As I’ve stated elsewhere I’m a finish carpenter delving deeper into woodworking. After watching and talking to experienced people, and practising myself; I find reading the masters helps in most fields. I’ve found Tage Frid, Gary Rogowski and Jim Tolpin to be quite helpful. I also subscribe to Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking magazine and web services.
What do you read?
Titles?
Authors?
Magazines?
Websites?
Dvds (got Tage – great)?
Thanks!
Replies
>What do I read
How many pages can I put up here and not screw the pooch ?
there is so much great info out there ! I will be up all night typing but having a great time sharing all this. Very exciting. Wait I am swooning . . .
OK here goes:
The following is only top shelf stuff. Very, very good all of it in my view. There is tons I have not included. And there are the regulars here on FWW such as Lonnie Bird that are top notch I cannot list them all.
I could divide it into two categories: PS: but I didn't (out'a gas).
1. romantic furthest dreams stuff
2. practical crank it out and be practical
Number one over view of wood working is Nick Engler's Woodworking Wisdom book
For pure enjoyment I say any DVDs by Jim Kngshott. He could put out a video on how he takes out the trash and I would probably buy it.
Toshio Odate
Japanese Woodworking Tools book
a very personal book but very usefull info. If you want to know what it was like to be a reluctant indentured apprentice with no way out read his books. Todays kids shrink and blow away if you criticize them. Toshio's master would not teach him directly, expected MUCH and would simply hit him with the closest semi lethal object to hand if he made an error. Usually that object was a hammer !
Frank Klausz
Making Mortise and Tenon Joints DVD
Dovetail a Drawer DVD
Christopher Schwarz
Forgotten Hand Tools DVD
Coarse Medium Fine DVD
I am just now reading the Workbenches book
Rob Cosman Hand-Cut Dovetails DVD
oooohhh yyyaaaahhhh !
WANT TO CHUCK ALL THIS BOOK LEARN'N IN THE BIN AND STRIKE OUT ON YOUR OWN AND BE THE SELF MADE MAN ?
Then Sam Malloofs book Woodworker is what it is all about. From chicken coop work shop and less to making chairs worth $ 20,000 (each) for Ronald Regan !
also Sam Malloof Woodworking Profile DVD great , great, great.
God I am just soo excited here !
Ian Kirby (very weird ideas about work benches Frank Klausz wanted to strangle him or shake him when they were lecturing together but
The Complete Dovetail is an awesome book
I must say it took the guys in this forum to finally make some lights go on for me about what he was doing in the book.
And then there is the mandatory James Krenov.
And a final thought; I would recommend just buying a set of Fine Woodworking Magazine from issue # 1 till present and reading those.
a fascinating couple of people who as far as I know has not written books but are worth reading about:
Yeung Chan
Eugene Landon
John McAlister see FWW and Woodshop news August 2001
George Reid
Paul Schurch Wood magazine March 2001
Huge ! Paul Shurch I could study with him for the rest of my life
I am so excited I am getting "the vapors" here.
: )
I am digging and digging where is my Ionson ? ? ? damb it ! has to be here WHERE IS IT !
ahh it's ok it's ok here it is :
Harold Ionson see Woodwork magazine has a very in-depth article issue #67 p 24-31
he is gone now but those reproductions of the Thomas Seymore demilune commodes ! ! ! ! !
http://antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=269
this picture is hardly enough to get across what you are looking at here. Get the Woodwork magazine #67 at all costs.
There is so much more but I am running out of gas
When you need a break then I recommend:
Douglas Adams book Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency among others or Hemmingway's books Paris is a Movable feast, and Islands in the Stream among others.
roc
Edited 12/20/2008 2:55 am by roc
Edited 12/20/2008 3:01 am by roc
Took a look at that commode... uh...., not really the direction I was thinking of heading. How could you ever let anyone use it? Well, maybe a rich, generous king. I have a friend who used to make wood replicas of old clawfoot tubs. The Smithsonian displayed it for awhile before stashing it in their collection.
I've been checking out the books and authors you recommend. Thanks. My habit is to find authors I like and read all they wrote.
>How could you ever let anyone use it? It is worth being aware of such people and work being done. You don't feel so bad when it takes a decade to turn out that "fill in this space". Also if you made it and they paid you eighty thousand dollars for it then they could use it for target practice right? Especially if you cranked a few more out using the same jigs old Harold came up with !Sides; not every one sticks their gum under the edge of the table.: )
roc
Glad you didn't screw the pooch. Good Dog!Don't know if you read breaktime, but here's work I'm sure you'll appreciate; Curly birch, iron & rock stairs http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=113928.62Shows overlap of finish carpentry and woodworking.
Wow !Now you'r talkin'. Beautiful !Quite a bit more than " 2x4s butt nailed together " as it were.If you did this there isn't much more you can learn here I must say !That reminds me. Lon Schleining, an editor for FWW, builds stairs for a living. Does his work ever show up in the forum you posted or in FHB ? I have always been curious to see what he builds.Thanks
roc
Edited 12/21/2008 3:34 pm by roc
NO! NO! NO! I didn't create that, my mouth drops in awe of such work. I want a job sweeping up for this guy and I'm 52. Didn't mean to mislead you.
Through advanced search(had to click "search" again on left hand column) I found this on Breaktimehttp://forums.taunton.com/n/main.asp?qu=lon+schleining&find=Search&webtag=tp-breaktime&ctx=search&cl=632358&af=10000o=relevance&be=0And this on Knotshttp://forums.taunton.com/n/main.asp?qu=lon+schleining&find=Search&webtag=fw-knots&ctx=search&cl=724992&af=10000o=relevance&be=0Man, I can only dream of making something like those stairs.
Why wonder about Gene Landon... take a class with him (Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in York PA) and find out. Gene and I are now great friends and I consider him a mentor. He is every bit as quirky as you might think, but every bit as nice and as generous. I once asked Gene how he keeps the sides of a lowboy from cracking since the legs and the sides have perpendicular grain. He looked at me as if I were nuts (no comment) and said, "Why would I want to keep it from cracking?" This is how dedicated he is to 18th century methods and how authentic his work is. He can look at any 18th century piece and puzzle out how to make it better than any human alive.
bigtop,>... take a class with Gene Landon at (Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in York PA)Now THAT is a fine idea ! We could visit Lisa's dad in Allentown while we are there.I better go burry some walnut in the barn so it will be properly conditioned for the class. I read where Mr. Landon said that was how the old craftsmen used to do it.I am a big zero when it comes to carving. Not that I can not. Just that I have never tried. In that respect I would be wasting his time. But I do want to build some simpler Chippendale chairs for our dining table. Well I WANT to build some of the highly ornate dudes but who knows if I am up to the task. I can draw but have never sculpted and carving seems like sculpting. I worked with a bronze sculptor who could sculpt a nude figure in a small chunk of clay as fast as someone could sketch the same model on paper.Impressive.I bought and read the book by Ron Clarkson Making Classic Chairs A Craftsman's Chippendale Reference. So I got the hard part out of the way right? Piece of cake from there. Suuurrrrre.Hebilis there is another one for your list. Goooooood Book !Bigtop,How far in advance does a person need to get on the list to take a class ?roc
Clarkson's books are good, but seeing someone carve in person is infinitely better. That's the beauty of Gene's classes - you see him carve AND he helps you learn. He is very supportive, and if you ask him to be blunt about your carving, he will give you the nuances of how you need to improve. About half of every class is newbies who know nothing... that's how I started, now I am a juried exhibitor at an 18th century craft fair. You CAN do it.
habilis,
are yee alive man ? ! Shall we send the saint bernard with the brandy cask to find you ? Does any one have anything to add?
I figured this would take off like wild fire .
All I hear is couple of crickets here.
roc
dejected and alone. : (
I'm here. Either 'tis not a very literate crowd or they've taken Lao Tze to heart, "He who speaks does not know, He who knows does not speak." Would be strange for a discussion forum. Maybe it's just the time of year. I thought it would be a hot topic. Ah well, send the dog.
Cheers!
Habilis,I never said I know anything, just that I read about it once. (and that I like to bang the table and argue about what I sort of remember about what I read ) >time of yearyou mean the time of year when spouses are reading the forum to try to figure out what the wood nut wants for Christmas LIKE A B O O K. Yah must be it.Thanks for sending up the flare ! Dogs away.roc
"I figured this would take off like wild fire."An old topic, like the web is now. Do you have any idea how many hobby woodworing forums there are???? Few new questions, just new woodworkers asking the same old questions. There's dozens of hobby furniture forums out there at this point.
>Do you have any idea how many hobby woodworing forums there are???? SOOOOOooooo. . . . Dude. . . what do you like to read ??
As a former charter subscriber to FWWI still read it at the library but nothing in I want to keep on record. http://www.woodwork-mag.com is the best woodworking magazine for my needs. Also read Interior Design, Dwell, http://www.sculptor.org, http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/, American Craft as well as other art and design magazines.
I also get the free trade magazines such as Woodshop News, Wood and Wood Products and a slew of other free professional trade journals in other fields.
How do you get Woodshop News for free??
I'm in the trade. Been getting Woodshop News for free since the publication started. Also "Tools of the Trade" for free.
Thanks!Signed up for Tools of the Trade & Woodshop news eletter. Didn't see free offer for woodshop news mag.
At the end of the 19th century many prominent physicists thought we knew all we could about physics and someone wrote a book about the end of history in the 1990s. There are plenty of old questions continually being asked and sometimes answered in new and useful ways. Rediscovery of old treasures and new writings. Twere it not so this forum would hardly be helpful.
OK, I'm a little late getting here but.
Weekend woodworker for about 20 years now. Holy s#*-&!!!!
There used to be Woodworkers book club. Don't know if they still exist.
Order books which taught me something. Tools and how they work. Joints. Finishing, Steam bending, etc.
When I was starting I always tried to incorporate a new detail so that I would learn.
ASK
i go to Lee Valley and sit in one of the big easy chairs and browse through their library or watch one of their many videos on many subjects including Mr Lee demonstrating tool sharpening
i often buy text books on various subjects pertaining to woodworking and after reading them at home if i feel they are not a good addition for my library i return them as i have 90 days to be satisified or return them for a no hassle refund
Another reason to move to Canada. Got any warm spots up there. Merry Christmas One n All!
yeah our parliament buildings , nothing but hot air there
LV has mail order and will pay your return postage if you are not happy hard to beat that ,,, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the north country
What do you read?
I only read science these days or about Metal or wood..
Outside of Shakespeare, that we all HAD TO DO TO PASS the grade. I passed but NEVER really knew what that man ever said! As in any word!
Now I read Playboy or what ever Stepan Hawking has to say about the Universe!
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