners and knows what he is doing.

"The Woodwright’s Shop" by Roy Underhill. Roy was a big inspiration for me.

"Marquetry" by Pierre Ramond. A fabulous book on marquetry. Not a great book for beginners, but it features tons of how-to details on advanced subjects.

"Watchmaking" by George Daniels. One of the best books on craft ever written. It makes you want to build a watch.

"Carpentry and Joinery" by Paul Hasluck. The best book ever written on architectural woodworking.

"Woodwork Joints," "Tools for Woodwork," "Carpentry for Beginners," "Cabinetry for Beginners," "Antique or Fake?" and "English Period Furniture" by Charles H. Hayward. Everything by Hayward is worth reading. These books are the core of everything you need to know about woodworking.

"Adventures in Wood Finishing" by George Frank. Well, it doesn’t really belong on this list but I enjoy reading and rereading this book all the time.

"Memories of a Sheffield Toolmaker" by Ashley Iles. Interesting historically, and especially inspirational and helpful if you are yourself starting a small business.

"The Museum of Early American Tools," "A Reverence for Wood," and "Diary of an Early American Boy" by Eric Sloane. These books were very informative and helped kick off my interest in history and woodworking when I was a boy, and they’re still engaging today. Wonderfully illustrated.

"In Praise Of Shadows" by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. I first read this book when I was in my 20s and thought it xenophobic, but when I met Toshio Odate many years later he said I should reread it. I did, and I think it is one of the greatest written appreciations of craft and how it calms our lives that there is.

— Joel Moskowitz

Nothing is more fundamental to woodworking than the wood itself, however even professional cabinetmakers struggle with understanding how wood works and how to make it work for them. In the Spring 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine, we we show you how the way that a tree grows in the woods directly affects the way we design and build furniture. And understanding wood is the first step to building projects that look better, last longer and are easier to build. For more information and to purchase your copy, click here.

— Megan Fitzpatrick, managing editor

Sometimes patience pays. Back in 2002, the Taschen publishing company released "The Woodbook" – a ridiculously priced and gorgeous book filled with photos of 354 American species of trees that showed you the end grain, the quartersawn grain and the plainsawn grain of each type.

If my memory serves, the book was about $80 to $100 – now it fetches $200 on the secondary market. No matter how cool the book was, I wasn't going to buy it at that price. Senior Editor David Thiel got his hands on one (somehow), so I was able to enjoy it vicariously as long as I handled it with latex gloves (not included).

"The Woodbook" was actually a reprint of "The American Woods" (1888-1913) by Romeyn Beck Hough. The original version had actual veneer slices of each species on every page and was in 14 volumes. It is, naturally, very rare. So finding the original was also out of the question.

On Friday, this story got a happy ending. Taschen has reprinted the book yet again, improved the typography and lowered the price. It is now named "The Wood Book" (that extra space comes at no extra charge). And the list price is $39.99, but you can find it for sale for a shade more than $25.

This version is also a lot easier to read. The 2002 edition had black pages and the letters were in gold. You read that right. Perhaps you weren't actually supposed to read the descriptions; the only way you really could read it at all was to try to get the light to reflect off the letters just right.

The new 2007 edition has white paper with black letters. So not only can you read the text (which comes in English, French and German), but you also can see the drawings of the leaves of each species as well.

My two gripes with this book are the way the species are organized and the lack of technical data. It's inconvenient to find a species you are looking for unless you know its Latin name. Then you have to find it in the index to find the page number. But that's a quibble. As to the data in the book, most other sources contain more information on the physical attributes of the wood.

But the photos make up for any deficiencies in the text. They are gorgeous. Sharp. Detailed. And in color.

— Christopher Schwarz

"Ye Cabinet-makers! Brave workers in wood,
As you work for the ladies, your work must be good
And Joiners and Carpenters, far off and near,
Stick close to your trades, and you've nothing to fear."

— from "Mechanics' Song" by Absalom Aimwell

I'm fascinated by Roman handplanes. Ever since I stumbled on the form while reading W.L. Goodman's "The History of Woodworking Tools" I've wondered a lot about the tools and their unusual grips. A couple years ago I even built a Roman-style plane (check the links here and here).

So when the December 2008 issue of The Chronicle showed up on my doorstep yesterday I was immediately sucked into an article about 15 of these planes, most of them discovered quite recently. The article, by Derek A. Long, shows that Roman planes were more diverse than we thought. He shows planes with wooden soles instead of the traditional metal. Plus, tools with different grips and shapes. And there are lots of photos to puzzle over.

As a result, I wasn't much help with the kids' homework last night.

There was lots in that issue that encouraged bad parenting. There's an interesting article about the mechanics' societies in early America and the cool certificates they issued their members (membership could be quite expensive – a week's wage). These certificates were embellished with symbols of the trades, including a beehive for industriousness, Archimedes for the combination of the intellectual and the practical, and plumb squares to represent (at times) the balance between commerce and the service to the community.

These societies could even have their own songs (quoted above).

You can subscribe to The Chronicle by joining the Early American Industries Association (called the EAIA for short) for just $35 a year. If you are interested in traditional tools, the EAIA and the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association are the two best organizations to join. Their publications are excellent. And the research they support helps illuminate the past.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to start composing a Woodworking Magazine song. Anyone know a word that rhymes with "magazine?"

— Christopher Schwarz

You can now watch the segment on Lie-Nielsen Toolworks on “The Martha Stewart Show” on the program’s web site.

The 4:41 segment is surprisingly detailed and technical. And, of course, it looks good too. You get to see some really cool stuff, including the plane bodies being milled, the metal screws being cut and the front knobs being turned. The segment also shows you Lie-Nielsen’s heat-treating operation and some glimpses of the cryogenic treatment they use on the company’s A2 blades.

All in all, it’s well worth a visit. Check it out here. On the right side of the screen, scroll over. The Lie-Nielsen video is in the second group.

— Christopher Schwarz

Though most of you will be watching anyway, set your TiVo to record the Martha Stewart show at 10 a.m. (EST) Thursday, Jan. 15. That's because in addition to all the great winter skin-care tips from Sue Ciminelli, the show pays a visit to Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine.

Don't believe me? Visit the show's guide here and look under the tab for Thursday. You'll get to see (in addition to some good-looking cheeses) Thomas Lie-Nielsen planing a board and being interviewed about his tools.

If you miss the show, it should get archived. I'll keep you posted.

This is tragic news for me actually. It means Glen Huey and I are going to have to skip "Beverly Hillbillies" tomorrow.

— Christopher Schwarz

When The Chronicle shows up in my mailbox, I know that my evening is shot. I take the magazine to our sunroom after dinner, settle down in my Morris chair and pretty much read the whole thing.

The Chronicle is the quarterly magazine of the Early American Industries Assc., a non-profit organization founded 72 years ago to understand early technology in the home, farm and workshop. Each issue explores the physical world of handcraft, though it is by no means a hand-tool-only publication. Machinery looms large in the history of early American industry.

What you get in each issue is a heavy dose of hard-to-find information on tools and processes that are in danger of vanishing, like quarrying granite or harvesting ice. And because our country was built mostly from wood with woodworking tools, there is always a strong woodworking undercurrent that runs through the publication.

In the new issue, which I just received last week, there are fantastic articles exploring the crooked knife (essentially a beautiful Native American drawknife), how to read tool marks on old furniture (axes vs. adzes vs. froes and so on), and a detailed exploration of the Stanley 620 hand drill.

How do you get The Chronicle? By joining the Early American Industries Assc. It's just $35 a year and opens up a world of tool information for you. In addition to The Chronicle magazine, you also get the organization's newsletter, the opportunity to attend their annual meetings (always in a cool place), the Eastfield Summer Workshop (usually on traditional skills) or take a European tool tour.

If you pick up your tools (hand or power) and understand that they are a connection to our past, I know you'll enjoy reading The Chronicle. You can join today by visiting their web site at eaiainfo.org.

— Christopher Schwarz

Normally when a book publishing company sends out a copy of its newest book, the marketing people will include a transcript of a short interview with the author that discusses the book. This is so that a lazy writer can quote the interview without having to actually do the interview.

What, you didn't know this? Well that's because these canned interviews are about 97 percent worthless. And any writer who quotes from them will be ritually shunned at the next gathering of media professionals (usually held at a stinky bar).

Not so with the interview that accompanied Roy Underhill's new book, "The Woodwright's Guide: Working Wood with Wedge & Edge" (UNC Press). The folks at the University of North Carolina Press conducted a fairly amusing interview with St. Roy. And so we're reprinting it here in its entirety for you to enjoy.

By the way, in case you missed it, check out the review I wrote of Underhill's new book for the blog last week.

— Christopher Schwarz

Q: How does The Woodwright’s Guide differ from other books in the Woodwright’s series?
A: The Woodwright’s Guide is an environmentally organized guide to woodcraft. It starts in the forest with felling the tree and ends with the final finishing in the workshop. My other books have followed a similar path, but this is the most comprehensive guide in the series, benefiting from thirty years of experience. It is also my first line-illustrated book with brilliant drawings by my daughter Eleanor. Her drawings, done from my photographs, give clarity to the ideas but retain the specificity of the places and the real people who do this wonderful work.

Q: How did your collaboration with daughter, Eleanor, come about?
A: Both my daughters, Eleanor and Rachel, worked with me on television and traveled with me to museums around the world. When it came time for the new book, I was looking at thirty years of photography of tools and techniques. Having Eleanor make drawings from the photos gave us both consistency and specificity.

Actually both daughters worked on the book. Eleanor did the drawings, and the ones that needed retouching went to Rachel. Both my daughters grew up surrounded by wood and tools, and it’s wonderful that we can still work together!

Q: Are there any special features of this book you’d like readers to be aware of?
A: The Woodwright’s Guide is a book with grain—just like wood. You can work it with your left-brain intellect, following the ideas in the text like a wedge following a split. You can also engage your right brain by grasping the “gestalt” captured in the illustrations. You can also put both the brain and hands to work because in the back of the book I have plans for workbenches, screw-cutting engines, and treadle lathes. I only regret that we weren’t able to include a few Band-Aids with each copy—but that’s in the works.

Q: What is the meaning of the book’s subtitle, Working Wood with Wedge and Edge?
A: The thread of “wedge and edge” runs through the entire book. A blade meeting wood either splits it as a wedge or cuts it as an edge. Wedge and edge consciousness in your woodworking gives meaning to the feedback through the tool handle, guiding your decisions with every move. Wedge and edge means honest woodworking that engages both the grain and the brain.

Q: What do you hope this book will impart to your many readers and fans?
A: I hope everyone can share the sense of wonder at the complexity and beauty of our connection to tools and wood. Our language, our culture, our ways of thinking, all evolved with the tools in our ancestors’ hands. Artisanship in wood is part of every human’s legacy, so let’s honor it.

And it’s not just nostalgia. We know that biodiversity is important to us. Well, so is techno-diversity. We can value heirloom technology just as we value heirloom tomatoes. It may not be commercial, but it sure tastes better!

Q: What led you to give up power tools and devote yourself to a career of working exclusively with hand tools?
A: During the back to the land movement of the 1970s I was homesteading in the New Mexico mountains, struggling to live off the grid. A chance encounter with a tool collector’s trove of treadle-powered tools made me realize that an advanced technology of non-electric machines had once flourished and then been abandoned. This was during the energy crisis of the 1970s and the deep significance of sustainable technology hit many of us like a trip hammer (a water-powered trip hammer, of course).

Q: What about woodworkers who blend the use of power tools with hand tools? Is this book also for them?
A: Curiosity is the ultimate power tool. If you work with wood, or just live on a planet where people work with wood, this is the book for you. That’s because The Woodwright’s Guide cuts deep, both into the way wood works, and into the history of the way we work it. So, if you’re trying to do better at a single task of joinery, this book brings you the observations of a thousand years. And, if you’re curious about our enduring relationship with the natural world, The Woodwright’s Guide will give you a sharper axe to hew your own insights.

Q: What have you been up to since your last Woodwright’s book, published in 1996, and how has it influenced this volume?
A: Shooting the PBS series The Woodwright’s Shop gives me the chance to travel and meet craftsmen and women from all over the world. It’s astounding the extraordinary depth of knowledge so many people have about specific areas of the craft. But it’s the stories I appreciate the most. From woodcarver Nora Hall, I heard stories of her father’s carving shop during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Even the work-worn log cabins and ground-down tools preserved at the Museum of Appalachia tell stories—stories of life and hard work in America’s “wooden age.”

Q: What or who have been the major inspirations during your career?
A: Working at Colonial Williamsburg (in spite of the fife and drum parades) was my university of hand craft. The master craftsmen at Colonial Williamsburg are people at the top of their art. It was a constant struggle for me to live up to their high standards of historical research, craftsmanship, and aesthetic sensibility. Still, it was a great place for me, a generalist, to be. If I needed to know something about wheel wrighting, blacksmithing, cooperage, or any of the trades that built our civilization, all I had to do was walk down the street and ask one of the master craftsmen. As Francis Bacon put it, this was a place where “Many ingenious practizes in all trades . . . shall fall under the consideration of one man’s mind.”

Q: You wrote your first Woodwright’s Book in 1981, over 25 years ago. Have you seen a resurgence in interest in hand-crafted woodworking during this period? Have attitudes changed? Has working with hand-tools gone in and out of style, according to larger trends in popular culture?
A: The cycle of high tech and high touch goes back hundreds of years. The first hand-craft, how-to book in English, Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handiworks, was published in 1678. Even then, they were as much concerned with the virtues of “vanishing” hand craft as they were in getting the job done.

Now, of course, we are at a technical crossroads, and it’s good to have a back-up in case the big machine breaks down or runs out of gas. And if you’re going to have a hobby, it might as well be ethical. It seems counterproductive to make a nice wooden cradle for your grandchildren if you choose to make the planet uninhabitable in the process.

But even without the green issue, making things directly with our hands goes to the full depth of our humanity. We’ll never be done with it. Making something gives us the same kind of primal happiness we feel when we encounter a berry bush loaded with ripe fruit. Just as the old hunter-gatherer still resides in each of us, so too does the ancient hand craftsman.  

Q: How does the work you do and the way you do it connect to a larger philosophy of life?
A: It’s a mission. With the gross failure of the intellectual class, it has fallen to the craftsman to expose the hidden power inequities of society. Subversive woodworking has to take the lead, helping people make a choice between mindless consumerism and conscious craftsmanship. Just say “NO” to power tools! Let’s take a bite outta Norm!

Q: Why do you think your many fans have coined the nickname “St. Roy” to describe their devotion to you?
A: I’ve cut myself so many times on the television program that I remind folks of unfortunate martyrs like St. Sebastian. He met his fate on the receiving end of arrows, and St. Simon has an even more distressing history with the saw. I have the chisel. 

In my own defense, however, my TV director kept yelling “Cut!” and I was just trying to oblige.

One of the biggest struggles with learning hand tools is finding instructions that make sense. Many modern hand tool teachers have taught themselves to saw, plane and chop. And while their idiosyncratic techniques might work, they also can be inefficient.

You can go back to the original published sources, such as Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises," but the instructions there assume you are a denizen of the 17th century. So when you try to learn about using the hatchet, these are the instructions:

"The hatchet marked L, in plate 4. Its use is so well known (even to the most un-intelligent) that I need not use many words on it, yet this much I will say: Its use is to hew the irregularities off such pieces of stuff which may be sooner hewn than sawn."

Then there's Roy Underhill, host of PBS's "The Woodwright's Shop" and author of six books on the craft. He is one of the few people I've ever met who can bridge the gap between the hand craft of the pre-industrialized world and today. He reads Andre Roubo's works in the original French. But he carries a Macintosh laptop, codes his own animations and is on television.

This summer while I was teaching at the Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Ore., Underhill and I overlapped by a couple days – he was teaching a class in making a lathe the weekend before my class on handsawing began. While we were chatting, he handed me a loose-bound copy of his latest book "The Woodwright's Guide: Working Wood with Wedge & Edge" (UNC Press).

During the following week, I devoured the entire tome during my free evenings with the company of a few great Portland beers.

I own all of Underhill's books. They are dog-eared second-hand affairs I picked up after finishing college that I have carried with me from town to town. I laugh out loud every time I read "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools" in "The Woodwright's Work Book." (Yes, I am aware this is a problem and there is help available.)

So it is no small thing when I say that Underhill's new book (his first in 12 years) is his best. For starters, this book uses illustrations (by his daughter Eleanor Underhill) instead of photographs. This lends an air of consistency to the work and also allows you to focus on what is important in each image (instead of wandering over to look at the chisels on his bench in a photo).

The narrative of the book is just as clear. It begins in the forest with a description of a tree being cut down by a faller. Then you follow the tree as it passes into the village in the hands of the cleaver and countryman, the hewer, the log builder, the sawyer, the frame carpenter, the joiner, turner and cabinetmaker.

Each profession brings new skills into the narrative, but they are all joined by the fact that they manipulate the wood by splitting it or shearing it (by wedge or by edge). You clearly see how edge angles (simple geometry!) flow throughout and unite all the professions.

And, as you might expect, the prose itself is enlightening, literate and amusing. As Underhill writes about the qualities of wood:

“Like age on a man, water makes wood softer, heavier and fatter – but not taller.”

Unlike his previous books, however, "The Woodwright's Guide" is focused entirely on technique. Good thing, because that is what is sorely missing from the space between our ears. We can all find plans for a tool tote, bench or cabinet to build. But figuring out how to make a rule joint with moulding planes is beyond the grasp of most.

Underhill's other great strength is his ability to explain extremely complex ideas in a way that makes it feel like you've suddenly achieved Buddhist enlightenment. In this book, Underhill's explanation of how to determine and mark out compound angles for the splay of a sawhorse was worth the price of admission. I went around for several days after that in a giddy haze at finally – finally – understanding it. (The beer also assisted this warm and fuzzy feeling.)

And whatever you do, don't miss the book's short but hilarious and thoughtful conclusion titled "A Great Wheel." I refuse to spoil it in any way by even giving you a hint.

The book is not available yet, but you can pre-order it from a variety of sources, including direct from the publisher.

— Christopher Schwarz

Andre Roubo's 18th century five-volume masterwork on woodworking, "L'Art du Menuisier," needs to be translated to English. The little snippets I've picked up here and there are tantalizing and useful even to modern-day woodworkers.

As some of you might know, I've been working with Bjenk Ellefsen, a French-speaking reader, to begin translating the volume on carpentry and construction, but it has been slow-going for us (what with day jobs, families and woodworking hobbies to nurture).

To my great surprise, I recently was contacted by Jack Metcalfe – a practicing marqueteur living in Leeds, England – who has been working on translating the volume on marquetry with the help of a retired Scottish school teacher, Ms. Beatrix Wickens. She has completed the initial translation of that volume and they are now sorting out the technical language to polish the language. (The photo above is of one of their translation sessions together.)

The plan is eventually to publish this volume (and others) as a public service for the woodworking community. Here's where you can help. We need to find someone who has copies of the Roubo volumes that are more than 70 years old in order to reproduce the images from the books and comply with a variety of copyright laws.

If you have a first or second edition of Roubo, or if you know someone who does, could you contact us? While the commercial aspects of a project like this are minor for all involved, you would be doing a great service to the modern woodworkers in helping to bring this translation back into print.

You can contact Jack directly through his web site: the-marquetry-course.net

— Christopher Schwarz

Good news: One of the best books on making chairs is now back in print and available at a reasonable price.

"The Chairmaker's Workshop" by Drew Langsner has been selling for ghastly prices ($200 or more) on the secondary market ever since the original publisher allowed this book to lapse out of print.

"The Chairmaker's Workshop" is a must-have 304-page book for anyone who wants to build Windsor or post-and-rung style chairs. Langsner, who runs The Country Workshops school in Marshall, N.C., has done an outstanding job of collecting his decades of chair-building experience into one book.

My personal copy is dog-eared and coffee stained. Some of the chapters I read more than 10 times as I made my first forays into building stick Windsor chairs. Without this book (and a couple classes), I'm not sure I would have had the confidence to build a chair on my own.

There are great chapters on setting up your tools (or making your own), setting up shop, processing wood and shaping it using traditional methods. For me, the heart of the book is the plans and instructions Langser offers for the 11 chairs featured in the book.

So once you pick out a form that you are interested in, you can fully explore how that form is built and learn all the skills particular to a Windsor chair or a post-and-rung chair (they're very different forms).

This book is clearly a labor of love. Every single page is packed with detail, the kind that comes from personal experience. There are hundreds of line drawings and photographs of every step in the process.

Unlike the original edition, this one is made using a "print on demand" process. The paper is not as glossy, and all the photos are in black and white (the original had both color and black-and-white photos). Langsner also noted that he updated some of the photos and drawings and made some necessary corrections.

To help promote the book, Langsner is also giving away a package of enlarged plans for all 11 chairs (which normally sells for $16.95) to everyone who buys "The Chairmaker's Workshop." This offer is only while supplies last.

Langsner sells "The Chairmaker's Workshop" directly for $50 plus shipping and handling. You can get more information on the book through the school's web site countryworkshops.org or you can order it by calling 828-656-2280.

Be warned: Chairmaking books are tricky. They go in and out of print worse than any other kind of woodworking book out there (just try to find a copy of Michael Dunbar's book on Windsor chairs). If you think you'll ever want to get into chairbuilding, secure your copy now for that day.

— Christopher Schwarz

Good books on hand work are hard to find, and after I recommended Robert Wearing's "The Essential Woodworker" in 2007, copies became difficult to find at a reasonable price. I swear I don't have a secret stash of these books I like, though it would be a nifty way to make some cash on the side.

If you cannot get Wearing's excellent book, I have a great alternative: Charles H. Hayward's "Carpentry for Beginners" (Emerson Books). This little jewel slipped under my radar for many years because of the title. Carpentry? Why would I want a book about building a coal hutch?

Well as it turns out, we moderns are a bunch of unskilled dufuses (or should that be that dufi? I forget). What a mid-century Briton considers carpentry is more like what we would consider fine furniture building. (And what we call carpentry must be one notch above flint knives and bear skins, I suppose).

"Carpentry for Beginners" is an excellent book for building basic hand skills. Hayward covers it all, from basic sharpening to flattening a board, mortising, basic dovetailing, half-laps and even case construction. The book is entirely focused on hand work because it is assumed that the home carpenter wouldn't have any machines lurking in the scullery.

What I think is brilliant about the book (and I hope to steal for my own future efforts) is how Hayward first teaches you the basic strokes: sawing, chiseling, boring, planing, marking, testing. Then he shows you how to combine these basic skills into dealing with real-life assemblies. There are entire chapters on "How to Make a Door," "How to Make a Box" and "How to Make a Drawer."

Then these are followed by informative single-page illustrations that walk you through many of the basic joints.

That's the first 109 pages; the rest of the book is a walk through your swinging uncle's house. Hayward shows you how to build swanky item after swanky item for your pad, including a television chair and some Danish un-modern tables. You can probably skip these chapters, except for the section on building a tool chest and workbench trestles.

Where do I find out-of-print books such as this? Try:

bookfinder.com

abebooks.com

alibris.com

powells.com  

Now I'm off to troll these sites to buy up 100 copies of Graham Blackburn's old books for next week's blog entry.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Click here to read about other books I've recommended.

Most of you know how much I like Andre Roubo's "L'Art du Menuisier" – probably the best and most complete books on woodworking from the 18th century. Heck, I've even considered taking up my French studies again just to be able to read it (more on that later).

However, getting copies of Roubo in this country has been nothing less than frustrating. I got a couple modern reprints through a bookstore in Quebec. And several French web sites carry them (with ghastly hoops to jump through to get them into this country). And all of my efforts to get a reliable and reasonable source in North America have proved fruitless.

Until today.

Thanks entirely to Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood, reprints of all five volumes of Roubo are now available for sale. These books are immense fun to page through, even if you don't read French. That's because the plates – hundreds and hundreds of glorious line drawings – will teach you more about furniture, marquetry and hand tools than I can. Plus you likely will be inspired to build one of Roubo's benches once you see them in use throughout the book. That's what sold me.

The volumes sell for $70 to $90, which sounds like a lot, but it's worth it. When I was importing these from Canada, that's about what I ended up paying (maybe a bit more once you included international fees). These books will be with you forever, and who knows how long they'll be available.

The other news is that we have some more exciting news about Roubo that we'll be announcing on my personal blog this weekend, LostArtPress.com. This is a personal project that I and another woodworker have been slaving over for a while. So do drop by LostArtPress.com this weekend and check it out. I think you'll be glad you did.

— Christopher Schwarz

As of today, we have made two important changes at Woodworking Magazine: We are now going to publish four issues a year (instead of two), and we are now offering subscriptions by mail.

If you'd like to take a moment here and enter your subscription (four issues for $19.96 in the United States; $24.96 in Canada), you can click here.

Other than that, nothing else is changing about the magazine. And I do mean nothing. We will accept no outside advertising. We will publish the magazine on the same high-quality paper. We will continue to review the materials and equipment that no other magazine seems to discuss. And we will continue to investigate all the methods of working wood by hand and by power.

Even today, while we are frantically trying to answer customer calls and e-mails about the new subscriptions, Senior Editor Bob Lang and I have been working on the side on a technique for Issue 10 – Summer 2008 – that is going to change the way you think about finger joints.

So today, I have a statement, a request and a gift for you. First the statement: Thank you. All of you. If it weren't for the readers of this blog and the letters you have sent to me and my boss, we would not be offering subscriptions today.

Now the request: If you know any woodworking friends who might enjoy the magazine, would you mind dropping them a line? We have a Tell a Friend page that makes it easy – don't worry we won't sell or rent out anyone's e-mail address. Want to send a gift subscription to a fellow woodworker? Click here (Note: Right now this page works for U.S. gifts only. Sorry.)

And the gift: below is the editor's column I wrote for the Spring 2008 issue of Woodworking Magazine – the first issue that will mail to subscribers. I hope you like it.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Several of you have asked about digital subscriptions for the magazine. We'll be experimenting with a pilot program later this year. Details, as always, will be posted here.

The Back Roads Are Better

“The significant problems we face
cannot be solved at the same level
of thinking we were at when
we created them.”
– Albert Einstein, (1879-1955)


The story of the magazine you’re holding begins with a car ride through the back roads of Ohio in 2002 and a small disagreement.

Publisher Steve Shanesy and I were driving to West Virginia to a woodworking show and we were at odds about the route to take. I’d mapped out a path on the interstate, but Steve had other ideas. His finger traced a twisty path on my atlas that relied on small towns and two-lane roads.

This, I thought, was going to be a long trip.

As we forged into the wilds of Ohio, the conversation turned to how frustrating it can be to teach yourself to build furniture. Without formal training, many of us tend to develop our skills to match the project at hand.

For example, if we want to build a dovetailed blanket chest, we decide it’s time to learn to cut dovetails, even if we’ve never picked up a dovetail saw or used a dovetail jig. And so we buy a bunch of tools, chew up a lot of good wood and end up with something that is OK, but took twice as long as it should have.

There are better ways to learn the craft.

First you need to learn how handsaws work, how to pick the right tool and how to hold it. Then you start by sawing a board in half, cutting some tenons and half-lap joints and learning exactly where the kerf of each of your saws will fall so you can split a knife line.

If all those tasks sound difficult, you’ve probably never done them. Cutting simple joints with a sharp saw is easy and satisfying work. You just have to know where to begin. And once you begin in the right place, the path is easy to follow.

It’s like being on an interstate instead of poking through the back woods, I reminded Steve (who smirked at my remark).

As we drove on, we tried to figure out what we could do to help beginning woodworkers learn the craft in an orderly way, and to help intermediate woodworkers fill in the astonishing gaps in their knowledge because they are self-taught. So Steve and I decided to start this magazine. And after more than a year of thinking and plotting, we published our first experimental issue in early 2004 with the help of the entire staff of Popular Woodworking, the magazine that is our day job, for a lack of better words. We published Woodworking Magazine without a dime of marketing money. Without fanfare. Without additional staff. We wanted to see if the woodworking community would support a magazine that had no advertisements, that focused on building important skills, and that featured projects that are highly refined yet simple in their construction.

This is not the way most companies launch a magazine. Usually you start with a bang. You try to grow your circulation to a ridiculous level to get the attention of advertisers. You lose money for a long time in the hopes of it paying off big in the end.

I’m proud to say that Woodworking Magazine started life in 2004 by making a modest amount of money thanks to a passionate group of supporters. And we have continued to make money and grow slowly during the last three years, even though we’ve only been publishing twice a year (another thing that’s never done in this industry).

But now, thanks to you, we are ready to move into the next phase. With this issue, we are now a quarterly magazine, and we are now happy to sell you a subscription (call 800-283-3542 in the United States and Canada or visit our subscription page).

It has been a bit of a twisty path for all of us these last few years, but we’ve ended up in the right place at the right time. It is a lot like that fateful trip I took with Steve in 2002. Despite all our trekking on the back roads, despite all the four-way stops in tiny towns, we made it to our destination in West Virginia and shaved nearly 45 minutes off the time it would have taken us on the interstate.

Steve had been down this road before.

— Christopher Schwarz

In my family we have a saying, "German humor is no laughing matter."

The things that I find hilarious often evoke much eye-rolling around the family dinner table from both the children and my spouse. (Like she should talk. The most hilarious thing in my wife's pantheon of humor is a dog behind the wheel of an automobile.)

So when I point you to Jeff Skiver's blog, I want to warn you first. While I almost soiled myself as I read about his alleged deeds heading up a Weebelo troop, you might just shake your head as you clear the cache and history of your Internet browser.

Skiver wrote a column for the back page of Popular Woodworking's December 2007 issue, and if I had my way, he would own that real estate in our magazine. He's a funny guy, especially for someone in the automotive business, which is generally not fertile ground for anything hilarious (save the AMC Pacer and the Gremlin).

So with that caveat, I encourage you to add the blog "Skiving Off" to your list of woodworking blogs. And do post some comments on his blog so that he feels suitably adored.

— Christopher Schwarz

Our warehouse in Wisconsin reported today that our shipment of Woodworking Magazinehardbound editions have arrived and will ship out immediately. So for all of you who have ordered the book already, you should be receiving it shortly in the mail.

And if you are still considering ordering the book, you should know that we sold out more than half of the press run already and don’t have plans for a second printing. There's no pressure, of course. We’ll sell them all, regardless. Also good to know: Our special offer of free shipping on this book ends on Sept. 21. Until that date, you can order it for $30 from our back issues store. After that, it's $34.95.

In case you missed our announcement about the book, check out the earlier blog entry I posted. I think you’ll find that the printing quality of this book is first-rate. The typography and photo reproduction looks even crisper than the original issues; plus the paper is brighter and the binding is quite secure.

Work has begun on issue nine of Woodworking Magazine. The theme of the issue? Sawing of all sorts (no surprises here). But what might be surprising are the conclusions we’re reaching and some of the tricks we’ve dug up. Not all sawing has to be done with saws….

— Christopher Schwarz

Get Free Shipping if You Order before Sept. 21

Every issue of Woodworking Magazine is designed without an "expiration date" – we strive to make the instructions and projects that we write to be just as good in 20 years as they are today. To ensure the magazine will endure, we've just published a hardbound book containing the first seven issues, including issues that have long been sold out and unavailable.

These are the complete issues, just as they appeared in the magazine, and they are printed on paper that is even heavier and brighter than the originals. The book's 252 pages are bound in red cloth, stamped with gold foil and covered with a nice glossy dust jacket that features the Roubo workbench on the cover.

If you're not familiar with Woodworking Magazine, you're probably wondering why we're making such a fuss about it. Here's the deal: Woodworking Magazine is different than other woodworking magazines. We seek to challenge the conventional wisdom of the craft to find the most accurate, fast and straightforward way to perform an operation, whether it's cutting dados or making cherry look 100 years old. Our staff tests dozens of techniques in our shop in Cincinnati to find the ones worth using in your shop.

We publish projects that are historical classics, from the 18th-century Roubo workbench to a Gustav Stickley Magazine Stand to a Shaker Tall Cabinet from the Enfield Community. These are pieces of furniture that have earned their status as classics.

And even the way we review tools is different. We don't review table saws (there are enough table saw reviews already). We review the tools and items that we consider critical to good work: 6" rulers, hinges, marking knives, moisture meters, combination squares and the like.

Plus, we accept no outside advertising. Our interior pages are black-and-white. And we're not afraid to blend the use of hand and power tools to get good results.

This book is about to arrive in our warehouse, and we are making a special offer for readers who order the book before midnight on Friday, Sept. 21. If you order before that date, the book is $30 and we'll pay the shipping and handling. Orders placed after that will be $30 plus $4.95 shipping and handling.

This book will not be available in stores. You can order on our secure web site or call toll-free 800-258-0929 and ask for item# WWCMP7A.

Contemporary writing on woodworking, of which I am woefully guilty, always seeks to make the craft as simple as possible. We try to make the joints easy, quick and straightforward. We tend to promote furniture designs that have straight lines and wide appeal.

But if you’ve never studied any book on joinery that’s more than 50 years old, you’re in for a rude shock. Joinery and case construction was far more complex and demanding before World War II than it is today.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Charles H. Hayward’s seminal work: “Woodwork Joints.” First published in 1950, Hayward’s masterwork was a survey of the different kinds of joints and how they are used to produce casework. When I first encountered this book (thanks to Don McConnell of Clark & Williams fame), I was struck by how many variants there were of seemingly simple joints, such as the mortise-and-tenon.

And at the time I was bewildered by the complexity of some of these joints. Many of them seemed like they would be exceedingly difficult to produce, such as all the door joints that incorporated mitered stuck moulding into the rails and stiles.

But after a few years of working with this book by my side, I came to realize that a fair amount of the complexity was the result of me trying to graft a power-tool perspective onto a hand-tool operation. Once I started looking at the tasks from the perspective of the chisel or the plane, most of these joints were no more than cutting to a line.

(There is an exception – the fox-wedged tenon still scares the snot out of me. You only get one shot to assemble this blind wedged-tenon joint.)

Beginning woodworkers will be well-served by the first sections of Hayward’s book, which discuss how to design, lay out and cut basic edge joints, tenons and dovetails with remarkable clarity. Hayward’s line drawings of workshop practices have yet to be equaled.

Advanced woodworkers will revel in the same clarity that Hayward offers on some of wilder joints, such as three-way mitered tenon joints, mitered secret dovetails, proper rule joints, knuckle joints and joinery for bow-front frame-and-panel assemblies.

This book, my 1954 edition published by Evans Brothers Ltd., will be one of the things I scoop up (in addition to my daughters) if our house ever catches fire. I’ll leave the modern paperback versions of the book (including the edition from Sterling) to the flames. Though I’m glad that some modern publishers have kept the book in print, the reproduction quality of the photos and line drawings is poor indeed when compared to the early editions. It’s worth paying the extra money to find a bookseller in England, I’m sorry to say.

In addition to “Woodwork Joints,” Hayward has many other excellent books, some of which are in the “permanent collection,” but this book is my favorite of his. Look for it at all the usual places: addall.com, bookfinder.com, abebooks.com, powells.com, Amazon.com or through your local crusty and cranky used book seller.

— Christopher Schwarz

Our corporate web site experts encourage us to write as briefly as possible when speaking to an Internet audience. So with that in mind, here is my review of David Charlesworth’s new book, “A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” (Guild of Master Craftsman).

It’s a fantastic book. Really worth buying. And it ties up all the loose ends from his first two books on furniture making.

So with that out of the way, here is the giant footnote to the above review.

I first met David Charlesworth during his first visit to the United States about four years ago. He touched down in the cornfields of central Indiana to teach a class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking and then shoot his first video on sharpening with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. It was a hot spring, and David was still tired from traveling but was happy to go to dinner with Tom Lie-Nielsen, Mario Rodriguez and me.

After some searching, we ended up at Texas Roadhouse, a Western-themed chain restaurant where they eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. I ordered a beer. Thomas ordered a gin and tonic, I believe. David asked for the wine list.

Somehow we didn’t get hassled that night, and David plunged into the menu with surprising gusto, ordering the “rattlesnake bites,” which are deep-fried jalapeno peppers and cheese with a Cajun horseradish sauce for dipping. That is not your typical Devon, England, fare.

David’s willingness to fearlessly try new things is one of the traits of his work as a woodworker, teacher and writer during the last 30 years. He mixes a deep drive for precision woodworking with a self-confessed laziness (which I think is a bit of a stretch). The most famous example of the result of this approach was “the ruler trick,” a way of preparing the unbeveled face of a plane iron with the help of a ruler. It removes hours of tedious labor and produces a spectacular edge.

I purchased David’s first two books (“David Charlesworth's Furniture-Making Techniques” volume one and two), before I met him. I’d pored over them because they were so different than every other book on hand work. He went into far more detail on preparing and using tools than any other source I could find. His techniques were simple, but they required great discipline and attention to detail. They didn’t rely on years of training your hand and eye, just a willingness to pay close attention.

David’s third book continues in this same vein. Like the first two books, “A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” is a collection of his columns from Furniture and Cabinetmaking magazine. So the book hops around from topic to topic a bit. There are four chapters on tuning planes, three on spokeshaves but one on chisels. However, when read with the other three books, “A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” feels much more like a cohesive whole.

It fills in many small details that are important to accurate work, such as the chapter on how to true waterstones. His chapters on marking and paring dovetails will help many woodworkers who have been bewildered by the varying approaches available. And there are chapters on little bits of cleverness that Charlesworth has developed, such as an ingenious adjuster for a spokeshave designed by Brian Boggs, and how to alter a marking gauge to use a pencil in place of a pin.

With all three books now in print, I wish that they could be combined and re-organized into one consistent volume so you could get all of the sharpening techniques in one place, all the plane tuning articles in one place, all the sawing advice in one place. Perhaps some day.

Until then, “A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” is really worth buying. And it is a worthy successor to his first two books on furniture making.

And as I read the last chapter in the book last month, I started wondering where David would go next with his teaching and writing. Would he apply his same insight to  preparing other tools that vex woodworkers, such as profiles of moulding planes or carving tools. Would he delve more into the vast unexplored area of design? Or the equally vast forgotten realm of traditional casework?

I don’t know, but I would be willing to take him along to a square dance in a barn to chat with him and find out.

— Christopher Schwarz

Editor's note: Every few days I’m asked for a bibliography of the essential books for a woodworker who is interested in working with hand tools. I often dash off a list of books that are at the top of mind. Usually it’s five or six core titles with a few oddball ones thrown in that are probably the result of my diet.

So I’ve decided to codify this list and explain a bit of reasoning behind my choices. The first few books are home runs, things that shouldn’t be out of print ever (but sometimes are). One more thing: These aren’t books for a hand-tool purist. I blend machinery for the coarse operations with hand tools for the truing and finishing tasks. My reading list reflects this sensibility.

“The Essential Woodworker” by Robert Wearing

As Robert Wearing eases you into his book during the introduction, you will be both encouraged and alarmed. “The Essential Woodworker” is indeed a book on hand-tool basics and covers all the basic furniture-making tasks necessary to build tables, cabinets, doors and drawers. That’s the encouraging part.

What is alarming is that the stuff in “The Essential Woodworker” is material that is rarely covered in magazines, books or classes. In other words: This book is a good part of a nutritious diet in a world of Snickers bars.

“The Essential Woodworker” begins with a chapter on basic operations: sharpening, planing, sawing and boring. Wearing teaches his techniques mostly with hundreds of simple and clear line drawings, though there are a few black-and-white photos scattered throughout.

With the basic skills wrapped up, Wearing launches into a chapter on building tables and stools. Good choice. Tables are an excellent project for beginners. As Wearing introduces each essential skill, he shows you how to accomplish each task at the bench. This information is like a slice of fried gold. This book is the one that taught me how to clamp up a table base to my bench to work the aprons. It showed me how to size door parts without measuring. It taught me a better way to make hinge mortises that I still use today.

After mastering the table, Wearing moves onto basic carcase construction, with particular emphasis on dovetailing the carcase components and fabricating backs that are far more interesting than what you read about in most books. In other words, there is detail here that you just don’t find elsewhere.

Then Wearing finishes up with designing, building and fitting drawers. By the end of the book’s 160 pages I think I’d learned as much from this book as I’d learned from 10 other books purporting to “essential” for the hand-tool woodworker.

Are there any downsides to the book? Well, I think you can skip the parts about doweling carcases together, that’s a technique that I don’t cotton to (for all the effort required in doweling, I’d just dovetail it).

“The Essential Woodworker” is widely available. In addition to Amazon, check bookfinder.com, abebooks.com, powells.com and alibris.com to find a copy. I paid $8 for mine, you shouldn’t have to pay too much more.

— Christopher Schwarz

American furniture of the 18th century has always been something I’ve liked OK but I’ve never become a nut about, like Brussels sprouts, Cheney hammers and classical music. This week I’ve been consuming a couple books about 18th-century furniture that have long been on my list of things I’ve been meaning to read.

Until this point, my favorite books on the topic were Wallace Nutting’s "A Furniture Treasury" (Macmillian) and "American Furniture of the 18th Century" by Jeffrey Greene. Nutting’s book, though flawed, is fantastic for designing furniture because it offers hundreds of pages of photos of old pieces (for example, there are 77 pages devoted to low chests of drawers). Greene’s book is great because it marries woodworking technique, history, the tools and design.

The two books I’m reading now are similar. Albert Sack’s "Fine Points of Furniture" (Crown) is a visual lesson of what is ugly and beautiful in pieces of early American furniture and consists of nearly 300 pages of photos and commentary. "The Cabinetmaker’s Treasury" (Macmillan) by F.E. Hoard and A.W. Marlow is more like Greene’s book, though it was published in 1952. "The Cabinetmaker’s Treasury" consists of a discussion of techniques and offers plans for many pieces of early American furniture.

My copy of "The Cabinetmaker’s Treasury" was a gift from our art director, Linda Watts, who picked it up at a book sale in Dayton, Ohio. I think I was the first or second person to open it because it’s perfect in every way. And on first reading, I was delighted by the drawings and text.

But then I started really picking apart the construction details shown in the book. I think that misters Hoard and Marlow must have had some stock in the 3"-long screw market because that is the primary way they join everything (except the chairs). No dados. No sliding dovetails. Fewer mortise-and-tenon joints than I would prefer. The lowboys in the book are all screwed together. Screw the web frames together. Then screw the web frames to the sides. Don’t forget to screw the partitions!

So bottom line: It’s an OK book for a couple bucks.

"The Fine Points of Furniture" seems a bit of a gimmick at first. Sack shows photos of three different pieces of furniture. They’re all the same form (chest on chest, for example). But one is labeled a "good" design, one is labeled "better" and the other as "best." Then he offers some commentary under each photo explaining why.

Sack insults the piece labeled as "good" designs, and I was getting a complex at first because I kind of liked the "good" designs. They were usually simpler and less ornamented. Sack reserved "better" and "best" for pieces with elaborate carving, vigorous turnings and aggressive lines.

But after 300 pages of the stuff, I began to see things Sack’s way. The "good" designs started to look clunky and less refined. I was exercising my eye for 18th-century design. It’s still a bit sore, but going down to work on an Arts & Crafts sideboard should give it a chance to relax.

By the way, you can get "Fine Points of Furniture" for a song. The revised edition "The New Fine Points of Furniture" is ghastly expensive. If there's anyone out there who has both, I'd love to hear a comparision of the two versions.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you’re interested in reading detailed stories about modern toolmakers, their wares and how they fare in the shop, I have some good news. Clarence Blanchard, the owner of the Fine Tool Journal, has graciously allowed me to post articles I’ve written about modern hand tools for his publication during the last few years on the Internet. And Wiktor Kuc, the host of WKFineTools.com, has generously agreed to host the articles on his site.

Right now on WKFineTools.com you will find the complete text to four articles I’ve written for the Fine Tool Journal during the last few years, and there are eight more that will be posted in the coming year. These articles are unlike what I’ve written for Popular Woodworking magazine and Woodworking Magazine. These articles are sometimes quite lengthy, a bit geeky and are aimed at the hand-tool enthusiast.

Here’s what you’ll find on WKFineTools.com right now, and a taste of what is to come:

• Veritas Router Plane Review: I compare the new Veritas router plane to the vintage Stanley No. 71. The Veritas sure looks different, but is it any better? What’s with those canted knobs? And why is the depth adjustment on the Veritas so much more involved? And is the accessory fence worth buying?

• Chairmaking Tools: A look at some of the tools that are indispensable to my (meager) chairmaking efforts. Two mallets that can really drive a leg home (John Brown style!), plus a comparison of the Veritas an Lie-Nielsen spokeshaves.

• Ray Iles Mortisers: Everyone loves the new Ray Iles mortising chisels – me included. I had one of the first sets off the boat and take a look at the tool. How did it come to life? Why is it so dang effective in hardwoods? And what’s with the unusual sharpening angles?

• The Curious Scrub Plane: This is a controversial article in some quarters. I compare the Veritas and Lie-Nielsen scrub planes and posit a few crackpot theories about scrub planes in general. If you want to send me hate mail on this article, the line forms to your left.

• There are also shorter articles there from me on Blue Spruce Toolworks marking knife and drawboring.

Here are some of the articles I hope Wiktor Kuc will be posting in the coming months:

• Blue Spruce Toolworks: A detailed look at Dave Jeske’s operation. He’s bigger than you think. And he’s making tools for other custom toolmakers on the West Coast.

• Clifton Planes: I have years of experience with these English-made Bedrock bench planes and tell you what I’ve found out during the last five years – warts and all.

• Gauges & Squares: Find out which layout tools I find useful and which are expensive junk.

• Miter Planes: Joel Moskowitz and a dead Frenchman help us unravel some of the mysteries of the oddly-named miter plane.

And there’s more to come. With any luck, Wiktor will post these and the Fine Tool Journal Articles I’m writing for upcoming issues, including a feature on Philip Marcou’s S20A smoothing plane and the Bridge City Tools VP60 – a variable pitch bench plane.

If you don’t want to wait for Wiktor, I can wholeheartedly recommend you take out a subscription to the Fine Tool Journal. Not only will you get to read my brand of drivel, but also lots of other interesting pieces about old tools, their history and the stories behind the men who made them.

Plus then there’s the real bonus that comes with a Fine Tool Journal subscription: the publication offers a large quantity of old tools for sale at reasonable prices to readers in every issue. Please do check it out.

— Christopher Schwarz

For the last three years, I’ve been writing a column on modern hand tools for theFine Tool Journal, an excellent quarterly publication out of Pownal, Maine. The Journal is a thick slice of hand tool heaven with articles about long-forgotten ways of working, vanished corporate tool-making empires, vintage power machinery and old tools for sale.

Editor Clarence Blanchard and his staff also run Brown Auction Services, and so the Fine Tool Journal includes listings of auction items and tools you can buy with just a phone call or e-mail. The prices are quite reasonable.

For my part, I write reviews of modern tools and profiles of their makers. And now, Clarence has graciously agreed to allow me to post the older articles on WKFineTools.com, an online hand-tool magazine run by the industrious Wiktor Kuc.

If you haven’t been a visitor to WKFineTools or the OldToolsShop.com site (its sister site), visit now and bookmark it. There is a wealth of writing there. People sharing their experiences with hand tools, old catalogs of tools you can download for free, some plans for projects, plus links to other valuable resources for the hand-tool user.

This week, Wiktor has posted my story about scrub planes. This article compares the two modern versions available: The Lie-Nielsen and the Veritas. But that part of the article isn’t what gets people’s blood boiling. It’s the theory of mine that scrub planes are more of a carpentry tool than they are for fine furniture-making. I’ve discussed that theory a bit here on the weblog, but this is the full-on crackpot theory.

Many thanks to Wiktor and Clarence for allowing us to republish these stories. We have about 10 more in the works right now for the coming weeks, including in-depth profiles of saw maker Mike Wenzloff and Konrad Sauer, the planemaker behind Sauer & Steiner. So check back.

— Christopher Schwarz

So I like my wagon vise quite a bit and have been giving it a nice workout during the last week or so. I think it's a keeper. (And good thing, considering the massive chasm in the benchtop.) So to finish off the vise, I bought a nice little European-style backplate for the vise's end cap from Whitechapel Ltd. Hardware – nice stuff, by the way.

I think I must be hanging around planemaker Wayne Anderson a bit too much. It's not like me to embellish my benches with unnecessary finery.

As I was nailing the plate in place, I couldn't help reflecting on an excellent piece I just read in The New Atlantis called "Shop Class as Soulcraft" by Matthew B. Crawford. It is one of the most thoughtful pieces of writing about the decline of craftsmanship and the rise of industrial capitalism I've ever read. Crawford is a woodworker, former motorcycle repairman, former electrical contractor and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Material Culture at the University of Virginia.

It's a stunning article. Sit down with a cool drink this evening and take it in.

— Christopher Schwarz

Sometimes the best woodworking books don't have a single word of advice on how to cut a joint, build a cabinet or rub out a finish. Instead they are the kind of book that will pry your eyes open to see how our craft is connected to history, culture and the fabric of modern society.

"Oak: The Frame of Civilization" by William Bryant Logan is a sweeping and breathless series of vignettes that examine the relationship between oak trees and man, from a fen in Cambridgeshire to the tanner's stinking vat of hen dung to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It is a narrative that ranges from deeply personal, such as Logan's experience tasting acorn jelly ("like touching a slug") to intensely historical, such as an examination of coppice woodworking in early Europe.

At first, woodworkers might not see how this historical examination of the oak's place in history is important to those of us who regularly saw, split and hew it to make chairs, cabinets and the like. But after a few chapters it becomes clear that we are part of this extensive root system that the oak has made through our daily lives. The oak is the ultimate provider, from the acorns that fed people in Europe and North America to the barrels that provide our wine, the tannins that preserve our leather, the ships that explored our world and the building blocks of the walls of our greatest structures, such as Westminster Hall. In fact, oak's role in civilization cannot be overstated.

And now oak provides one more gift to the home woodworker: joy in the work with our hands. Man almost destroyed the world of ships and charcoal and barrels that was built by oak and replaced it with metal, oil and plastic. But we and the survival of our craft are evidence that oak has not lost its grip on the world.

Highly recommended reading.

— Christopher Schwarz