Woodworking Books

[morpheus83uk]

Hello,

I am looking at some woodworking books and wondering if people had any recommendations. As I am getting into it more and more I am looking at improving my knowledge overall to learn new techniques and skills.

I have had a quick look around book shops in my local town center but nothing really caught my eye on the small array they had so I came home and had a look online and found the following:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woodwork-S...s=Woodwork:+A+Step-by-Step+Photographic+Guide

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Complete-Woodworkers-Manual-Jackson/dp/0007164424

https://www.trenddirectuk.com/book-cr?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpanSvOfD2AIVS7vtCh0kvQN-EAQYASABEgL3ZPD_BwE
And wondered what peoples thoughts on the above or if they had any other recommendations? I am looking for something for overall woodworking and something towards maybe joints / router and router table use.

Thanks

James

 

[Droogs]

Before you splah the cash, have you had a look through the E-book sticky here:
free-downloadable-woodworking-books-plans-ref-sites-t82220.html

A good selection there to get a good understanding of the basic and the theory of woodwork

 

[marcros]

I have a copy of the trend book. Brand new by the look of it on my shelf here, I think it came as a special deal with a set of bits from trend. If you are interested in it, make me an offer.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thanks both for your suggestions. I will check out the thread you have posted and Marcros I am just looking for suggestions at the moment and also to see what the books are like. I am merely going off the reviews at this point. If I do decide to purchase it then I may make you an offer.

Thanks

James

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

The Collins book covers a lot of stuff, but too thinly to be of much use IMO. I think is more a book about showing the scope of woodwork and tools and design, from where you would select what interests you most and get books dedicated specifically to those areas.

I think one of the best training manuals available currently, is Chris Tribe's book, Complete Woodworking.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_no ... hris+Tribe

Chris is a good and patient teacher, from his own workshop, and very nice bloke to boot. This book encompasses the man's teaching style and I believe if a learner could only have one book, this one could actually get them all the skills to become a very competent maker. Does require effort on the learners part!

Mike.

Incidentally, Chris's workshop is in Yorkshire, not a great distance from you. Perhaps a course to get you quickly along the path?

 

[custard]

Incidentally, Chris's workshop is in Yorkshire, not a great distance from you. Perhaps a course to get you quickly along the path?

That's an excellent suggestion. Combining a short course and a comprehensive manual...all from the same source...would be an ideal way into woodworking. It neatly guides you around one of the central problems of learning the craft, namely that different people have very different methods. They all get the job done, but they're often not that compatible. So a single source of instruction removes the contradictions that can otherwise prove a frustrating obstacle.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thanks Mike I would second it's a great idea to have the literature and practical course to go hand in hand. I did post about some evening courses near me but I am guessing there arent any. I presume (only because I haven't had chance to look yet) that they are like day long or week long courses?

Also would it be either of the books you have linked me to as they seem to have the same description?

Thanks

James

 

[Tasky]

Personally I've always thought Dorling Kindersley (DK, the first one linked in the OP) were mostly a pre-internet paper version of Wikipedia with lots of pretty pictures.
If you wanted to know what Woodworking is, what a chisel looks like, where wood comes from and all that, DK might be a good one to scan-read in the bookshop before you buy something else...

+1 for Chris Tribe's books, though. I'm reading Complete Woodworking right now.

 

[MikeJhn]

I'm reading "A treatise on Stairbuilding and Handrailing" by W & A Mowat, fascinating reading if you like geometry then this book is for you, as long as you can sort out the old americanisms the explanations on tangent handrailing gets the old brain box working, also have "A simplified Guide to Custom Stairbuilding and Tangent Handrailing" explains a lot of the intricate detail from the Mowat book, and again is well worth a read.

Mike

 

[woodbrains]

Thanks Mike I would second it's a great idea to have the literature and practical course to go hand in hand. I did post about some evening courses near me but I am guessing there arent any. I presume (only because I haven't had chance to look yet) that they are like day long or week long courses?

Also would it be either of the books you have linked me to as they seem to have the same description?

Thanks

James

Hello,

I didn't realise Chris had another book out. I suspect the paperback is the same as the hardback, which I have, despite the slightly different title. It is possible there have been additions or amendments, I'll ask him and let you know.

Mike.

Edit. I have it from the author, Chris, that the paperback as far as he is aware, has the same content as the hardback. The change of title has nothing to do with him, and is confusing. The USA version had a different title again, apparently! Still a darned good book though.

 

[Lonsdale73]

I have the DK one and can confirm Tasky's assessment is fairly accurate, all style, little substance. I've learnt more from this site. And youtube. I was looking for a copy of the one I remember from school days, it had a blue cover, no photographs only line drawings but being a schoolbook it made no assumptions about previous experience or knowledge, started with basics like types of timber and their application, then a description of handtools, followed by joints, from simple through to more complex.

 

[bennymk]

Lost art press do some brilliant books, you can get them from classic hand tools, and another but I forget. I've got the essential woodworker by Robert wearing great book of knowledge.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thanks for the update woodbrians I will check out the book you have suggested.

Bennymk I presume this is the book your referring to?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-...ywords=essential+woodworker+by+Robert+wearing

Also does anyone have any suggestions for routing and the router table?

Thanks

James

 

[Phil Pascoe]

http://www.waterstonesmarketplace.com/b ... &hs=Submit

Is a quite good site to watch as well as Amazon.

 

[MikeJhn]

Can't do much better than this for Router instruction etc: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0875967116/ ... TE_3p_dp_1 and for tables : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyltons-Ultima ... GCRBXMTWY1

Mike

EDIT: neither are very good as an Kindle edition the illustrations and photo's are not very readable.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Good shout I forgot all about phil.p I have looked on there for other books but I have never found what I have wanted cheap but that's just my experience.

Thanks for the recommendations Mike for the router stuff I did find them but since they were american I didn't know if they would have different names for things making them a bit harder to follow.

Thanks

James

 

[MikeJhn]

The Americanism's are not hard to follow, its the spelling that can throw you off, not forgetting that a rebate is a rabbit in American?

Mike

 

[Student]

For UK based books on routing, I found the one by Alan Holtham, published by Trend, that you referred to in your OP and which Marcros offered you, to be very good.

Alternatively, there is the one by Anthony Bailey who edits Woodworking Crafts

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Routing-Beginn ... op?ie=UTF8

 

[ED65]

James, I highly recommend you check in with your local libraries as a first or early step. If the inter-library loan system over there works as well as it does over here you could have easy access to well over 100 titles, far more than most people would want to build up in a home library, perhaps ever, and likely enough reading matter to keep you going for the rest of 2018.

You'll likely find a couple of titles that you want to own yourself and that can save a lot of potential disappointment over buying books blind. A good case in point on this for me would be Robert Wearing's "The Essential Woodworker" which is very highly regarded and to be fair, a fine book. But I found it slightly disappointing (and I'm a fan of Wearing) because I'd read too many glowing reviews that had talked it up too much, but also because I'd already read numerous similar guides that likewise were intended to teach all the basics from the ground up.

More recently I'd been itching for a copy of "Made by Hand" from Tom Fidgen (of Unplugged Woodshop fame) because I'm very much on the same page as he is as far as working with hand tools goes, but I couldn't get on with it at all so I'd have been sorely disappointed if I'd bought a copy.

 

[Tasky]

The Americanism's are not hard to follow, its the spelling that can throw you off, not forgetting that a rebate is a rabbit in American?

Unless it comes with pictures (and possibly even if it does), I would still suggest that if the OP is fairly new to woodworking, he/she finds themselves a Glossary of English vs American terms for the sake of convenience and clarity.

It took me a while before I understood what they called a Dado, and stopped looking around for a wall-mounted moulding!!