My Top Five Woodworking Books - With Reviews!

I know, I know.  You couldn't wait for the next in my series of tools for newbies.  You'll just have to wait a bit.  While you are waiting, you might as well read a book.

I have been collecting and reading woodworking books for a long time.  It has only been recently that I have figured out that while there are a lot of good woodworking books out there that are easy to find, there are a lot of great woodworking books out there if you dig a little deeper.

Here are five of my favorite woodworking books.  I couldn't pick just one favorite, so I picked one in each of five categories.

Category I:  Philosophy

The Anarchist's Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz

My ATC

You do not need to build a tool chest, but you do need to read this book.

After you read it, you'll want to build one.

There are three main parts to this book, a history, a list of tools, and instructions on building the chest.

If you have a ton of hand tools, you'll want to sell some.  If you are just starting your collection, you'll learn which ones you really need.  If, like me, you have been hoarding tools for years, you'll know you can get rid of most of them and buy ones you will actually use.  Even if your are a power tool junkie, you'll want to try some of these tools out.

Category II:  Techniques

The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing

Dining table constructed with techniques from Robert Wearing.

Another book by Lost Art Press.  The Schwarz has done a fantastic service to mankind by re-publishing this one.  The main project in this book is a table, but you can use the techniques for many things.  Indeed, the author mentions many techniques in this book.

I list this book here because of the detail describing each operation.  This book will make you want to go to the shop.

Category III:  Tools

Hand Tools by Aldren A. Watson

What this book lacks in imagination for the title, it definitely makes up for in content.  Find a used copy of this book (it's out of print) or borrow one from the library.

He not only shows you a bunch of really cool tools, he shows the proper way to use them.  For a bonus, he demonstrates methods for practicing basic techniques so any dummy can master them.

Awesome.

The section on a brace and bit transformed my accuracy and useability of that tool.  The only weird thing he advocates is a jack-rabbet plane for a basic tool.  Honestly, he makes a good case for it, though.

Category IV:  Joinery

Woodwork Joints by William Fairham

Example from Fairham's book. This would be a cool joint to use on a Roubo bench.

This book is why I am writing this post.  I wanted to do a review of this book, but thought that it made such a wonderful companion to Aldren Watson's book.  While Watson covers many hand tools and their uses, this book shows you what you can do with them.

I was blown away with the first chapter on lap joints.  Who writes a book with a whole chapter on lap joints?  Believe it or not, it is really eye-opening.  The only thing missing is the details of constructing each joint.

As the above example from the book shows, the author assumes you can figure out how to cut the joint once you see what joint to use.  That's what Watson is for.

Another cool thing is this book is reprinted through the Toolemera website.   Gary Roberts does this as a hobby, as far as I can tell.  His books are printed on demand, and are very reasonable in price and quality.

Category V:  Project

Making and Masering Wood Planes by David Finck

My latest plane built using this method, a big-honking jointer.

There are so many project books out there I had a hard time picking my favorite.  Until I remembered this one.

David goes through every tiny little step in constructing this plane, and even gives a few alternative methods as well as instructions on building some of the tools and jigs you may need.  He even recently released a companion DVD with 4 1/2 hours of footage going through the whole process.  Believe it or not, you'll enjoy watching it more than once.

What I really love about this book is he covers in painful detail for those of us dummies who didn't "get it" before how to use hand tools to get super-hyper accurate results.  Before this, I thought only machines were capable of such precision.  Silly me, hand tools are WAY more accurate than machines.

Conclusion:

There are a lot of great books out there.  You can't go wrong at Lost Art Press, from what I can tell so far.  Also, don't be afraid to scope out used books.  Old books are a great source of information for old tools, after all.  If worse comes to worst, go to your local library.  Librarians I know will do backflips to get you an old book you want.  Inter-library loan didn't disapear with the advent of the internet.

What are your must-reads?

Celebrity Deathmatch: Aldren Watson - 1, Charles Hayward - 0

I really like Charles Hayward.  I downloaded one of his books from the Toolemera website a while back and have thought the articles in there were all gems.

Until today.

Not having a drill press, I needed to drill some accurate 3/8" holes to finally finish off my leg vise install.  Looking through Hayward's book, I found a jig that does just that, "For Boring Accurate Holes."

Building this was fun.  I used walnut, maple, and mahogany scrap.  It took about two hours, and I learned a lot making it.  Especially the part of excavating a big square hole.

It worked, too! Sort of.

It takes a long time to set up just so, there is a lot of play, and you have to readjust it after drilling about 1/4".

After boring the first half of the four holes I needed, I gave up and went free style.

Thanks to the practice I did before ala Aldren Watson, I am now skilled at drilling holes freehand.

The result:  All of the holes I drilled were as perfect as they need to be.

The moral of the story:  Don't waste time building jigs to help you with operations that are basic skills.  I guarantee you if you practice boring straight holes as Aldren Watson says for the time you need to build this jig by Charles Hayward, you will have the skills you need for accurate boring on this project and all to come.

Even More Regarding the Brace and Bit

I got a little shop time yesterday, and was able to finish my dog holes.  I continued with my brace and bit, with the one inch holes you may have seen in a previous post.

A few days back I spent a little time with the bench dog that is in the chop.  I had some problems with my last bench, losing the bench dog in the chop with no way to remove it, short of screwing a gimlet into the dog to remove it.

To solve the problem this time, I had intended to drill the hole all the way through so I could push the dog up from the bottom.

Needless to say, things didn't go right.  I ran my brace into a broken lag bolt (ruining my bit), and no farther can I drill.

I fixed the problem by inserting a magnetic cabinet door spring thingie (not sure the technical name), which now ejects the dog when I want.  I drilled a hole in the center of some 1" dog stock, inserted the cylindrical contraption and drove that to the bottom of the dog hole.  Now there is room for a short dog above this mechanism.  When it is engaged it allows the dog to sit flush with the bench top, and when engaged again it pops out about 1/2."

A good woodworking friend from Denmark brought his family to visit, and he brought me a gift:

He read on this blog that I wrecked my 1" brace bit, so he brought me some really nice Irwin style bits made by C.I. Fall in Sweden.

About the same time, Joshua Clark sent me a new Jennings style replacement.  Neat!  I have two different styles to try out next to each other.

I sharpened them both using a trick I just discovered in Aldren Watson's book.  Instead of using my auger bit file, I glued some sandpaper to a piece of scrap about the size of a popsicle stick.  This worked great, and I highly recommend it.  The big advantage is that I think it should allow the bits to last longer.

The file is a bit course, which leaves the bit sharp enough to cut well, but it takes off a lot of metal.  I tried a few different grits of sandpaper, and found that as long as there wasn't major shaping to do, that 320 grit worked nice in the fact that I was able to touch up the edge without grinding an entire new cutting surface.  I think I'll only use the file when I need to re-establish a fresh edge.

I found the Irwin style bit cut just as well as the Jennings.  My feelings at the time were that I might be able to steer the Irwin at the beginning of the cut a little better, but that the Jennings was easier to turn in this nearly six inch thick oak.  I think some more testing is required for me to really learn the advantages and disadvantages of each.  I was able to get straight holes with each, and they both looked smooth enough for my purposes.

One thing to note, that the lead screw on the Irwin looks coarser than on the Jennings.  I don't believe this to be true.  Joshua Clark told me that the appearance is deceptive because the Irwin has a single thread, and the Jennings a double.  I didn't time anything, but I felt the Jennings in my test actually may have cut faster.

Now, I only need to drill 3-4 more holes for holdfasts in this 5.5 inch oak, and I'll be done with this grueling task.

Elementary, Dear Watson! Video Example

Galoototron's post about his leg vise couldn't have come at a better time for me than today, as I am about to install a Benchcrafted face vice to my bench, too.  He refers to the instructions from Benchcrafted that require a 1 3/4" hole about 3/16" deep followed by a 1 1/2" hole the rest of the way through.

Like Brian Ward, the author of Galoototron, I am using a really thick piece of Beech for my face vice.  He used an expansion bit with his brace to layout the circle for the 1 3/4" hole, and finished it up with a router plane.  I think Brian voiced many people's opinion about these infamous tools when he said, "Now, those bits are not known to be terribly good even in soft woods, much less something like beech."

This statement got me to thinking about Aldren A. Watson's book "Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings".  I vaguely remembered that he discusses the expansion bit for the brace.  Essentially he says the expansion bit only has one cutting blade, so there is nothing to support the other half of the cut, like a typical brace bit with two cutting blades.  This can make it difficult to drill straight, as the brace becomes unbalanced and wants to move all over the place.

First, one should really tighten the screw on the adjuster mechanism tight, otherwise the hole will get bigger as you bore (don't ask me how I know this).  Please do this safely and away from your hands.  I put the bit on my bench when I foresaw blood gushing out of my wrist.

The trick with this cut is to use a lot of downward pressure, and use the ratchet mechanism on the brace.  Only make about 1/8 of a turn before ratcheting the brace back to your starting point.  I found it easiest to pull the handle a few inches with my right hand before starting over.

This worked great!  My cut was perfect.  The inside of the hole was pretty ragged, but it could easily be cleaned up any number of ways.  The bit worked good and took nice big shavings out of the scrap of beech I was practicing on.

A video is worth a thousand pictures, so here is the technique in action:

(notice the cool bench dogs in action)

The down side of this bit is that I'm pretty sure I don't want to drill a deep hole with this bit.  The deeper I went, the harder it got.  Perhaps a 14" sweep would help.  Also, for an accurately sized hole, one must make a few test cuts.  It took me six tries to get exactly 1 3/4" diameter.  

However, I think for occasional use (really, how often do you make a hole bigger than an inch, anyway) this bit is a valid option.  On those rare occasions when you need a big hole, you will have a way to do it.

The Boring Video

OK, the title sounds better in German, like when Wolfram did it.  Das Bohr Video.  The English misses something.

I came across a neat tip the other day that I just had to try.  I have been reading a fantastic old book by Aldren A. Watson called "Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings."  Really, one of the best hand tool books I have read.

In his writings about the brace and bit, he suggests practicing by marking a point on the face of a board, then moving the mark over to the other side.  Now, you can practice straight boring by starting the bit on one side, and when the screws pop out the other side, you can see if you hit the mark or not.

I picked out the thickest piece of beech scrap I had in the shop to practice on.  I need to bore holes through the top of my oak bench for dog holes.  The bench is well over five inches thick.  A small error should be magnified.

The good news is, if the dog hole isn't perfect, it should still work.  Lucky for me.

I decided to use 1" dowels for dogs.  I like wooden dogs because they are cheap, and easy on your tools.  I plan to put one in every dog hole.  I bought some walnut dowels from Bell Forest because they were among the cheapest that I thought would look cool.

So, here goes with the video:

You notice that I trashed the bit at the end.  I remembered having broken off a lag bolt while installing the chop, but I figured it wasn't in the way of where I was drilling.  WRONG!

I sent an SOS to Joshua Clark at hyperkitten.com/ hoping he has a spare #16 bit rolling around somewhere that he can send me. 

I think that the practice on the scrap warmed me up nicely for some straight boring.  I am sure it isn't perfect, but like I said, the dogs will still work just as good.

I finished two holes in the bench besides the one in the chop.  The bit worked a lot slower after having been damaged.  When I started you can see in the video the big, heavy shavings I get from the oak.  But, after I ground the spurs down on that lag bolt it took very fine shavings and cut very reluctantly.

So, let's here your story of the last tool you broke in the shop.  What happened?