Instruction Books for Neanders?

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

In the post by Richard "Learning the Old Ways," the subject of workbooks by Roy Underhill was mentioned by Steven.

He mentioned that the books included exercises to practice on.

What are great instruction books on Neander woodworking that have lots of detail and pictures that you think are great instructional books.

You might give a brief explanation of the strong points of the books you like.

Stew

[William Adams]

Search for “woodworking-for-beginners pdf public domain” and a couple of listings for useful books will show up.

Convenient to read on a tablet.

[Frederick Skelly]

I've gotten good value out of these for self-teaching, but I'd stress that participation on SMC has helped just as much.
* Ron Hock's book on sharpening
* The Handplane Book, by Garrett Hack
* Handplane Essentials, by Christopher Schwartz. (Don't mean to incite a debate on CS. The man is a journalist by training and writes well, in a way that helped me learn some things I hadn't figured out by myself.)
* Handsaw Essentials, by Schwartz
* Working With Handplanes, Taunton Press

[Frederick Skelly]

Search for “woodworking-for-beginners pdf public domain” and a couple of listings for useful books will show up.

Convenient to read on a tablet.

Thanks for the tip. When I googled it, only your post came up - not a web site?

[Andrae Covington]

The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing, republished by Lost Art Press a few years ago (still available). From the marketing blurb:

The book is filled with more than 500 hand-drawn illustrations by Wearing that explain every operation in a hand-tool shop. His illustrations are properly drafted, drawn in perspective and masterfully clear.

There are sections on making tables and stools, carcases, drawers, handles, and boxes. Before that, some details on the basics of sharpening, planing, sawing, boring, etc.

Country Furniture by Aldren A Watson. The title is somewhat misleading, as the book is more about the tools and techniques than the resulting furniture. Watson's hand illustrations are lovely. Another Aldren Watson book is Hand Tools Their Ways and Workings; there is some overlap between the two.

The Joiner and Cabinet Maker is a mid-1800's book republished by Lost Art Press. Intended for boys considering a woodworking apprenticeship, it combines a fictional narrative with some practical how-to, beginning with a nailed packing box and ending with a chest of drawers. In the Lost Art Press edition, Chris Schwarz built the three projects and there are photographs of the process. A neat glimpse into the period, but limited in scope. I would put the books Frederick suggested higher on your list.

Hard to pick one of the Roy Underhill books, I have them all.

[William Adams]

Thanks for the tip. When I googled it, only your post came up - not a web site?

Meant to search on the internet.

Surprised this post didn't come up:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...dworking-books

[Allan Speers]

A few of my faves: (In addition to the excellent suggestions, above.)


Working with Hand Tools - Paul Hasluck

This is an incredible resource (over 1,000 pages) that starts with the basics then covers more topics than I care to list here.

I can’t recommend this one highly enough. This is an older book and public domain, but I don't remember where I downloaded it from. There is also a slightly edited version available on Amazon.com, for not too much money.

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Mastering Hand Tool Techniques - Bridgewater

- Kind of like the Garret Hack book, on steroids.

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How To Make WoodWorking Tools - Charles Hayward.

- Includes excellent basic descriptions & usage tips, plus construction ideas, for a good number of planes, measuring / marking, etc. It’s basic and gets right to the point, so is in some ways superior to the Garrett Hack book.

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Make A Chair From A Tree - John D Alexander

Exactly as it sounds. If only I had the time…. Mostly hand tools, including drilling with a brace, though IIRC he uses a drill press to cut his mortices.

It even has plans for building a deluxe shaving horse.

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And while you asked about books, this video is a must have:

Rough To Ready (Rob Cosman)

- The name says it all. IMO, this is the Bible for starting with raw lumber & milling with hand tools.

[Prashun Patel]

In this day and age, i think starting from a book is less efficient than starting from videos and blogs and forums. books on design and history are still priceless, but for how to, i have learned way more from the internet than books.

[Ian Neuhaus]

Stew
reflecting on my own journey ...

my first formal teacher was wont to say that joint making was merely removing wood in a controlled way.

for one class, the exercise was to cut vertical kerfs in the end of a board.
The end of the board was near enough to square, and the exercise was to cut as many vertical saw kerfs as we could across the end grain down to a base line.
In doing this we practised control of a rip saw till we got good enough to be able cut a true vertical line and space the saw kerfs less than 1/16" apart (1/32" when using a Japanese pull saw).
When it came time to do cut our first dovetails, sawing to the line held no fear.

so, in addition to watching a video or two to get the hang of how to hold a saw and a proper sawing stance ...
practice, practice and more practice
is better than any book

[steven c newman]

I used both the videos, and books as a way to pick up info, and ideas.

As for doing the tasks...I just went out and picked up a tool and started in.

"You can't use a 110 block plane to level an Oak Panel.." Funny, that is exactly what I used to flatten pallet wood Oak panels. Because that was all I had to use.

Had a "Lunchbox Planer" It is still around...somewhere. Use other things now, but they don't have a motor.

Best thing to do? Open a book that shows how to do a task, set it up so you can glance over at it, and just pick up the tool and have at it. Then come on a site like this, and ask even more questions, go back out and try some more.

[Moses Yoder]

Tage Frid is good if you can find them cheap.

[Bill Houghton]

As always - cruise down to your friendly local library and see what they've got, books and videos both.

You're excused from this suggestion if you live in the mountain states or somewhere else that your friendly local library is more than 25 miles from your house.

[David Keller NC]

From the standpoint of learning Neander WW without a background in power tool woodworking, I'd second Prashun's thought about learning from videos. IMO, the best way to learn is with a real, live teacher b/c video, still cameras and text have limitations on what can be shown/described that's simple to see/hear/touch in person. The second choice is videos, and the third choice are books.

With respect to videos, and again presuming that you're learning both WW and Neander WW for the first time, I'd highly recommend any of the Charles Hayward books, particularly "Woodwork Joints". I'd also consider Christopher Schwarz's "The Workbench: From Theory and Design to Construction and Use", "The Anarchist's Toolchest" and "The Joiner and Cabinetmaker" required reading. That last title would be my choice for the first "project book" to give to a beginner. Lost Art Press' revision of Robert Wearing's "The Essential Woodworker" would also be on my "must" list.

With respect to videos, there are lots of them that are useful to a beginning Neander. But while his personality is a bit overbearing, Rob Cosman's series on hand-tool woodworking are some of the best produced, best-explained and best filmed instructional videos on hand-tool woodworking I've seen.

Other authors to consider for videos are Christopher Schwarz' "Mastering Hand Tool Woodworking" (2-DVD set), Frank Klausz, and the David Charlesworth's series.

For specialized topics, Peter Follansbee is probably the foremost authority on 17th century Elizabethan woodworking, and is entertaining to watch. Chairmaking is a whole different list. But for Windsor-type, green wood chairs, I'd go with Drew Langsner of Country Workshops (http://countryworkshops.org/). His book, "The Chairmaker's Workshop" is the bible/encyclopedia on green-wood, stick-style chairs, exceeding even the progenitor of the modern craft, Jennie Alexander's "Make a Chair from a Tree".

Edit: One video above all others I would recommend for a complete newbie to hand-tool woodworking: The Naked Woodworker by Mike Seimsen. The video is the only one I know of that takes the approach of "start from nothing".

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

Thanks for all of the ideas so far. Thanks to the notes above, I have now looked at some of the public domain information. In the past year or so, I also have read a few of the books listed above, but only a small sample of them. I have also looked at a few of the videos on Youtube, and have enjoyed several of them.

I do seem to learn pretty well by reading books and articles, so that is why I was thinking about trying to find books on the subject. Right now I am leaning toward "The Essential Woodworker" by Wearing, because it has been listed more than once above, and also I have seen other very positive comments about it.

David, your mention of the title "Mastering Handtool Woodworking" by Schwarz is appealing because I have read his "Anarchist's Tool Chest" which belongs to my son in law, and also read portions of his Workbench book, and own and have read his "Handplane Essentials" book. I do like his writing, but sometimes want more details than he has in some of his books.

I am really looking for something that has lots of details on making basic, woodworking joints such as mortise and tenons, dovetails, etc., but want to be able to master making those joints to very good standard of workmanship. What I am looking for is exercises and books on fine details that will help me improve the basic techniques that I already know, but do fairly poorly.

I am not really a beginner, having used hand tools, especially hand saws, for over 40 years, and I worked for a carpenter, doing a lot of his finish carpentry back then. For finish work, I used almost entirely hand tools back then, and in fact that was about all we had at that time. After I finished graduate school and got a day job, most of the carpentry I've done has been remodeling work on two houses we have owned, and work on friends and relatives houses. I have done some rebuilding and repair of cabinets, but have never tried to do any real cabinet building myself, nor have I attempted any furniture. At any rate, this is kind of a quick description of where I am, skills-wise.

I have been thinking about just building a marking gauge (I don't have one) and then practicing on some dovetailing. I can already cut to a line, so that is not intimidating (and could to that almost 40 years ago), but am better at it now...but my eyes aren't as good as they were. I can handplane reasonably well, but my chisel work is only fair.

One of the big problems is having room to work, but I am working on that. I am thinking about just practicing on hand cut dovetails for a while.

I have also been to our local library a few months ago, and looked at their woodworking books. Not much help there.

At any rate, great stuff above, and I appreciate all of the comments and hope to see more..

Stew