the Weekend Woodworker series
by the Editors of Rodale Books
1993, Rodale Books
264 pages
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Book Reviews
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Country Pine is a very nicely produced book. The 27 projects are well developed, the drawings detailed and complete. Appropriate "How-to" sidebars are scattered throughout the book. While the featured pieces are traditional, most of them have something unusual about their design or construction that make them worthy of inclusion. |
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Early American Furniture-Making Handbook is a source for many traditional pieces. The drawings, however, are sketchy, just enough for an experienced woodworker to reproduce the piece. In the construction techniques section, the authors explain some non-traditional methods of substituting such modern items as plywood and metal drawer slides. This book is more useful as a supplementary reference than as a project source. |
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The Early American Furnituremaker's Manual contains 16 pieces. While the drawings are somewhat more detailed than in the book above, they are still sketchy. The author advocates authentic reproduction. |
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The Woodworkers Visual Handbook Professional Edition is a compilation of information ranging from dimensional standards for construction to tool use to wood identification. While labeled as a professional reference, nearly a third of the book is devoted to tool descriptions suited to beginners. Nevertheless, if you need to calculate the dimensions of a tabletop or build a special jig for an odd job, you're likely to find the information you need here.
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Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood is an intriguing little book. It presents several wooden models of mechanisms, inventions from days gone by. There's a representation of a steam piston, a sun-and-planet gear, and several examples of couplings, to name but a few. The models require meticulous attention to detail, but the drawings and text are clear. If you're interested in gizmos, this book has them!
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How to make 2X4 Furniture for Indoors and Outdoors contains 21 projects in contemporary dorm furniture. This is the kind of "can't hurt it" construction you furnish a basement rec-room with. Strictly functional. Some of it's actually not too bad.
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Furniture Projects by Rod Wales several examples of good European contemporary pieces. The projects are brief, with measured drawings and narration of significant construction details. Intermediate to advanced.
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Good Wood Routers is part of a series of Good Wood books from Betterway. It contains a concise coverage of portable routers, jigs, fixtures and table setups. Similar in format to Popular Mechanics How-To books.
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Woodworking with the Router is a definitive book on routing. The book begins with a discussion about router horsepower rating and proceeds through just about every topic of routing wood I know of. If you follow American Woodworking magazine, you may have seen Ellis Walentine's ellipse cutting fixture feature. It's covered in this book, the only book I've seen that covers it.
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The Bird House Book. Whimzical, decorative bird houses that mirror architectural styles characterize this book. While the houses are designed to be functional as well, most are certainly more appealing to people as yard art than to birds as homes. The collection includes a few nice feeders.
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Period Furniture Projects contains advanced pieces that call into play most of a woodworker's skills. The drawings and text are sufficient to reproduce the pieces but most projects assume considerable knowledge of woodworking for successful completion.
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Classic Furniture Projects focuses on federal pieces. Most of the projects are inlaid and the book contains a general section on the craft. Measured drawings are sketchy but adequate and photographs of in-progress work helpful in illustrating fine points of the text.
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Kids Furniture You Can Build is a book of contemporary plywood designs for kids. It's standard fare: play desks, bunk beds, storage bins, and built-ins; all easily built with common workshop tools. 31 projects in all for the bedroom or playroom.
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One-Weekend Country Furniture Projects. The projects in this book are craft fair type furniture. Most are crude. Some can be made quite nicely with some well-placed moulding and a nice finish.
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The Art of Making Elegant Wood Boxes. Contemporary specialty boxes of many different styles, sizes and purposes. You might recognize some of the well known artisans who make them. Beautiful, full color photographs, some examples with measured drawings. Discussion of box making joints and techniques.
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Making Wood Tables. The author paints with a broad brush. It is difficult to catagorize this book because the subject matter is so eclectic. Projects range from a rather crude plant stand to a spindled gate-leg table to a contemporary desk. Drawings are sketchy but many photographs carry the text well.
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Desks You Can Customize can be described as variations on a theme. Three kinds of desk are presented, each with three different contemporary adaptations of a period theme. Step-by-step construction methods are supplemented by good photographs and illustrations. The projects are ambitious. The drawings, photos and cut list don't always match. Careful planning is a must but the pieces are attractive and worth the effort for a woodworker with intermediate skills.
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Fine Woodworking Techniques 8. This book series is primarily how-to material with more specialty articles than the average home woodworker is likely to need in a lifetime. However, it is also a source of some excellent projects.
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Heirloom Projects for Woodworkers lives up to its title. Twenty attractive projects are detailed. The simplest include a scroll-work cutlery tray and a wall shelf; the most difficult, a grandfather clock and a period highboy. Every project in this book is one to be proud of.
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52 Toys & Puzzles for the Weekend Woodworker. An assortment of pull-toys, jigsaw puzzles, noisemakers and even a rocking horse. Almost all items are patterned after examples from days gone by. None of them are very difficult to make. B/W photographs, measured drawings and cutlists.
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Crafting New Mexican Furniture is an introduction to the Southwestern style. The pieces are simple, yet attractive. B/W photography, drawings and cut list.
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Making Joints is a how-to book. Lots of good information on selecting, preparing and joining wood. There are, however, four projects at the end. Attractive and useful demonstrations of the material the author's cover throughout the book.
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Projects for the Home Craftsman contains an assortment of projects that are simple to moderately difficult. Utility pieces all. The book is divided into six sections:kitchen projects, accents, outdoor projects, tables and chairs, shelving and storage, and finally, toys. Forty projects are listed.
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