Fun tip from Essential Woodworker

[Bob Jones]

I recently read "Essential Woodworker" from Lost Art Press. Great book for learning to use hand tools, or just use them better. I loved the tip about how to make boards flat faster. Draw lines at the ends of the board and plane the board in the middle without removing the lines until the plane doesn't remove wood. Then make full passes until you get full length shavings - stop. It helps on edges and sides of boards. I practiced it a bit and it is now becoming standard practice. It really makes it faster to get the board flat, since I tend to remove too much at the end of the board without this technique.

Attached are a couple of pictures that are worth more than my words. Buy the book, if you don't have it. It is jam packed with helpful stuff like this. The way he recommends trimming a fat tenon really blew me away! Too simple and works great!

[James Owen]

+++++ on this book; one of the best ones out there on hand tool techniques!!

[Chris Mahmood]

I picked up a copy of his Making Woodwork Aids and Devices on a whim and it's excellent. It's got everything from really clever planing stops to plans for planes. Lots of used copies on Alibris.

[Jim Neeley]

Who is the author? Its getting "lost in the noise" at Barnes and Noble. <g>

[Pam Niedermayer]

Who is the author? Its getting "lost in the noise" at Barnes and Noble. <g>

Robert Wearing.

[Bob Jones]

You will likely have to get it through Lost Art Press. Chris schwarz redid the book and it is great!

[Andrae Covington]

You will likely have to get it through Lost Art Press. Chris schwarz redid the book and it is great!

It was out of print and, as often happens, once Schwarz mentioned it on his PW blog the price skyrocketed. Lost Art Press republished it with some corrections and updates from Robert Wearing, a few new photos, etc. There is so much info packed into the book that it begs to be read multiple times. I must admit that on my first read-through I kind of glossed through the book, because it all seemed so simple. But that is the essence, if you will.;)

[Jim Neeley]

Robert Wearing.

Thank you, Pam! :)

[Mark Dorman]

I ordered one from Lee Valley and got the FREE upgrade to my router plan while I was at it.
Tools for Working Wood has them too.

Mark

[Jerome Hanby]

I was looking at the lost art website. Do they provide this title as a book or as loose leaf pages? Their price is much better than Amazon, but I'm not sure I want a print out...

[Jason Coen]

I was looking at the lost art website. Do they provide this title as a book or as loose leaf pages? Their price is much better than Amazon, but I'm not sure I want a print out...


It's a book, and a very nicely assembled one, at that.

The Amazon price discrepancy is likely for either an original, or early edition. The one sold through LAP (or LV or TFWW) is an updated reprint.

[Rob Fisher]

It's a book, and a very nicely assembled one, at that.

The Amazon price discrepancy is likely for either an original, or early edition. The one sold through LAP (or LV or TFWW) is an updated reprint.

I will add this it is a VERY nicely assembled book. Printed and bound in the US. Hardbound, symthe sewn binding. All that good stuff that Lost Art Press does.

As a side note if you are not familiar with Lost Art Press, get familiar! They (Chris Schwarz et al.) produce and/or reproduce great books (or at least the ones that I have read so far). No affiliation, just a very happy customer.

[Dan Hintz]

It was out of print and, as often happens, once Schwarz mentioned it on his PW blog the price skyrocketed. Lost Art Press republished it with some corrections and updates from Robert Wearing, a few new photos, etc.
Just an FYI on Amazon pricing...a number of the dealers use automated pricing systems for their books and base them off of pricing from other dealers. The system will scan for the book, find the average price, and be over/under by some small percentage. After so many checks go through, the price has steadily risen to extreme amounts. A recent case had some irrelevant junk book "worth" over $100k, and the dealers involved had no idea their algorithms had slowly jacked up the price over a period of several months.

[mike holden]

FWIW I have both versions of the book. Bought the original cheaply before it became "famous", acntually bought it because of a book by Robert Wearing on using electric routers (!).
Both books have identical verbiage and illustrations. The difference is in the photographs, for whatever reason, new photos were taken for the Lost Arts Press version.
This led to my only quibble with it - the pics do NOT always match the captions! Two that come to mind are the pic of the planing stance - the foot positions do not match the caption; and the preferred dovetail marker - a current marker was shown, the one in the original I have only seen in pictures and have been looking for one for years.
I suspect that the original pictures did not reprint well leading to a last minute reshoot/recreation and haste allowed errors to creep in.
Nothing major, and probably not noticeable without side by side comparison.

In any case, The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing is highly recommended. Anything written by Robert Wearing is highly recommended.
Mike

[Rob Fisher]

...The difference is in the photographs, for whatever reason, new photos were taken for the Lost Arts Press version...

I believe Chris mentioned something along the lines of they could not get copyright/permission to use the original photographs so they shot new ones.